I couldn't help buying this awarded documentary on the legendary pianist from Cape Verde, whose name I first heard of in 1985 as I was teaching on Sal island. I was given a cassete some years later in which she played together with the guitar player, Taninho Évora and I was surprised with her versatile mastery ..., maybe because I wasn't expecting a woman to excell in such an instrument in Cape Verde, where women were supposed to be singers and not necessarily musicians, let alone composers.
As I was watching the documentary focused on her life in São Vicente as a teenager and a young lady, playing among men in the nights of São Vicente through to her family life in Sal and the importance piano (which she still played with great mastery despite having gone ninety, her children's opinions on her, as well as the many who got to know her by either having played with her or just watched her since childhood as a musical reference, I realised how "humble" Cape Verdians are.
Had I met two of her children (Reinaldo and Sónia, who were both my friends and Aeronautical students on Sal island and the Training Centre in Lisbon) in Portugal and the first thing that would certainly have "perspired" was - they are the children of the well known pianist so and so ..., this, if they were to even consider befriending me ...
Taninho Évora, who besides working for ASA (The Aiports and Aeronautical Safety Agency in Cape Verde) was a former student of mine and yet never (ever) mentioned the fact that he was a fantastic guitar player (Luis Rendall style), nor did Luis, the violin player (a former student as well)..., or Pedro Moreira, the recognised journalist (a former colleague teacher and friend) ... and I could go on forever ..., because Cape Verdians simply are ... regardless of what they have "achieved" ...
Epifânia Évora ... was ... and will be remembered by her nominho Tututa, preceeded by Dona ... (because she was a lady, in the real sense ...), a mother of 16 children ... a great pianist ... "one of the pillars of Cape Verdian culture", as someone mentioned in the documentary ... but above all she will be remembered as Cape Verdian, one of the many Cape Verdians, who simply are ...
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