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Mariza At Albert Hall (Concert Review)
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London Times, Mariza At Albert Hall (Concert Review) >>
by Clive Davis
Not so much a concert, more a coronation. Mariza’s rapid ascent seems to have taken even the charismatic young fado singer by surprise. After all, she was playing a small marquee at WOMAD just a couple of years ago. And, as she explained to an Albert Hall audience that spent the evening in a state of quiet rapture, it is not so long ago that she walked past the venue and promised herself that she must one day see a concert there.
Now here she was, performing an encore, sans microphone, in the midst of the stalls, effortlessly evoking the ambience of a bar on a Lisbon side street. As a climax to the Atlantic Waves festival of Portuguese music, this concert could hardly have been more satisfying. Much of the credit must go to the Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, the producer on the artist’s recent disc, Transparente. His string arrangements were as subtle and unfussy as those he had produced a decade ago for Caetano Veloso’s unforgettable touring version of the Fina Estampa album.
A scattering of inspirational guests made a telling contribution. The white-haired Carlos do Carmo, one of the star’s prime influences, supplied a mellow contrast to his protégé’s more guttural phrasing. Some of the loudest cheers were reserved for the laid-back entrance of the blues-rock singer-guitarist Rui Veloso, composer of one of Mariza’s most memorable numbers, the percussion- driven folk song Feira de Castro. Best of all was the all-too-brief appearance by the dapper Cape Verdean Tito Paris, who joined Mariza for a lilting morna duet, followed by a stunning version of Sodade, a song indelibly associated with the great Cesária Évora.
Mariza herself was in supreme form, sometimes imperious, sometimes kittenish. Such favourites as Montras and Fernando Pessoa’s Cavaleiro Monge brought out her full, impassioned range, sometimes descending to the faintest of whispers. Propelled by the guitarist Luis Guerrero, Transparente’s skipping melody was simply joyous, while Morelenbaum’s cello cut a blood-red path through the duet on Duas Lágrimas De Orvalho. Shades of Pablo Casals’s paeans to Catalonia. 11/24/06 >> go there
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