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Concert Preview
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Philadelphia Weekly, Concert Preview >>
During a particularly dark time in my life, I asked friends and local musicians to help me compile a list of the best melancholy melodies. The Magnetic Fields, Leonard Cohen, Everything But the Girl, Pvement- the suggestions were as varied as the experience of sadness itself. Years later, I learned that while the feelings of Brits and Americans may run deep, we can't hold a candle to the emotive heart-break of the Iberian peninsula. Flamenco-the burning folk music of Southern Spain- all but has its dancers and singers collapsing in a heap of hot-blooded suffering. The Portuguese fado, another national folk music, does Spanish sadness one-better: It mixes it with a hunger for happiness that can never be sated. One of the most exciting interpreters of the fado to emerge in the last few years is Mariza, a woman whose voice seems to bring generations of poignancy despite her relative youth. Her off kilter beauty only adds to the feeling that when your're listening to her, you can almost transcend the current of sadness and catch the light of joy in your hands- but not quite. On her soecond CD, Fado Curvo, she departs slightly from the traditionalism of her debut. But her innovation is tempered by a respect for this music of longing and emotion, which makes her the perfec ambassador of this exquisite musical form.
-Lis Spikol 07/16/03
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