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Under Fado's Spell
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Alameda Times Star, Under Fado's Spell >>
Bluegrass had its resurgence with "O' Brother Where Art Thou?" Cuban son was suddenly hot with "Buena Vista Social Club." Now, the musical spotlight is shifting again- this time to Portuguese fodo.
While artists like Nelly Furtado are fado afficionados, Mariza is the singer behind all the buzz.
The 29-year-old, compared to fado's greatest voice, Amalia Rodrigues, is taking the music industry by storm. She has won a BBC award and is the darling of the music charts in Portugal.
With her talent and attention-getting appearance, she has managed to transform the dusty image of fado into one of youthful inventiveness. And part of what endears her to audiences is her devitoin to the centuries-old fado tradition.
While there are as many theories of the origins of this haunting, melancholic style as there are practitioners, all that's universally acknowledged is that fado best exemplifies the Portuguese mindset of acceptance of forces beyond one's control, nostalgia and using the beauty of song to wrest the good from the misfortunes of life.
Mariza, as bright and charismatic as she is talented, believes fado is an indigenous song-form of the working Portuguese. To prove her point she has been writing a book for the past two years, due to be published in English and Porguguese when she gets enough time between tours to finish it.
Born in Mozambique, she was raised in Lisbon, where her parents own a fado house. While she heard plenty of other music in her youth, she can't recall a time when she was not surrounded by the melancholy sounds of fado. "To me it is like a second skin, the air I breathe," she says.
Her immersion in the music is easily heard in "Fado Em Mim," her acclaimed fiirst album, in which she sings a number of songs associated with Amalia Rodrigues and s accompanied by the traditional fado ensemble of Portuguese guitar, acoustic guitar and acoustic bass.
Her second album, "Fado Curvo," ha a more uplifting sound, which some see as a break from tradition. But Mariza maintains she is true to the style and offers a history lesson: Melancholy is always there, but it is not so one-dimensional. Fado alwyas has elements of joy in it. There was even fado dancing in the past, so I am not breaking from the traditon by emphasizing the joy in the fado."
"There is a line that will I will not cross. Even though I do not neccessarily know how to explain it, I feel it, and I will not cross it."
But Mariza also acknowledges that fado, like any art form, must continue tochange and adapt in order to survive, lest it become a cultural relic.
When the regime that ruled Portugal for decades ended in 1974, fado was associated with the old guard. It was forgotten in the mad dash to embrace the new. However, something deeper than politics spoke to the young people of Portugal, and for the last five years fado has been making an amazing comeback. Mariza went straight to the top of the comback with "Fado em Mim."
She explains, "For 20 or 30 years there was never a fado record on the top of the charts, and my first record has sold double platinum in Portugal and remaine on the charts along with my second record."
Fado, once relegated to Lisbon, is now heard throughout Portugal. Even children on the streets are singing fado again. The rebirth is sweeping Europe and making an impact in America as well. The current generation of fadistas, as fado singers are called, sell out halls and clubs accross the globe.
Because the concert hall is a more artificial venue than the traditional fado house, performers must compensate for the los of intimacy and the audience's knowledge of the music (and language). Mariza appreciates both venues and eagerly takes on the challenges presented by the concert hall.
"If I have a free night in Lisbon and I go to a fado house, it is unexpected, and the audience, who knows me well, is looking for what is new in what I am doing. In the concert hall people have paid for the ticket and come to learn something about fado and Portuguese culture, so I have a different goal there."
Likewise, Mariza enjoys the challenge of presenting fado to non-Portuguese speaking audiences. "I do not think about the language. I try to make contact with everyone, to bring it to everyone. On the stage I need to give, but also to receive, so I do what I can to make the audience participate."
Her approach has been working. On stage she is a commanding figure and eschews the traditional faditsa look of long black dress, emboridered shawl and long flowing hair. Instead, she dons stunning gowns and has short hair immaculately styled in small waves.
Not content to simply stand and deliver her songs the way the previous generation did, she dances, moves across the stage and uses commanding gestures to drive home the music.
While she sang jazz and soul earlier in her career, she is now thoroughly committed to fado. A cultural missionary, Mariza wants to connect with her audiences strictly on the terms of the fado tradition.
When asked what the ideal performance would be, she thinks for a moment and offer this vision: It would be an old theater, it does not matter where. Everyone would be near the stage. I would have a piano, cello, trumpet (with mute), a little percussion, a Portugese guitar, an acoustic guitar and bass. I would also have singing with me a very old, traditonal fadista. I would want American musicians, because they have open musical minds. We were in New York and had a musician who never heard of fado before, and he was wonderful. He fit right in."
While she is currently touring with the traditional ensemble of Portuguese guitar, acoustic guitar and bass, Mariza will undoubtedly bring the feeling found on "Fado Curvo" to the stage at Bimbo's.
By Pete Flowers 08/01/03
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