[excerpt]   

In a tiny land on the edge of a continent there lived a people who sailed across the oceans and conquered vast territories.  Because so many of their men were gone for so many years-and because the sea often took them away forever-these people created a music full of sadness, longing and resignation.  So when this country lost its kingdoms, becoming a poor and forgotten land on the edge of the sea, the people accepted it and kept singing their sad, longing songs. 

And then, just a few years ago, some of their young people began to take their music around the world, led by a beautiful young woman who wore fabulous long gowns and marcelled platinum hair, and sang like her heart and her country’s heart were pouring out of her throat.  Her name is Mariza, she hails from Portugal, and she sings her country’s music- fado –at the Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach tonight. 

Mariza is the rising star at the forefront of the revival of fado.  Argentina’s tango, Spain’s flamenco or our very own blues, fado is inextricably tied to the identity and culture of its home country.  Like those styles, it comes from poverty, loss, and rough lives.  But unlike those very famous genres, fado has remained isolated and unknown- at least until a few years ago, when singers like Mariza began reasserting the power of a music once seen as the stuff of elderly people in the dingy bars.

“I started singing fado because it’s the music I listened to growing up and it’s the only music I know,” Mariza said from Lisbon last week.  “In high school my friends would say don’t sing that, it’s for old people, and so I would sing other styles. But in my neighborhood, I would start another style of singing fado.  I felt like I found myself.  At this moment I feel like I belong to fado and fado belongs to me.”

Mariza’s appearance, copresented by Tigertail Productions and the Rhythm Foundation, kicks off Rhythm Foundation’s Trans-Atlantic Festival, a four-day celebration of groups making innovations in traditional music.  Others include: the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, an Afro-pop jam band; Yerba Buena, an Afro-Cuban funk group from New York; and DJ Dolores and Orchestra Santa Massa, a Brazilian troupe that mixes drum’n’bass with forro, the music of northern Brazil. 

Fado is one of the most rewarding and least known genres in the world music spectrum.  “Fado is very rich in history musically and lyrically.  It’s also still kind of a secret,” said Tom Schnabel, a producer at KCRW, a Los Angeles public radio station known for its world-music programming.  “Like other things in Portuguese culture, it has been untouched.  Everybody knows flamenco, about tango, about bossa nova.  But when you say, ‘What about fado?’ they say, ‘Huh?’ While I want to see that change, it also makes it an undiscovered musical treasure.”

Schnabel sees Mariza as one of fado’s brightest gems.  He programs world music at the Hollywood Bowl, and last summer he presented her there opening for hip-hop star Lauren Hill.  Mariza so impressed people from the L.A. Philharmonic that they invited her to perform with them next spring. 

Since her debut album Fado en Mim came out in 2001, Mariza has been showered with awards and attention.  She is already a star in Europe and on the world-music circuit.  She has even been compared with Amalia Rodriguez, the reigning star of fado for decades, died in 1999.  Mariza’s current tour, in support of her second album, Fado Curvo, promises to bring her new prominence on this side of the Atlantic. 

Her striking looks and stage presence- tall and slim, she wears corsets and long skirts that make her look like a punk refugee from a 19^th century ball – combined with her musical integrity, make her almost irresistible.  “The first time I saw her I was completely star struck,” Schnabel said.  “There was the drama and the charisma she has.  But she also has an absolutely amazing voice.  It’s very powerful and emotive, she has incredible range, and her technique is formidable.  She communicates with the audience.  She doesn’t come off as a precious diva.”

Mariza grew up in Mouraria, a Lisbon neighborhood that is one of fado’s birth places.  “The only music they listen to is fado, the way of living you could call fado,” she said.  “They are very poor people, very proud of what they are, proud of their roots.  Even if they are not professional they know how to sing fado.  I used to sing in the streets for my neighbors.  You feel like people are from a big family – everybody knows everybody.  All the emotions and difficulties are out there.”

Donald Cohen, a retired Los Angeles attorney and fado expert, says that although fado in its current form is about 200 years old, its roots go back to the 12^th century to traditions of song and poetry brought by Provencal troubadours, the Moors who lived in Portugal, and the Jews.

But it’s sad, longing spirit was defined by Portugal’s days as a great colonial power in the 16^th century, when it sent generations of men overseas.  It’s called saudade, a complex combination of nostalgia, sadness and a profound connection with fate.

“The Portuguese were the great explorers of the era…and that’s where this idea of saudade came – these men were out of the country for years at a time,” said Cohen, who will publish a book on fado this fall.  “Saudade comes from the Latin word that became soledad – loneliness in Spanish.  But saudade means more than that: it’s nostalgic soulful yearning for what may or may never have been.  It could be for your husband who is gone, who may never come back.  It’s consumed by fate.”

Mariza describes singing fado as both overwhelming and empowering.  “When I sing it’s like breathing, I don’t have to think.  When I’m on stage it’s like being naked, I’m showing all my feelings and my soul.  Sometimes I feel, ‘please, don’t look at me.’  Sometimes I feel powerful too, because even if you don’t understand what I’m saying I can touch you.  It hurts and at the same time it feels so good.”

As close as she feels to her musical tradition, Mariza also wants to find her own voice within it.  She’s a fan of all kinds of music, from Ella Fitzgerald to Aretha Franklin, flamenco star Camaron de la Isla and even rapper Eminem.  Fado Curvo includes a number of original songs based on Portuguese poems. 

My only preoccupation was to have my own sound – more eclectic, more diverse,” she said.

And she is confident that it well help fado be heard across the globe.  “I feel fado is going to grow more and more,” she said.  “Because people are trying to understand different cultures.  And fado is music that comes from the heart, so for sure you can feel it.”