Fado is the music of Portugal, a haunting, emotional style intimately bound up with that tiny country's history and seagoing soul. Yet on her latest recording, Mariza, fado's greatest contemporary interpreter, ranges into Cuban jazz, sentimental American pop, Cape Verdean Afro-world music and flamenco blues.
For fado's platinum-haired diva, Terra (Earth) is a natural extension of her love of music -- and of her eight years of performing around the world since the heart-stopping emotion and distinctive voice revealed on her debut album, 2001's Fado en Mim, made her a global music star. Her latest round of musical travels brings her to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night.
'People, they like to put names on things -- `this is fado, this is blues, this is bossa nova,' '' Mariza said from New York recently. ``But at the end we are talking about music.''
``I'm a normal person who sings a music that explores human beings and life. But all music does that -- blues, gospel, tango, those kinds of songs, they explore your feelings. They try to touch the deepest part of your soul. [Fado] is a kind of music that does that.''
Although fado is intimately linked to Portuguese culture and identity, its sources lie across the world. The music's roots extend into the 12th century and the Provencal troubadors, Jews and North African Moors who lived in Portugal; and into Brazilian and African music brought back from Brazil, a Portuguese colony, in the 19th century. Its melancholy spirit, called saudade, comes from Portugal's centuries as a seafaring nation with colonies across the globe, and the sense of longing for home and lost loved ones that accompanied that role. Saudade is a combination of nostalgia, sadness and an emotional awareness of the power of fate.
emotional style, that sounds good.
ReplyDeletethe music that was played in the 12 century was pretty good.