Good news from Os Ferreiras

I am still a bit behind due to work commitments, but I heard some good news for those of you lucky enough to be visiting Lisbon "soon". The restaurante "Os Ferreiras", now run by César Ferreira, following in the footsteps of his late father António, has the following "elenco" (roster of singers and musicians).

Fadistas:

Artur Batalha (video 1, 2)
Júlia Lopes (video 1)
Pedro Galveias (videos 1, 2, 3)
Cátia Santos (video 1)

Musicians:

Guit. Port.: Ângelo Freire (video 1)
Viola de Fado: Américo Leite

This is really a tremendous lineup, not to be missed. Batalha is in excellent form (I heard him just a month of so ago), Júlia Lopes and Cátia Santos are stalwarts of the restaurant, and now they have Pedro Galveias, who has a real presence live. I should also mention that it is not unusual to have others stop by to sing. Here is a late-night session with the great Jorge Fernando. One night we were there and both Mariza and Carminho walked in...

The musicians are also excellent. Ângelo Freire is still Mariza's regular guitarist (so far as I know), and perhaps he is on this gig while she spends time with her new baby...so who knows how long it will last. Américo Leite is an excellent foil for him.

Thanks to César for providing this information. You can check out photos, find their address, phone etc. on their Facebook page

Note that every fado house will tell you that you "need" a reservation, but here it is actually true. The fado happens Friday and Saturday evenings only. 

Videos of some of my visits there a couple of years ago... (1, 2, 3, 4)

A tough week for the fado, but it continues

Within the last week, two very important people in the fado died. The first was José Manuel Osório, whose work I have mentioned various times on this blog. The second was José Fontes Rocha, who worked for twelve years as one of Amália Rodrigues' guitarists. He was responsible for the music on 'Com Que Voz', a landmark album in the modern fado.

A very young José Manuel Osório

Osório much later inlife

Here is Osório's obituary (in Portuguese, from Público).
A fado from Osório, and another (both ultra-rare, thanks to YouTube user anm1951).
And one of Osório live.
He lived HIV+ for 27 years.

Early career

Here is Rocha's obituary (in Portuguese, from Público). What, they couldn't find a picture?

Another appreciation by Vítor Marceneiro (in Portuguese). Even the president of the country felt compelled to talk about his contribution to society (official English translation).

The gold standard: the Conjunto de guitarras de Raul Nery: Raul Nery (gp), Fontes Rocha (gp), Júlio Gomes (v), Joel Pina (vb), with Amália Rodrigues singing "Naufrágio" from the album 'Com Que Voz'.

Here is a guitarrada from the old days with two other greats, José Pracana and José Carlos da Maia.

Fontes Rocha later in life

He worked right up until the very end, regularly at Casa de Fado in Lisbon. Here is an homage from the great YouTube fado documentarian, casadofado, taken at that house.

not doing too well with my schedule...

I have a couple of reports to make on my recent trip to Lisbon (a wonderful visit to Sr. Fado in the Alfama, and a great afternoon with José Lúcio visiting his personal museum of the fado), as well as the second and third installments in the "Listening to Fado" series. However, at the moment I do not have the time to write any of these things.

In the meantime, below are some of the photos of a fado show that was organized during a conference that I recently attended in Lisbon. A brief writeup  (in Portuguese) is here. Thanks once again to Michael da Silva for helping to make the concert possible, also to Jorge Fernando, to Guilherme Banza, and to the incomparable Raquel Tavares for the beautiful music.

Guilherme Banza, Jorge Fernando

Raquel Tavares

Maritime Museum

The authentic sound of Lisbon arrives in the US: An interview with Michael da Silva

Bringing the fado from Lisbon to the United States--and preserving what makes the fado fado--has never been an easy task. But probably it helps if you know the music--and everything else that goes into the fado-- from the inside out.

Michael da Silva is a musician and empressario who has recently begun organizing fado events in the US, drawing top quality talent, including new sensations like Fábia Rebordão and Filipa Cardoso, as well as more established performers, such as Jorge Fernando and Lenita Gentil.

Michael and his fianceé Ana

Michael's path to the fado began in earnest in 1996 when at nine years old he heard a recording by Amália Rodrigues. The song was "Tudo Isto É Fado" ("All this is fado"), which he says "stood in the door for a lifetime of fado". He credits his parents, both from Portugal, with introducing him to this music. By twelve years old he was playing guitar (but not fado), and at 14 was beginning lessons in playing fado on the classical guitar (viola do fado) with Sr. Alberto Resende, an influential player and builder of the Portuguese guitar active in the Newark, NJ area. Michael continued to study with Sr. Resende for seven years.

At 17 years of age, Michael met a second influential figure: Jorge Fernando, a viola player, composer, lyricist and singer of the fado, who himself started with the fado at a young age. By his late teens, Jorge Fernando's talents had already been tapped by two of the most prominent fado singers of the time, Fernando Maurício and Amália Rodrigues. At 16, he wrote “Boa Noite Solidão”and, at the age of 23, joined the guitarist Carlos Gonçalves to tour the world with Amália.  At roughly the same time in life, Michael da Silva put himself in a similar position: he approached Jorge Fernando directly about coming to Lisbon to learn and play the fado "at his feet". At 20 years old, he played for the first time in Portugal, along with Jorge Fernando and other musicians from Bacalhau de Molho, a fado house in the old Lisbon neighborhood of Alfama. Central to Michael's repertory are the traditional fados, particularly the "Marcha do Marceneiro", the "Corrido" (which he likes to play "smoking fast") and the "Menor."

Jorge Fernando

His passion is for the guitar and for the music, which he communicates both through performance, but also through teaching. His 25 students are a mix of Portuguese and non-Portuguese, but all are exposed through his lessons to fado and to other traditional Portuguese musics. As with many other fado musicians, learning and mastering the main body of fado music--perhaps around 200 different tunes--is an ongoing ambition. He wants, he says, "To be confident enough of my music that, when I feel the saudades for the fado, I can go to Portugal and play. I want to be in a position where, even if someone asks me to play a fado I've never played before, I know enough about fado that I can make the musical changes to play that fado and accompany that fado." He expects to complete a degree in music and to become a music teacher.

When Michael decided to start organizing fado performances in the US, it was in the midst of a month-long stay in Lisbon, playing by Jorger Fernando's side at Casa de Linhares, "living as deeply immersed as I could" in the fado. One night, visiting a café with his fiancée, he was struck by the entirety of the experience: "it was truly magical. I thought, this is missing in America. There is a certain thing that can only happen in Lisbon, a particular kind of X-factor that doesn't exist in the US, no matter how hard we try." Nonetheless, he decided: "I really want to bring this magic over." This means the food and the wine, the music and the lyrics, but much more. As Michael says, "The most beautiful, most pure form of fado is only for a select number of people at any given moment. The light is right, the mood is right, and that's because everyone is feeling it--the musicians, the people, the singers--the whole environment is right."

Fábia Rebordão

In 2010, Michael launched MD Fado Productions. As a kickoff event, he organized an evening of fado—“Fado Nosso” (“Our Fado”)—in Newark, NJ that brought the singers Fábia Rebordão and Filipa Cardoso, and the musicians José Manuel Neto and, of course, Jorge Fernando. Earlier in their relationship, Jorge Fernando had told Michael that he could already foresee Michael organizing shows of this type, and that he would do everything he could to help. The success of the November event, which was held at Casa Seabra on 20 November and attended by more than 250 people, sealed the arrangement. Afterward, Jorge Fernando told him, "Sometimes I feel that I want to gamble with people. I gambled with Mariza, I gambled with Ana Moura, and now I feel that I'm going to gamble with you as a manager."

Filipa Cardoso

The choice of personnel for each performance combines established and new artists, particularly those bringing "new flavors" to the fado. Aside from Filipa Cardoso and Fábia Rebordão, he cites Ana Moura, Carminho and Ricardo Ribeiro as some of the "many incredible young performers of the fado". His experience as a musician, and his participation as a performer at one of the top houses in Lisbon, also provides him with access to some of the top musicians and singers. Michael has also been present for many "perfect" moments of the fado, moments that were completely unplanned and "not written in any kind of agenda or calendar". His experience—as a musician, a devotee of the music and, frankly, as a person of Portuguese descent—helps him set up the scene so that the fado can happen when it wants to.

Michael notes that organizing an event is a cluster of emotions and activities at the same time: printing posters, selling tickets, handling logistics, then actually managing the event--even while taking part in it as a performer. The November event succeeded in bringing the feel of Lisbon to Newark--and vice versa, a point eloquently made that evening by Jorge Fernando when he said that the experience was an opportunity for these two sets of Portuguese people to see and understand each other better.

Lenita Gentil

In November 2011, Michael is organizing a mini-tour of restaurants in New Jersey and, possibly, in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Expected personnel for this mini-tour are Jorge Fernando, José Manuel Neto, Felipa Cardoso and, for the first time in a long time, Lenita Gentil. They expect to make about three stops on this mini-tour, one in each state, spread over two weekends.

In January of 2012, he will launch "Fado: From Lisbon to New York", at a "very important venue" in New York City. Plans are also afoot to extend this to a month-long tour that would bring many of the artists from the mini-tour, along with some spectacular surprises. Rehearsals and practices for the show are already happening, as are plans for the stage show. Watch for an official announcement in late August or early September on the MD Fado web site.

In the meantime, Michael's business, MD Fado, continues to expand, now including a publicist, an entertainment lawyer, a designer, and a "street team" of individuals working on publicity. With Michael's commitment, background and drive, the future of fado in the US is looking bright.

For information on upcoming MD Fado shows, as well as other activities, see the web site at http://www.mdfado.com.

Vergílio Pereira

Very sad news: Vergílio Pereira, one of the disc jockeys at Rádio Amália, has died, rather suddenly I believe. Since leaving Portugal, I have had many opportunities to listen to him, as his shift went from 8pm to midnight Lisbon time. He did alot to publicize the day-to-day of the fado, including his weekly shows of the "fado vadio", where he would invite singers and musicians to perform in the studio, in front of a small audience. Alot of the podcasts of these shows are available through subscription via iTunes (free, of course), or can be downloaded directly from podomatic. It seemed, no matter the quality of the singer, he was always appreciative of their willingness to perform live on the air, and to be interviewed. The questions were great, very human and intimate: "And what do you do for a living?" "Do you have any recordings?" "You have an extraordinary voice. How long have you been singing?"

He was also a nonstop admirer and promoter of Amália Rodrigues' music--and it sometime seemed that every other fado he played was by "a nossa diva Amália Rodrigues". He also played alot of music by Fernando Maurício and others associated with the fado castiço.

One evening's broadcast really stands out for me. It was very, very late, and he said "I know there are alot of taxi drivers out there listening to this show. I want to dedicate this fado to you." The man was pure class.

According to Rádio Amália, the funeral is today, 20 May 2011, in Camarate, at 16:00 Lisbon time.

Some photos:

Vergílio Pereira is second from right

http://bairrodaboavista-lisboa.blogspot.com/2011/02/uma-visita-agradavel-de-virgilio.html
http://mlurdesbras.blogspot.com/2010/02/radio-amalia.html

Unfortunately, I also have to note that the guitarist in the second set of photos--João Chitas--also died recently.

Visit to Lisbon!

I will be hanging out in Lisbon with Zé Ninguém in Lisbon for about a week, starting in just a few days. Watch for posts here, on my YouTube channel, and at the site "fado-hoje" (where he is the boss): http://fado-hoje.blogspot.com (in Portuguese only).

Lenita Gentil

MP3s in this post:

A tantos de tal

Por quem choras, coração

Samaritana
Fado Pechincha

Lenita Gentil has been singing for some time at O Faia in the Bairro Alto. To say she has a big voice and a very distinctive style is no exaggeration. The voice is now husky and forthright, almost never sentimental--even when deep into the saudades. Apropos of nothing, I once heard that kd lang thought she was the best singer she'd ever heard.

A friend once told me about going to hear her perform a few years ago. Lenita was accompanied by something like five guitars, and even then her voice was huge in comparison to them.  At the time, he told me, she was very forte, which you might think of as "large" (in size), something that no doubt contributed to the heft of her sound. I am guessing it was around this time.

As noted in this informative writeup by Vítor Marceneiro, Lenita was born in Marinha Grande, Portugal in 1948 (this according to Wikipedia--so take it for what it is worth). Vítor also informs us that she began to experiment with fado in the 1970s.

 I was lucky enough to hear her sing at O Faia, and luckier still to meet her afterwards. At the time I was trying hard to find all her records, and so asked what records she had released: Maria La Portuguesa, Fado (two with this title); Outro Lado do Fado; Preciso do Espaço, Voz à Solta--all of which I had. It turns out there is definitely more.

In 2005, MoviePlay released a two-CD retrospective of her early work, entitled Os Maiores Successos (The greatest hits), containing fado and (ahem) pop. The best example video I can come up with is this one: a very young Lenita (in 1971) singing "Anda ver o sol" ("Come see the sun") during RTP's Song Festival (she placed 9th that year).

The first CD is a bit of a miss: while the singing is great, the arrangements are very stringy and languid, and frequently sloppy ("Portugal, a pena" is one exception). The second disc is 2/3 fado, and plenty of it is great, the voice pure and clear. I almost could not believe it was her. With just a couple of exceptions, the fados on the second CD do not appear on any of the CDs in current circulation. Here are two examples:
A tantos de tal (mp3)
Por quem choras, coração (mp3)

I am also posting two much later recordings by her, which indicate more or less what she sounds like today.

The first is Samaritana (mp3), a Coimbra fado taken from one of the albums entitled "Fado" (2000, Ovação) that has other examples of this style ("Fado Hilário", "Do Choupal até a Lapa"). I must say that Lenita looks smashing on the cover.

The second one is a Fado Pechincha (mp3) entitled "Velha Mouraria" (same as in the video above). It is a performance that conveys everything about Lenita's style: she is literally pounding out the words, building on the already heavy rhythmic complexity of this fado, and singing very fast indeed. The fado is taken from the record "Outro Lado do Fado" (2005). Musicians on this record are Fernando Silva (guitarra portuguesa), Jaime Santos (viola--father or son I am not sure) and Joel Pina (viola baixo). Finally, I should mention this heroically long version of "Povo que lavas no rio", taken from Portuguese TV, with Calos Gonçalves and Luís Ribeiro on Portuguese guitars, Lelo Nogueira on viola, and Prof. Joel Pina on viola baixa. The all-star quality of the lineup is, again, an indicator on the quality of the music.


The differences between the later and earlier recordings are pretty obvious. They relate probably to age, perhaps also to stylistic changes but not, according to a recent (Oct. 2011) interview on Rádio Amália, due to smoking or drinking. She cites an aversion to both of these vices as the key to the preservation of her voice and energy through the years. She is certainly one of the best out there, but don't wait for her to come to the US: she does not appear to travel much off the Iberian peninsula. If you happen to be in Lisbon, when last I checked she sang late at the Faia (11pm or so). *Update* Lenita will be in Montreal for five days beginning 15 November 2011. Go if you can!

And what about that April post?

I don't know if the April post is late or the May post early (I think the former). I got moved by a sudden burst of Lenita Gentil, hence the post.

Fado in NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/arts/music/ana-moura-is-among-singers-reinvigorating-fado.html


Carving Out a Bold Destiny for Fado

By LARRY ROHTER
Published: March 25, 2011




"IN the beginning was Amália Rodrigues. That singer so dominates the modern history of the fado, Portugal’s soulful, guitar-based national song style, that during a 60-year career brought to an end only with her death in 1999, her name became virtually synonymous with the genre, leaving precious little room for others to flourish."


"But during the past decade or so there has been an explosion of new voices, most of them female, as well as the renovation of a genre that had come to seem hidebound and resistant to change. A so-called novo fado, or new fado, movement has catapulted the genre into the 21st century, opening a space for bold experiments with repertory, instrumentation and ways of singing."


...


To me, the major points of the article are...open to interpretation. I am a big fan of all the singers mentioned in the article, but I don't agree with this particular spin on what it takes to keep a music alive.


First, it's hard to imagine any one person having enough influence over an entire song form to shut down "innovation" simply by continuing to sing. This seems like a convenient premise for starting the article, nothing more. The fado was around long before Amália and continued after her.


According to the article, Mísia said "For decades the fado was used to emit a message of Portugal that was small, clean, poor, silent and happy, without ambition and resigned to its condition." Sure, the role of big-time fado during the dictatorship is pretty well documented, though hardly equivocal. Less well known is that plenty of fado continued on its own terms during the dictatorship (and afterwards): it's just that it did not necessarily happen on record (or even "on the record"). 


One trap the article slips into--and one found in many similar articles--is the view that the fado's continuing legitimacy and relevance comes only through the introduction of "new forms" or (as Rohter says) "nontraditional influences" or new instrumentations. This is a hugely elitist and cynical view of the music. As one guitarist who played for Amália once told me, "Amália never managed to make the fado work with an orchestra, so how could anybody else?" Imagine if somebody said Charlie Parker's music only became legitimate when he brought in the strings, or that jazz only reached its apotheosis once strings came in. It's not necessary to debase the original in order to exalt the new.

What is the fado?

It might be hard to believe, but fado is--by nature--dark but also light, maudlin but also celebratory, introspective but also forward-looking. It is almost never bleak and desperate. If it were, it would not survive. Exploring these seemingly contradictory sentiments is the objective of the next few posts on this blog, which I hope will serve as a guide to the content of the music. Every post will have a few mp3s.

José Maria Fernandes
Tasca do Jaime, 28 June 2009

I expect to write this in three parts. The first one will cover some themes in the lyrics; the next one will cover the music itself (which is, strictly speaking, the fado); the final one will cover live performance (how the fado "happens"). Unlike recent treatments (e.g., the program "Trovas antigas, saudade louca" on RTP), these entries will be based almost entirely on my own experiences. These include my own recollections of what I saw and heard during about 100 nights of fado over an approximately ten-month period in Lisbon (documented here: http://noitesperdidas.net), but also from a survey I conducted recently with about 50 singers and musicians.

In other words, I am not going to cover the "big time" fado, nor am I going to cover the history of fado's development. My approach follows from my own feeling that it is really because of the amateur strata of the fado that the music continues to thrive, but also due to the fact that there are many great studies along these lines, including plenty of work in English. One excellent (and freely available) writeup on the history of the fado by Anton, including instrumentation and styles, that I hope to complement (see http://fadous.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-fado.html).

Themes
"The joy that brings sadness, and the sadness that brings joy." This is one way to conceptualize "saudade"--a fundamental concept in the lyrics of the fado. The emphasis can sit anywhere along this scale.

There are about 3500 fados in my iTunes library, and a (real) random sample of ten of them gives at least some idea of the scope o fado lyrics. Below is the title of the poem (with my rough translation), the singer, and the record that the fado is taken from. Unfortunately, I do not have the names of the other personnel on these records. The names of the authors and composers are taken from José Manuel Fernandes' site, http://fadosdofado.blogspot.com.

O Sonho ("The Dream"). Maria Do Carmo Torres. Vol. 1-Fado De Lisboa 1928-30
A dream that wraps around the bullfighting tradition of the Alentejo region, ending with the singer seduced by the sound of fado, then finding herself singing a desgarrada with Severa while Severa's lover, the Conde de Vimioso, plays the guitar. Lyrics by Francisco Duarte Ferreira; music by José Marques (Fado Rigoroso).

Meu Canto de Viela ("My song of the alley") [Fado Zeca]. Fernando Maurício. Património
A song about a poem that causes the singer to walk the streets looking for the person he ought not to love. Lyricist and composer unknown--sorry.

Manuel de Almeida

Azenha Velhinha (mp3). Manuel de Almeida. Fado Castiço
The stars are at war the night a terrible tragedy occurs at the water mill. The miller attempts to flee a fire with his child by crossing an old bridge. The bridget collapses and they both perish. Lyrics by Frederico de Brito.

O Meu Desejo ("My desire"). Luís Gois. Serenata de Coimbra
A fado from Coimbra: "my desire is to kiss you." Lyrics by Luís Gois.

O rio que nos viu nascer ("The river we saw being born"). Vicente da Câmara. Casa de Fados em Concerto
Two lives are bound up with one river (the Tejo of Lisbon). Lyrics by Maria de Jesus Facco Viana; music by Vicente da Câmara.

Cabelo Branco ("Gray hair"). Alfredo Marceneiro. Vol. 1-Fado De Lisboa 1928-30
"Cabelo branco é saudade." The white hair on an older man makes him realize not just his age, but also the things in his past that he cannot return to. Lyrics by Henrique Rego; composer unknown (Fado das Horas).

Eu Canto. Carlos do Carmo. Nove Fados E Uma Canção De Amor
"I know that I sing, and the song is everything." Lyrics by Cecília Meireles; music by António Victorino de Almeida.

A Carta (mp3). Américo Correia. O Grande Castiço do Fado
"Mother, this letter is the mirror where your son confesses everything: why he drinks the night away thinking of a woman, and how--despite all this--he continues to keep you close as a mother." As José Manuel Osório has said repeatedly, disentangling and clarifying titles and authors (as well as personnel) on fado records is incredibly tough. For example, the credits on this record say that the poem is called "A carta" (the letter), with lyrics by Jorge Fernando and music Fado Cravo. José Fernandes de Castro's site has the title listed as "Confessando" (Confessing), lyrics by Jorge Fernando and music Fado Cravo--with credit (as it should be) to Alfred Duarte (i.e., Alfredo Marceneiro).

Na Rua Do Silêncio. João Braga. Fados Para Sempre
"On the street of silence the night is always dark."Lyrics by Amadeu Sousa Freitas; music by Alfredo Duarte.

Casinha dum pobre (mp3). Fernando Farinha. The Portuguese Hits
"The poor man's house... don't open the door to jealousy--there is no room for it here." Lyrics by Carlos Flores; music by Frederico de Brito.

A couple of things are worth mentioning here.

• All of these lyrics speak to the saudade, though from different perspectives, about different sources of loss and love, and from different ends of the scale. 
• I am a bit surprised to see that there is only one song about Lisbon, though certainly some of the authors describe scenes in Lisbon (or Coimbra). Vítor Marceneiro has compiled a list of all fados that he knows that mention Lisbon. It's pretty long (http://lisboanoguiness.blogs.sapo.pt/156738.html). 
• There are two female lyricists in the list. I really expected to see all males. I would think that an enterprising person might analyze the entries at fadosdofado to get a firmer estimate of this figure.
• Alfredo Marceneiro and Frederico de Brito are the only people who show up twice on the list.

Finally, I think it's worth looking at one complete lyric, and also seeing and hearing how it was sung live. A saying heard over and over in Portugal is "Recordar é viver" ("To remember is to live"). Below is my translation of one poem that captures this sentiment and shows how it triggers the saudade. The lyrics are by Sérgio Valentino, and the music is the fado Proença (see link to JF Castro's site, below).

"Noites Perdidas"
Lyrics by Sérgio Valentino, music by Júlio Proença (Fado Proença)
Artur Batalha
How many lost nights/ shared with you/ laying seeds for a storm;
Untrue hours, lived in the worst way,/ my life robbed from me/ so that I did not want to live anymore.


I wish that I could forget/ those dreamlike nights / lived without any purpose.
Hours and hours without seeing,/ without seeing that you were not worth even a minute from me.


What I suffered no one can imagine/ those nights now gone / which so changed our passion.
And now I am ashamed/ because I am not able / to get you out of my heart.

As the singer José Maria Fernandes (above) told me, "Se eu não posso sentir, não posso transmitir" ("If I can't feel it, I can't convey it"). This gets into questions of repertory, which I'll take up in part three. "Noites perdidas" is very strongly associated these days with Artur Batalha (see a previous post for more about him), and there are a couple of videos on YouTube of Batalha singing this fado. The latest one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COBQ-rYl9gA) is taken from a recent cycle of fado held in the Mouraria, where Batalha was a special guest. A transcription of the lyrics in Portuguese is here: http://fadosdofado.blogspot.com/2010/03/noites-perdidas.html.

Thanks for reading this. Leave a comment if you have a chance.