On Tuesday, March 31, the Portuguese fadista Mariza will be performing at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Memorial Hall.
Mariza is one of the most celebrated fado singers in Portugal. A native of Mozambique, Mariza Nunes moved to Portugal with her parents while still a child. She grew up in the Modiera district of Lisbon, long known as the precinct where fado was born.
Mariza was singing as a pre-teen, and during her teenage years she developed a strong interest in Bossa Nova – strong enough that she relocated to Brazil to pursue this music in its native environs.
It was fado, however, that brought her back to Lisbon. Singing in fado houses led to the production and release of her first album, Fado em mim (Times Square, 2002). She has subsequently released five albums – all earning an avalanche of enthusiastic reviews – including her most recent record, Terra.
My review of Te
rra, published in Billboard’s February 7, 2009, issue:
Portuguese fadista Mariza has become a celebrated artist well beyond her father’s fado house in Lisbon. On her latest project, the choice of material mirrors Mariza’s burgeoning world audience. Mariza offers several gorgeous fado numbers, of course, and she reaches beyond her traditional repertoire. For those who fancy fado, “Ja Me Deixou” and “Rosa Branca” are straight from the traditional canon and performed here with bravura. Mariza also unearthed a never-published poem by David Mourae-Ferreira and has given it another life as a fado number – “Recurso.” Guest Chucho Valdes adds some Cuban flavor to the Portuguese folk piece “Fronteira,” and Mariza sings a wonderful arrangement of a Cape Verdean morna, “Beijo de Saudade,” with Tito Paris. Finally, we get a very pleasant surprise via a bonus track – Mariza reprises the Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile” in English, and she does so most elegantly.
The genre of fado music began, much as the tango, as a lower-class music performed in bars in the Alfama and Alcantra districts of Lisbon. The lyrical component of fado is quite poetic.
From my description of fado on the Nat Geo Music Web site:
The essence of this poetry is the quality of saudade – a word that does not readily translate into other languages. The difficulty stems from the fact that the word saudade expresses a range of emotions – loneliness, melancholy, longing, even a fatalistic view of loss. Saudade evokes love in ruins or a bittersweet nostalgia for persons or events lost in the past. Fado is a somber, sometimes mournful, music that, like the American blues, gives voice to heartache and disappointment. When sung well, it can be wonderfully emotive and moving.
For a more detailed discussion of fado, your link is:
http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/genre/content.genre/fado_717.
Having caught Mariza in concert a couple years ago at NCSU’s Stewart Theatre, I can promise that anyone who attends her March 31 concert at Memorial Hall will be amazed by the power and elegance of Mariza’s voice and her remarkable command of fado.
That’s Tuesday, March 31, 7:30 p.m., UNC-Chapel Hill, Memorial Hall. Tickets at: 919-843-3333, or online: http://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/.
