Fado- The "Blues of Portugal"

[TAlderson]

I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with fado music, but if you aren't, you should go right now and listen to some. It sounds like a slower version of flamenco, very beautiful and haunting. By far the Queen of Fado is Amalia Rodrigues, who was so celebrated that when she died in 1999 Portugal had three days of national mourning! One of my favorites now is Mariza, a singer born in Mozambique. She's got an amazing voice, and Portuguese is one of the most beautiful and under-appreciated languages to sing in.

Definitely check it out.

-Tyler

[brandondrury]

I've never even heard of "Fado". I'll have to check this out....somehow.

Do you have any streaming links or something? I'm interested to hear this.

Portuguese is one of the most beautiful and under-appreciated languages to sing in.

At the Wagener workshop, there was a guy from Brazil who spoke Portuguese. I learned many curse words and they are also beautiful.

Brandon

[TAlderson]

Try this, it's Mariza's site, it has a few videos of her live:

http://www.mariza.org/tour.html

-Tyler

[dach]

thanks for turning us on to that. I've been playing flamenco for about 10 years and it's always nice to hear new things.... the music is obviously european but the vocal melodies definitely have that gypsy influence...

I haven't heard anything with a quattro in it for a long time...I used to have a one but never got into it that much. I wish I had it now though....

great stuff!

[TAlderson]

Yeah, I've been teaching myself the guitarra portuguesa (the other stringed instrument), and it sounds amazing. It's pretty hard to find music and stuf for it, though.

-Tyler

[Futant55]

It's really nice to listen to music where you can't understand the words every once in a while. Instead of trying to decipher the lyrics logically, you are forced to just listen and feel. The voice becomes more of an instrument to you. Very good stuff.