|
 Fans of the exceptionally beautiful and melancholy sounds of the Portuguese song form fado are being treated to an extraordinary new album this summer, with the Times Square Records release of Transparente, the breathtaking third album from international star fadista Mariza.
Recorded in Brazil and produced by Grammy-winning Jaques Morelenbaum, who has worked with Caetano Veloso, Tom Jobim, Sting and others, Transparente has already pleased music fans and critics across Europe, debuting at number 1 on the Portuguese music charts - the first time ever for a Fado album - and still holding that position since the release several weeks ago.
Mariza has also emerged as a new star with younger fans, many of whom flock to her live performances to see a fresh perspective on the fado style, both wardrobe and performance-wise.
Fado, the storytelling song form born out of the tiny bars of the "bairro alto" in Lisbon, Portugal, has a tradition in which poets and composers create songs for specific fadistas.
Oftentimes, a fadista either finds a poem and has it arranged to one of the 200 or so traditional fado melodies, or has someone compose new music for it.
On Transparente Mariza collaborated with several renowned poets such as Paulo de Carvalho, a well-known singer and composer in Portugal, and Paulo Abreu Lima, who composed the title track about her African and Portuguese heritage.
The song "Transparente" connects Mariza with her African birthplace, Mozambique, and fado's African heritage, but does not deny her Portuguese side either.
"The poet who wrote it, Paulo Abreu Lima, all he knew was I came from Africa. It's very simple, but the minute I read it, I thought, 'This is me!' And the way he finished it- 'I was born to sing'- it's a little crazy but it's an autobiographical poem even if he didn't know me."
Transparente is the natural successor to Mariza's first two records. "Fado Em Mim was my presentation," explains Mariza. "It is the story from when I started to sing fado to the time I decided to do a record.
"Fado Curvo was an 'upgrade;' where I show more of my ideas about fado: what I like about poetry, opening my soul a little bit, a little bit of me. Transparente is closer to my sound; what I dream about music; what I dream about fado."
Snippets of what the British critics are saying
"Portugal's new queen of fado sings sweetly of the profoundest of sorrows. This is Mariza's best album to date."
London Independent, 4/24/05
"Her haunting, gently-passionate and sad-edged singing is as exquisite as ever."
London Guardian, 4/23/05
"Mariza sounds more majestic than ever."
London Sunday Times, 5/5/05
"For those who haven't yet heard her, Transparente is a good place to start."
London Evening Standard, 5/5/05
For more info on Mariza and tour dates:
http://www.timessquarerecords.net
http://www.mariza-online.net
Mariza-Transparente: North American Tour: Sept/Oct 2005
Sat 9/24: Vancouver, BC - Canada/Chan Center for the Performing Arts
Sun 9/25: Edmonton,AB - Canada/Winspeare Center
Tues 9/27: Toronto, ON - Canada /Massey Hall
Wed 9/28: Ottawa, ON - Canada/United Cathedral
Fri 9/30: Montreal, QX - Canada/Outremont Theater
Sat 10/1: Boston - Berklee Performing Arts Center
Tues 10/4: Hampton, VA - American Theater
Thurs 10/6: Washington DC - Lisner Auditorium
Fri 10/7: New York City, NY - Carnegie Hall
Sun 10/9: Philadelphia - Kimmel Center
Wed 10/12: Miami - Gusman Theater
Fri 10/14: Memphis, TN - Buckman Performing Arts Center
Sun 10/16: San Diego, CA - Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay
Wed 10/19: Los Angeles, CA - Royce Hall-UCLA
Fri 10/21: Berkeley,CA - Zellerbach Auditorium
(Only San Francisco Area performance)
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.