Fernando Farinha, the Kid from Bica

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



Fado critic Daniel Gouveia once summed up the enormous popularity of Fernando Farinha in these words: “Even today, if we were to ask fado aficionados who the all-time best fadista is, many would not hesitate: Farinha!” (1). Indeed, Farinha’s powerful, high-pitched voice, graced with an incomparable depth and richness, is synonymous with high-quality fado. He was never too dramatic on stage, much preferring to stand rigidly gazing into the horizon as he performed. But when Farinha sang, the audience was mesmerized by his very personal singing style, which was always unmistakably his own. His long career spanned four decades, during which he gained great success on radio, records, television, and even movies, becoming one of the most respected fadistas in the history of the genre.

Born in Barreiro in 1928, Farinha moved to Lisbon’s Bairro da Bica with his parents when he was five, and there he stayed the rest of his life. Even when he achieved fame and fortune as a singer, he still chose to make that legendary neighborhood his home. Farinha was an easy-going, down-to-earth man, always proud of his humble origins, which he celebrated in many of his self-referential fados. Among these, “A Minha Apresentação” (“My Introduction”), a sort of musical calling card (2), is one of the most telling:

If by chance you might
Want to know where my house is
Ask any neighbor
Where Farinha lives
And she will reply, “Over at Bica!”

When he was only seven, Farinha showed off his singing abilities at a fado contest. Not only did he take the prize that night, but he also acquired the nickname “the Kid from Bica,” which would remain associated with him for the rest of his professional career, a fact that was celebrated in some of his song lyrics. He cut his first records in 1940, and very soon he began appearing on the revue stage with the likes of Hermínia Silva and singing at the most renowned fado houses in Lisbon, namely at the Adega Mesquita, where he appeared throughout the 1950s. Farinha also became a regular on radio and television, and his popularity secured him live gigs not only in Portugal but also abroad. Many were the awards that he received over the years, but one of the most important came in 1962, when he was named King of Portuguese Radio. Farinha was one of the few fadistas to earn this prize, which was usually awarded to more pop-sounding artists, and this is ample proof of the wide appeal of his singing style.



In the 1960s, Farinha starred in a movie entitled O Miúdo da Bica (The Kid from Bica). The plot was loosely based on his own life, and he played himself and performed several songs. Incidentally, its title is yet another example of Farinha’s pride in his nickname. Due to the success of this film, Farinha appeared in A Última Pega (The Last Magpie) opposite Vicente da Câmara, one of the great names of the so-called aristocratic fado. However, even though he proved to be an adept actor, his appearances on the silver screen are not necessarily among the highlights of his remarkable career.

The two movies in which he starred underscore a fact that is sometimes overlooked when considering the artistic legacy of Fernando Farinha. While we tend to think of him mainly as a performer, that well-known side of his artistry often overshadows the fact that he was also an outstanding songwriter with a sharp sensibility for poetry. All the songs that he sang on the soundtrack to both pictures were his own compositions. Farinha showed an interest in poetry early on, and he actually penned the lyrics (and occasionally the music) of some of his biggest hits, as well as producing hits for other artists such as Amália Rodrigues, Fernanda Maria, Alice Maria, and Carlos Macedo. Some of his lyrics can be counted among the best-crafted and most powerfully poetic efforts in fado history. Thus, in the witty “Beijo Emprestado” (“Borrowed Kiss”), he urges his lover to return a kiss that he gave her in these terms: “Give me the warmth / Of that kiss that I loaned you / I want to see if your love / Is the same as the love I gave you.” And then he reminds her that “those who pay their debts / Are more satisfied / For after paying what you owe / You do not owe anything.” In “Maldição” (“Curse”), after parting with his lover, he regrets having first laid eyes on her:

Cursed be my eyes
When they encountered yours
And for them I lost my sense
If my eyes had not seen you
Perhaps they would still be smiling
And would not cry for you



But in “O Teu Olhar” (“Your Eyes”), Farinha undoubtedly achieves one of his lyrical heights by exploring a very similar theme and using visually powerful metaphors:

Ever since I saw your eyes
My fate is doomed
My fate are your eyes
Your eyes are my fate

I wanted to sing
About those eyes that enchanted me
For in them I found
An unknown inspiration
I was charmed
By the warmth of your eyes
And since then
Your eyes are the reason for this passion

Your eyes are
Two very crafty poets
And they actually dictated
The lines of this song

Other lyrics by Farinha delve deep into the typical fado themes of unrequited love, longing for the past, the suffering of immigrants, and fado tradition. The theme of tradition was clearly underscored in the course of a legendary 1962 recording session that brought Farinha together with one of the patriarchs of fado, Alfredo Marceneiro. That reunion produced one of the landmark records in fado history, “Antes e Depois” (“Before and After”), a desgarrada punctuated by the fine Portuguese guitar work of Raul Nery in which the Kid from Bica and the elder statesman combine tradition and modernity.

Fernando Farinha passed away in 1988, at age sixty and well before his time. In spite of his fabulous career and long-standing success, no official tribute was held to commemorate his passing. Fortunately, many of his recordings have been reissued and are now available on CD. Farinha was not merely a fado performer: rather, he was a multi-faceted artist that found success in many fields but that always remained true to the fado idiom. Fado was, in fact, the outlet for his many talents, which have secured him a privileged position in the history of Portuguese music at large. And as long as interest in fado exists, the name of Fernando Farinha will always be counted among the top performers of the genre.



Notes

(1) See the liner notes to the CD Biografias do Fado: Fernando Farinha (EMI-Valentim de Carvalho, 1998), page 6.

(2) Gouveia (page 6) refers to this song as a cartão de visita (calling card) and attributes those words to Alfredo Marceneiro.

Berta Cardoso, the Fadista with a Tear in Her Voice

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



During the first half of the twentieth century, fado underwent many decisive changes: from its origins in the brothels and dingy taverns of Lisbon, it moved to theaters, records, radio, movies, and the typical restaurants known as fado houses. Embraced by all different social classes, from the lower social strata to the aristocracy, it shed its bad reputation and ceased to be associated with rogues and criminals. Fadistas that once were amateur singers turned professional, striving to create an image and a recognizable sound that would secure them popularity and success. Fado began to be marketed and mass produced—it became an industry, an economic as well as an artistic pursuit. Berta Cardoso not only witnessed all these modifications, but she was one of the most important figures that helped usher them in. Throughout her long and successful career, she was always one of the most prominent artists in the fado scene, making extremely popular records, receiving standing ovations wherever she performed, making memorable appearances on radio and television, and even starring in movies. Today she is duly remembered as one of the foremost names in the history of the genre.

Born Bertha dos Santos Cardoso in the Lisbon parish of Sacramento in 1911, her father died when she was only nine, and a state institution took care of her. This upbringing apart from her mother would have a decisive influence on Cardoso, who would always value the idea of family as one of the bases of her life. Although she never married, she did have two sons, and as soon as she began to earn her own money, she made sure that her mother stayed close to her. In years to come, she would turn down many an interesting contract on account of her family life, proving that she was well aware of her priorities.



Cardoso did not start performing in front of live audiences until she was sixteen: her first appearance took place at the Salão Artístico de Fados, owned by Portuguese guitar whiz Armandinho, and it marked the beginning of an extremely successful career that in time would take her to Brazil, Africa, Spain, and the Portuguese colonies. Her singing was soon celebrated by specialized publications such as Guitarra de Portugal and Canção do Sul: “Berta Cardoso,” wrote the latter in 1941, “is not merely a singer. She has great diction and stage presence. In short, she knows how to act . . . Her singing style remains rich and powerful. At times she overshadows the orchestra, and her voice fills the stage, the theater, and our soul” (1). Indeed, Cardoso’s beautiful voice and very personal singing style dazed audiences and critics alike, earning her access to the theater stage, where she cemented her popularity starring in countless revues. She was not only an amazing singer, but also a very accomplished actress, and therefore, a natural for this kind of musical theater.

Her prolific recording career started in 1931, when she traveled to Madrid to cut her first sides for Odeon, accompanied by legendary musicians such as Armandinho and Georgino de Sousa. These early records met with wide acclaim, which led to many more sessions; by the late 1930s, Cardoso had signed a much more advantageous recording contract with Valentim de Carvalho. Even in the late 1950s and 1960s, when she was making records for the lesser-known Estoril label, her music sold in respectable quantities. Her very lyrical approach to fado singing is well represented in her records, all of them magnificent examples of the high quality standards that fado had reached in those golden years that span the period from the 1930s to the 1950s.



Berta Cardoso was a regular fixture on radio throughout the 1930s and 1940s, a period of constant touring and appearances on highly successful revues. In 1940, she also performed in Feitiço do Império (The Spell of the Empire), a movie directed by António Lopes Ribeiro and meant as a propagandistic exaltation of the dictatorial government of António de Oliveira Salazar. One of the biggest productions in the history of Portuguese cinema up until that point, the film featured a whole array of great stars such as Luís de Campos, Isabela Tovar, and Francisco Ribeiro. Performances by Alfredo Duarte Marceneiro also graced the movie, which was an instant success and remained in theaters for many years.

The 1950s saw Berta Cardoso enduring difficult times: not only did her mother pass away in 1951, but her son Humberto died tragically in Mozambique in 1959. As she mourned these two important personal losses, she gradually abandoned the theater stage and concentrated on her appearances at fado houses. Television arrived in Portugal around 1957, soon becoming a powerful medium for the divulgation of fado, and of course, Cardoso was prominently featured on television shows until her definitive retirement in 1982.


From left to right: Berta Cardoso, Lina Maria Alves, Alfredo Marceneiro, and Portuguese guitarist Acácio Gomes.

Cardoso had a very acute poetic sensibility, as demonstrated by her constant concern with the quality of the lyrics of her songs. Mostly written by acclaimed fado poets such as João Linhares Barbosa, Armando Neves, Joaquim Frederico de Brito, and Luís da Silva Gouveia, her songs underwent periodic lyrical modifications: “Any artist always feels a constant need to update his or her repertoire,” she once reflected. “Of course, people still request my old hits, and so do the record companies. But that is not enough. I would not like to be accused of tiring off my audience, and so I strive to update my repertoire as much as possible” (2). These are words of wisdom spoken by a cultivated woman who understood the importance of the relationship between an artist and the audience, one of the secrets of her prolonged success.

Berta Cardoso was a witty woman, both on and offstage: she enjoyed impersonating other artists and was a hard-working professional who always knew how to please the people that flocked to see her shows. Her death in July of 1997 left us without one of the true first ladies of fado, an all-around entertainer that has become an icon of Portuguese music at large. Her voice, preserved in her numerous records for posterity, sounds as thrilling now as it did when she cut them: it still transmits a whole palette of complex feelings that range from the sadness and saudade of loss to the joy of everyday life. Berta Cardoso, that “fadista with tears in her voice” (3) undoubtedly remains one of the all-time heroines of fado.



Acknowledgments: This article would never have been possible without the kindness and cooperation of my good friend Ofélia Pereira, who knew Berta Cardoso in life and owns an impressive collection of memorabilia related to the great fadista. She graciously sent me the catalog of the exhibition Berta Cardoso, 1911-1997, held at Lisbon’s Museu do Fado in 2006, and I am indebted to her for that.

Links: For more information on Berta Cardoso, please visit Ofélia’s website BertaCardoso.Com, which contains sound clips, pictures, and biographical data both in Portuguese and English. To watch Berta Cardoso videos, please click on the following links:

Cinta Vermelha / Red Ribbon
Noite de São João / Night of St. John
Lés a Lés - one of her earliest recordings
Fado do Marinheiro / Fado of the Sailor - with Márcia Condessa and Maria Clara
Olhai a Noite / Look at the Night

Notes

(1) Canção do Sul. 19th Year, Issue 287. December 1, 1941.

(2) ”Vida artística: Berta Cardoso, uma voz que continua a ouvir-se na noite de Lisboa.” Diário de Notícias. June 23, 1973.

(3) This nickname was coined in Portugal and followed Cardoso to Brazil. See Berta Cardoso, 1911-1997. EGEAC / Museu do Fado, 2006: 30.

Natalino Duarte: The Subtlety of a Master Stylist

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



Although he has fallen into some neglect lately, which makes it rather difficult to find reliable information about him, Natalino Duarte was one of the most important singers to hit the fado scene in the 1950s. In spite of his eternally young looks, Duarte had a very powerful stage presence, and his voice possessed a wide range and a depth that made it perfect to sing different kinds of songs. Duarte was equally at ease with energetic uptempo numbers and with more pensive, slower fados, and he was able to inflect his performances with a very subtle, restrained emotion that turned them into extremely expressive works of art.

Born in Lisbon’s Bairro da Liberdade in 1935, Duarte showed an inclination to fado from a very early age and started singing at fairs and parties when he was only nine. In fact, fado was an important activity in his family: his brother, Carlos Duarte, also made a name for himself as a guitarist. His big break came in 1957, when he landed first place in a fado contest held at the Café Luso. Duarte’s gigs at fado houses were not extremely numerous, but in the 1960s, television appearances brought him a great deal of exposure and popularity that lasted well into the following decade, when he turned to the artistic management of the Páteo Alfacinha, one of the foremost fado houses of its time. Throughout his career, Duarte was backed by accomplished musicians such as Portuguese guitarists António Parreira and Manuel Mendes and guitarists Raul Silva and Carlos Duarte, and he also shared billing with great names like Maria Teresa de Noronha, Filipe Duarte, and Maria Valejo.



Despite his popularity, Natalino Duarte’s recorded legacy is scarce: he only cut fourteen extended-play records, all of which are of a consistently high quality although not easy to find on CD. As a matter of fact, the only one currently available is a volume in the Fados do Fado series (Movieplay, 1998) that features a fine selection of his late-1960s sides, including classics such as “Eu Gosto Daquela Feia,” his beautiful, rather subdued version of the perennial “Coimbra,” the atmospheric “Degraus da Vida,” and Domingos Silva's “Lenda da Fonte,” the song for which he will always be remembered.

After a long association with the Páteo Alfacinha that lasted until his retirement, Natalino Duarte passed away in Lisbon in February 2002. Duarte was a fadista that, despite his very obvious qualities for fado singing, did not seem to take his career too seriously, much preferring to diversify his activities. However, his excellent recordings and his very personal sensibility for fado will always grant him a place among the greatest names of the genre.

Links: For more information on Natalino Duarte in Portuguese, as well as for sound clips and videos of his music, go to Fadocravo - Natalino Duarte: Porque Gosto do Fado and Lisboa No Guinness: Natalino Duarte.

Maria Teresa de Noronha's Fado Antigo: Fado Meets Aristocracy

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



One of the records to which I come back time and again is Fado Antigo (Valentim de Carvalho, 1972), a magnificent compilation of Maria Teresa de Noronha’s most memorable fados with accompaniment provided by legendary musicians such as Raul Nery and António Chainho (Portuguese guitar), Joaquim do Vale (guitar), and Joel Pina (bass guitar). The disc is rather short, at merely twelve tracks, but it offers a perfect portrait of de Noronha’s artistry and inimitable style of fado singing. Her voice is a perfectly tuned instrument, utterly expressive and filled with emotion, and her performances always come across as intelligent, well-crafted works of art.

De Noronha was extremely concerned with the poetic quality of her song lyrics, which needed to suit her mood and personality, and therefore, she not only selected compositions from great fado poets like António de Bragança and Fernando Caldeira, but she also penned some of her own. And Fado Antigo contains beautiful examples of this. In her voice, fado may become a suitable way to escape pain and melancholy: “When sometimes I feel overwhelmed / By the thorn of saudade / Pinned on the past / I sing, and though not on purpose, / My life I entwine / On the strings of a guitar” (“Choro Cantando”). Or her voice may express the paradoxes of unrequited love: “I like you when you lie / And say that you love me / For what you truly feel / Is scorn, and that is much worse” (“Gosto de Ti Quando Mentes”). And sometimes her voice teaches us lessons in life, enticing us to scratch the surface of mere appearance and take a look at the complexity of human feelings: “Let laughter not be the measure / Of people’s happiness / For sometimes laughter hides / The sadness that people feel” (“Nosso Fado”).



Maria Teresa de Noronha is a twentieth-century example of fado’s breach of social class, which can be traced back to the story of the illicit love affair between the Count of Vimioso and Maria Severa in the 1840s. Born Maria Teresa do Carmo de Noronha into an aristocratic family in Lisbon in 1918, she became Countess of Sabrosa through her marriage to Count José António Barbosa de Guimarães Serôdio in 1947. Fado ran in the family: some of her ancestors were notable fado performers, and her husband was an accomplished guitarist and songwriter. She began singing for family and friends at a very tender age, but her first professional appearance did not occur until the late 1930s, when she started a weekly live radio show that stayed on the air for 23 years. Luís Pepe very accurately describes the experience of attending one of her performances: “Listening to Maria Teresa is just like being transported to a region pervaded by spirituality . . . because she does not actually sing; she feels and gives us a glimpse of her soul the way it really is” (1).

In spite of her success in Portugal and abroad, by the early 1960s, de Noronha had gone into retirement, perhaps because of her duties as an aristocrat, which prevented her from having as much public exposure as a singer as other fadistas. However, she still performed at home for family and friends and made some great recordings, and in 1964, she agreed to sing at a party hosted by the Anglo-Portuguese Society in London. Her short trip to England also yielded a historical appearance on the BBC, which gives us an idea of the extent of her popularity.



Maria Teresa de Noronha passed away in 1993, but her invaluable legacy lives on in the outstanding recordings that she made and in the many lyrics that she wrote. She remains the foremost exponent of the so-called aristocratic fado, a style deeply rooted in classic, traditional sounds, and her very personal approach to fado singing oozes class and elegance. She treated fados as lyric poems written in a simple, profoundly expressive language. Alfredo Marceneiro once stated that the ability to speak out the words of a fado song was far more important than the singer’s voice. De Noronha certainly had that ability, and her voice was rich and versatile: she understood the most hidden meanings of the lyrics she sang, and with perfect diction, she always knew how to accentuate those words that were essential to emphasize the multi-layered emotions that are present in fado. Fortunately, records such as Fado Antigo, reissued on CD in 2007, enable us to enjoy the art of one of the best fadistas of the twentieth century.

Link: For more information on Maria Teresa de Noronha in Portuguese and to view a video of one of her recordings, click on Fadocravo - Maria Teresa de Noronha: Mataram A Mouraria.

Notes

(1) Luís Pepe. Fado, Mulheres e Toiros. Lisbon: Livraria Francisco Franco, 1945: 44-45.



UPDATE ON FEBRUARY 15, 2011

A few months back, one of our readers asked me to translate the lyrics of the "Fado das horas" ("Fado of the hours"), written by D. António de Bragança, into English. I apologize for the delay in answering this request, but at long last here is the translation:

"Fado of the Hours"

I used to cry because I didn't see you
Now I cry because I see you
But I actually cry because I want
To see you all the time.

Time goes by in a flash
When you speak I listen
All through the hours of our lives
Each hour lasts but a minute.

When you are near me
I feel that I am the ruler of the world
But time is so terrible
Each hour lasts but a second.

Stay by my side
And don't ever leave me again
That way my poor heart
Will live at least for an hour.

Alfredo Marceneiro, the Essence of Fado

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



Saying that Alfredo Marceneiro is one of the most important figures in the history of fado is a vast understatement. His grandson, Vítor Duarte, comes much closer to the truth when he describes him as “the essence of fado” (1). Indeed, Marceneiro was one of the first performers to appear in theaters and concert halls, paying special attention to his clothing and stage persona, thereby contributing to the incipient professionalization of fadistas in the 1920s and bringing the style into the modern age. He was also an accomplished songwriter who wrote the music for most of his fados, creating a repertoire all his own that suited his extremely personal style and that has become a blueprint for classic fado.

Always looking for a trademark that would make him stand out, Marceneiro was the first fadista to stand up in front of his musicians while singing and to perform by candlelight, creating a very intimate, almost mystic atmosphere. His singing style was quickly recognizable, and his husky voice always shone on slow numbers drenched with sadness and saudade. “The most important thing in fado is not one’s voice,” he once said, “but rather the ability to speak out the words” (2). And that was something at which Marceneiro clearly excelled.



He was born Alfredo Rodrigo Duarte in 1891 in the parish of Santa Isabel in Lisbon, where his parents had arrived in the hope of achieving the economic prosperity that had hitherto proved elusive. The young Alfredo was interested in acting from a very early age, but very soon he began to concentrate on singing, an activity that he conjugated with his job as a carpenter. As was very common among fadistas around the turn of the twentieth century, his profession would earn him the nickname “Marceneiro” (meaning carpenter in Portuguese), which stuck throughout his extensive career. Very adept at improvising lyrics, during these early years he built a solid reputation both as a very original performer and as a songwriter. His success would earn him a recording contract, and in 1930, he cut his first records for Valentim de Carvalho, which have now become historical items highly coveted by fado collectors. Despite the fact that his records were always very well received by fans and critics alike, Marceneiro was more of a live performer and much preferred to stand up and perform in front of an audience.



Although carpentry remained a lifelong passion, Marceneiro quit his job as a carpenter in 1950 in order to become a professional fadista. Over the years he had built a vast repertoire of self-penned tunes whose lyrics had been provided by great fado lyricists such as Silva Tavares, Armando Neves, João Linhares Barbosa, and Gabriel de Oliveira. Always concerned with the sound of his music, Marceneiro required professionality of his musicians, and he was usually accompanied by some of the best guitarists in Portugal, legendary names like Armandinho, Jaime Santos, Fontes Rocha, and Raul Nery.

His popularity transcended his home country, and throughout his life he constantly received booking offers coming from abroad, especially from Brazil. All of these he turned down, choosing to sing at Lisbon fado houses for his friends and his countless admirers. Though he did appear in many different parts of Portugal, it was in Lisbon that he really felt at home, and there, among his people, whenever he was coaxed to stand up and sing a few songs, he always obliged happily and with an air of seriousness on his face. It was a ritual held regularly almost up until his death, a ritual that he enjoyed to such an extent that he could not conceive life without singing fado.



Alfredo Marceneiro passed away in Lisbon in 1982, surrounded by his wife Judite, his family, and his friends. He was 91, and despite the fact that he hardly ever left his beloved homeland, he had lived a very full life, a life entirely devoted to fado. He was undoubtedly the greatest songwriter in classic fado, and his recorded legacy includes unforgettable gems such as “Senhora do Monte,” “Eu Lembro-me de Ti,” “Há Festa na Mouraria,” “A Minha Freguesia,” and “A Casa da Mariquinhas,” among dozens of others. Marceneiro is an inescapable figure in the history of fado: his name will forever be synonymous with the style, and fadistas everywhere will always be indebted to him for his unparalleled contributions to fado.



Acknowledgments: I would like to thank my friends Ofélia Pereira and Vítor Duarte, the grandson of Alfredo Marceneiro, for all their help in the preparation of this article.

Links: For more on Alfredo Marceneiro in Portuguese, visit Fadocravo - Alfredo Marceneiro: A Viela, where you will find pictures, lyrics, and a video. The blog Lisboa No Guinness, published by Marceneiro's grandson, also features a great deal of information on this great fadista.

Notes

(1) In a letter to the author, February 4, 2009.
(2) Quoted in Eduardo Sucena. Lisboa, o fado e os fadistas. Lisbon: Edições Vega, 1992: 240.

Joaquim Cordeiro — Fados do Fado

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



Joaquim Cordeiro is a singer of the so-called velha guarda, that is, fado’s “old guard,” those legendary singers that brought widespread recognition to the style in the early years of the twentieth century. Eduardo Sucena lists him among the most important fadistas of the 1940s, noting that he was known as a comedian (1), and it is precisely on that side of Cordeiro’s artistry that this excellent volume of the Fados do Fado series (Movieplay, 1998) concentrates.

Cordeiro began his professional career in the southern Portuguese region of Algarve as a serious singer who favored songs charged with sentimentality. Upon his arrival in Lisbon in the 1940s, though, he switched gears and became one of the most successful representatives of humorous fado (fado jocoso or humorístico) and a regular at prestigious fado houses such as the “Retiro dos Marialvas” and the “Café Latino.” As a subgenre of fado, this fado jocoso never aims at debasing the musical quality of the style and its interpreters; rather, it uses fado as a vehicle for comedy and occasional social satire and criticism.

As this compilation of his records from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s clearly shows, Cordeiro is a master of the answer song, that is, a humorous version of a fado classic whose lyrics have been rewritten in order to create a satirical or downright funny effect. In this sense, Cordeiro is to fado something similar to what Homer & Jethro are to country music. By the 1960s, Cordeiro seems to have specialized in making this kind of records, and this CD offers a variety of outstanding examples of this practice. For instance, “Casa Bera” is a comic revision of Amália Rodrigues’s unforgettable “Uma Casa Portuguesa”; “Estranha Vida do Diabo” is a reworking of “Estranha Forma de Vida,” a fado classic written by Fernando Farinha and Alfredo Marceneiro; and “Zé Caloteiro” is a humorous reading of Carlos Dias’s popular “Fado do Cacilheiro.” The repertoire of Tony de Matos is also given the personal Cordeiro treatment in “Trabalho Vai-te Embora,” a particularly funny version of “Saudade Vai-te Embora,” and “Ó Rita Volta p’ra Casa,” a hilarious take on “O Tempo Volta para Trás,” one of de Matos’s biggest hits.

As evidenced by these recordings, Cordeiro’s voice, noisy and unpolished, sounds tailor-made for humorous fado, and he clearly knows how to infuse these funny lyrics with irony and satire. He proves to be a master of uptempo numbers, and his voice is always a pleasure to hear, coming loud and clear atop the rippling sounds of the Portuguese guitar, played in these sessions by such big names as António Chainho and Carlos Gonçalves. This compilation presents Cordeiro at his best, showing that he was an outstanding fadista with a very personal style and an unmistakable grin in his voice.



Acknowledgments: I would like to thank my friend Ofélia Pereira for her invaluable help with the research for this article. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of information available on Joaquim Cordeiro, yet Ofélia graciously agreed to share some of her old newspaper clippings about him, providing me with data to which I would never have access otherwise. Muito obrigado pela sua ajuda, minha cara amiga!

Notes

(1) Eduardo Sucena. Lisboa, o fado e os fadistas. Lisbon: Edições Vega, 1992: 195.

Tony de Matos, the Last of the Romantics

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.



Tony de Matos was more than a fado singer. Although it is true that, as Vítor Marceneiro has stated, he “had the soul of a fadista,” his figure as an artist transcends the realm of fado. With his charming voice and his very passionate, versatile singing style, Tony de Matos will always be remembered as one of Portugal’s foremost pop singers, the closest thing to a Portuguese crooner, a man who, throughout his long career, was able to conjure up an effective mixture of pop music and the dramatic nuances of traditional fado. Known for his romantic persona, his voice and stage presence captivated audiences throughout the Portuguese-speaking world, and his name is synonymous with class, gusto, and a very personal, intimate approach to the vocal art.

Born António Maria de Matos in 1924 into a family of traveling artists in Porto, he showed signs of an eagerness to entertain from a very early age, something of which his parents disapproved. Despite that fact, he relocated to Lisbon when he was 21 and, under the stage name of Tony de Matos, started to make a name for himself singing on radio and in fado houses. His first breakthrough came in 1950, when his record of “Cartas de amor” (“Love Letters”) became a big hit. Recorded in Madrid, Spain, the disc shows de Matos straying away from traditional fado and already adopting the very personal pop style for which he would become known. Similar records such as “Ao menos uma vez” (“At Least Once”) and “Trovador” (“Troubadour”) cemented his popularity and his image as a romantic crooner, and his success soon transcended the frontiers of his homeland, taking him to Africa and Brazil.



It was precisely in Brazil that he cut one of the most important records of his career, a four-song EP that included the hits “Só nós dois” (“Only the Two of Us”), “Procuro e não te encontro” (“I Search and I Can’t Find You”), “Vendaval” (“Storm”), and “Lado a lado” (“Side by Side”). The arrangements on these selections conjugate orchestral pop and traditional fado, showcasing de Matos’s powerful, intensely romantic voice. When the sides were released in Portugal in 1962, their success was unprecedented, and it prompted de Matos to return home and begin a triumphant run of live appearances and film roles. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, de Matos favored a more decidedly pop-oriented singing style perfectly suited to his voice, becoming associated with the nacional-cançonetismo, the mainstream pop music that found success during the dictatorial regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. However, he never forgot his fado roots, occasionally recording great fado tunes such as Fernando Farinha’s “Lugar vazio” (“Empty Spot”), Amália Rodrigues’s “Gaivota” (“Seagull”), and Alfredo Duarte’s “Estranha forma de vida” (“Strange Way of Life”).

Perhaps because of this association with the nacional-cançonetismo, de Matos’s career took a downturn after the Carnation Revolution of 1974. He came to the United States, where he resided for over eight years, and did not return to Portugal until 1985, when he made a comeback appearance at Lisbon’s Coliseu dos Recreios and went back into the studio to record new material. A mere four years later, in 1989, cancer took his life, leaving Portuguese music without a one-of-a-kind performer whose artistic legacy cannot be underestimated inasmuch as he contributed to the internationalization of Portuguese music.

Links: For more information on Tony de Matos in Portuguese and to listen to sound clips and view videos of his music, click on Fadocravo - Tony de Matos: Fica Comigo Saudade and Lisboa No Guinness: Tony de Matos.

Celeste Rodrigues — The Art of the Portuguese Fado

By Anton Garcia-Fernandez.


She is the younger sister of fado icon Amália Rodrigues and one of the oldest fadistas still active in Lisbon fado houses. Yet Celeste Rodrigues is much more than that: she is a woman who knows and understands fado, and The Art of the Portuguese Fado (Collectables Records, 2007) is a good example of that. The CD features twelve great performances in which Celeste's voice shines and her special sensibility for fado makes for a very enjoyable listening experience.

Born in Lisbon in 1923, Celeste Rodrigues's professional singing career did not start until 1951. As good a singer as she was, her name always stood in the larger-than-life shadow of her older sister Amália, with whom she remained very close through the years. Although she did have a few hits ("Fado Celeste," "Lenda das algas"), she did not record very extensively, preferring the warmth and intimacy of live performances. She spent some time in Canada in the 1970s, and throughout her career, she appeared at important concert halls in places like Paris and Rome. Unlike Amália, whose singing style was more commercial, Celeste will always be associated with a more traditional kind of fado, the so-called fado castiço: "It was [in Lisbon] that Portuguese ships set out in the fifteenth century to navigate the world," she says, "and it was in the heart of a sailor that fado was born." Ascribing to the typical dress code of the fadista, Celeste always wears her black shawl (the xaile) when she appears at a Lisbon fado house: "[I do so] because fado is folk music," she reflects, "and because, being shy, I need to cover every part of my body."

That shyness is apparent in her singing style, somewhat more subdued than that of Amália's. Celeste's voice is not as powerful, yet it is just as effective when it comes to transmitting all the feelings of yearning, longing, and sadness, all the saudade of fado. Although too short at merely twelve tracks, The Art of the Portuguese Fado is a good introduction to the artistry of Celeste Rodrigues and her very lyrical way of approaching fado. Perhaps in an effort to dissociate herself from Amália, Celeste always insisted on singing her own repertoire, and most of her best tunes were written by the songwriting team of Varela Silva and Santos Moreira. However, one of the tracks on this compilation, "Barco negro" ("Black Ship"), is closely associated with Amália. Celeste's reading of its beautiful, sad lyrics is sparse and soulful, a mixture of grief and resignation: "I know, my love / That you never really left / For everything around me / Tells me that you are always with me." Unfortunately, the liner notes do not provide any information about recording dates or session personnel, but overall, we must congratulate Collectables on this release. Hopefully they will see it fit to issue similar fado records in the near future.

Link: For more information on Celeste Rodrigues in Portuguese go to Fado Celeste, and to view a video of one of her songs, click on Fadocravo - Celeste Rodrigues: As Ruas.