In 1987 Paul Vernon finds a pile of old fado 78s in a second-hand shop in San Francisco. This was apparently a very good collection because Paul runs off to Lisbon in pursuit of fado a few weeks after this magical find. The result is the book A History of Portuguese Fado published in 1998. It is highly recommended reading in Donald Cohen's Fado Portugues: Songs From the Soul of Portugal as one of the only comprensive histories of fado in English so naturally I had to find it. Our beloved fado librarian Libby Hanssen found the book via inter-library loan and I just finished reading this fantastic resource this week while trapped inside during a midwestern snowstorm.
Libby Hanssen - Librarian extraordinaire
The book begins with a thorough chronology of the History of Portugal and ends with a very useful list of important fado addresses in Portugal and around the world. This book is an adventure waiting to happen.
Contents from "A History of Portuguese Fado"
I found one character particularly interesting. A guitarist known as "Armandinho". He was the inventor of the contra-canto (counter song) style of guitar playing that I find so interesting. The fado guitarist accompanies the singer by floating about within the melody in a quasi out-of-time fashion utilizing florid ornaments and filling in the spaces between vocal lines with improvised counter lines.
from "A History of Portuguese Fado"
Here's a recording of Armandinho accompanying fado legend Filipe Pinto
Here's a solo recording of Armandinho's "Variations in A major"
I've been trying to wrap my head around the dizzying array of fado forms so I'm starting this "forms of fado" topic to investigates each one. Hopefully I'll know what most of them are before the big trip to Libson in June. I've been studying flamenco guitar since '93 and that tradition also have many forms called "palos" that one has to familiarize themselves with in order to even start to understand it. I've been learning a popular fado called "fado lopes" that is often played as a solo for the guitarra. It seems that many of the forms are named after their creators so I'm assuming there was a great guitarist by the name of José Lopes that first came up with this set of variations over E minor. That's what google has taught me anyway. As with flamenco, I'm sure there are many that would argue over who did what when but that's what makes it so fun. You need something to talk about over drinks. -Beau Bledsoe
Here's one version from a secondary school
Here's another from a fado house in Alfama (cell phone)
and another from brilliant guitarist Filipe De Sousa
Every year our wonderful hometown of Kansas City births a fresh new crop of jazz musicians that magically materialize around the various jam sessions in town. For these young lions, one of their first steps to becoming a competent jazz musician is to have the jazz “standards” under your belt - memorized and confident in multiple keys. The standards are the set of songs that every jazz musician needs to know. These of course change over time but there are a hundred or so that remain at the core of the repertoire.
It has become evident that there is a parallel set of fado “standards” and we really need to know what they are. We ask all the fado enthusiasts out there to please help us by submitting recommendations for our fado standards list by either commenting on this blog post or writing us an email.
I’ll start the list with the contents of our most important recourse, Fado Portugues: Songs From the Soul of Portugal by Donald Cohen
1. Lisboa Antigua
2. Coimbra
3. Ai, Mouraria
4. Por Morrer uma Andorinha
5. O Embuçado
6. A Rosinha dos Limões
7. Vinte Anos
8. E Foi-se a Mocidade
9. Meu Bairro Alto
10. Valeu a Pena
11. Rosa Enjeitada
12. Fado Hilário
13. Da Janela do Meu Quarto
14. A Moda das Tranças Pretas
15. Júlia Florista
16. O Pagem
17. Bons Tempos
18. Fado da Defesa
19. Lisboa Não Sejas Francesa
20. Há muito quem Cante o Fado
21. Lisboa É Sempre Lisboa
22. Fado Trinta e Um
23. Tamanquinhas
24. Ah, Qunata melancholia
25. Maria Madalena
26. Minha Má foi Cigarreira
First off all, sorry for the delay for my second “Portugal
Experience” post, but here is number 2 - Alfama!
In my all too short visit to Lisbon during the first week of
2013 I regret I did not have much time to explore many (most) of the great Fado
houses, even within Lisbon, let alone any in Coimbra, O Porto, or elsewhere in
Portugal and surrounding islands, each with their own important contributions
to Fado. However I fell in love with the neighborhood I was most consistently
pointed towards when asking Portuguese friends and others who had visited
Lisbon before, Alfama. I was able to experience Fado Vadio
(Neighborhood/directly translated bohemian, fado, to the best of my knowledge)
to the professional and highly trained fadistas at Mario Pacheco’s Clube de
Fado.
Here is one of my favorite performances I heard while in
Portugal. Possibly “Fado da Heranca” (but not completely sure) performed by
Cristina at Clube de Fado. Was the
last set of the night around 1:45am and really made an impact on me. Even after
the surprise of walking in to hear Cuca Roseta singing the song she performed for the Carlos Saura "FADO" movie (which is what introduced me to fado in the first place, sometimes life comes full circle!). Cuca Roseta performing “A Rua do Capelao” can be found in my previous blog
post.
Cristina @ Mario Pacheco’s Clube de Fado in Alfama
Cuca Roseta & Miguel Capucho @ Clube de Fado
Here are some more photos from wondering and getting lost
around Alfama:
Inside of Clube de Fado during set break:
I started my first night of fado at Tasco de Chico in Barrio
Alto before heading to Clube de Fado in Alfama. It was a very interesting experience. To be completely honesty I was not very impressed with the quality of the music and
vocal performances at the venue in Barrio Alto, but the atmosphere was very unique in relation to any other
small/dive bars I have ever visited anywhere in the world.
On another note, my experience at
Tasco de Chico in Alfama my last night in Lisbon was a different experience. My
girlfriend Leslie and I both had a great time being forced into meeting many
other people at the bar because of the picnic style table seating, and even
with the language barrier the set up of the bar got us talking and interacting with those around us.
That night at Tasco de Chico also included several incredible performances by amateurs, in the best sense
of the word! Once I get the audio files converted I will make my third post with the recorded examples I have from the fado vadio bars I visited!
