Leva-me aos Fados (Lisboa part 1)

I was fortunate enough to be in Europe for a few weeks visiting my girlfriend Leslie in December and January and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to hop over to Portugal to immerse myself in Portuguese culture and Fado for the first week of the new year. After a long day of travel, and the largest NYE gathering I have ever been a part of later, I got to experience Fado from the source, Lisbon, Portugal. It was a great research opportunity and cultural experience to get to witness this music I have come to cherish. I feel lucky that even in my short visit I was able to witness Fado in several different settings in many of the historic neighborhoods of Lisbon; Alfama, Bairio Alto, and Mouraria. The experience acutely impacted how I perceive and perform Fado.

I have planned to write a few posts about my experience so I can focus on the many exciting experiences I had while in Lisbon. I feel that my experience even outside of the Fado houses is important to my Fado education and understanding of the people and culture behind the music. For this first post I figured I should share some visuals and recordings from my trip to give you a taste of the sights and sounds of Lisbon. Next week I will share more about my experience hearing live Fado for the first time and what I learned speaking with the musicians, bartenders, and even cab drivers during my nights out at Fado houses.

Cristo Rei (inspired by the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio) - This represents to me the most obvious symbol of similarities that I personally felt between the two cities, having spent a little time in Rio de Janeiro a few years ago. Obvious I know, because of the colonial history, but I felt a strong indescribable similarity between the two great cities. Reaching beyond the obvious visual similarities such as the Calçada Portuguesa (Portuguese pavement).

View from a nice park during my first walk around Lisbon. In the bottom corner you can see a tiny bit of the Calçada mentioned above.

The Museo do Fado in Alfama. More from inside next week!

The streets of Alfama - oldest district of Lisbon and home to many Fado houses.

Quite a beautiful city...our very inexpensive room near Bica.

To finish this post here is the first song I heard at Mario Pacheco's Clube de Fado in Alfama. He has a great line up of professional fadististas and musicians who perform there throughout the week.

More pictures from other parts of Lisbon to come next week!

 - Jordan.