Fado From Behind the Lens by Giuliano Mingucci

 

     I have a unique perspective on Fado and on the group Fado Novato as an audio engineer, photographer and videographer. I’m also a musician so I deeply appreciate the music from that perspective, but I haven’t studied it or learned about all of its heroes and tragedies. However, feeling those people and those emotions are inevitable when surrounded by the sounds, smells, flavors and people of Portugal. Having finished mixing and mastering Fado Novato’s first album I now find myself living the role of photographer and documentarian for the group’s travels through the country of Portugal as they navigate the paths of its traditional music. My job is to observe, record and relay the truth as it unfolds with as little interference as possible. The only problem is that I’m the only one in the group that speaks Portuguese fluently so my involvement has to be deeper than the proverbial “fly on the wall”. Combine this lingual understanding with my passion for music and my deep loving relationship with lead vocalist Shay Estes and suddenly you see that my relationship with Fado itself is deeply entangled.

   
     As I watch and record the band’s rehearsals, the performances all over town, the local drinks, food and people what do I capture over and over again? Passion. The music is not one of sadness, as is often presumed, but one of pure passion. It comes as no surprise that it’s a passionate pursuit for Beau, Jordan and Shay because the heritage of this music is rooted in passion for all things beautiful, sad, delicious, rambunctious and sometimes absolutely hilarious. The people are outgoing because they care. They care about their food, their drink, their art and their music. Most of all they care about each other. I don’t mean each other as Portuguese people, I mean each other as humans. It seems obvious to them that we’re all here sharing this time and space together and how better to express it than through music that’s fueled by pure emotion?



     Fado is about food, wine, longing, love...even sometimes architecture or cobblestone streets. Most of all, though, it’s about relationships. What are relationships without passion? Empty. Like the bottle of wine and the basket of bread we finished late last night. So, Fado fills the void. It fills our glasses and our plates and motivates us to start again; to fill our brains and our hearts with the things that have fueled mankind for centuries. It’s so nice to see that some of these essential elements are still alive and well somewhere in the world when sometimes in day-to-day American lives they can get so easily overlooked.


 
     If I’m able to convey even a fraction of that story then I feel like I too can enter the realm of the ever-coveted Fadista. A passionate storyteller with something innately human to convey.

-- Photos & Writing © Giuliano Mingucci/Fado Novato 2013

How to raise $16,000

While it is too early for a victory lap, I'm still really amazed at how this has all happened.

We started this fundraising project in November 2012 during Artist INC II, when Shay was a participant and I was a facilitator. Artist INC is an amazing entrepreneurial course designed for artists. The second level, Artist INC II, participants have to come up with a project, budget and a plan to implement during the eight week course. Shay put together the Lisbon project in which Shay, Jordan and myself will perform and study in Lisbon for the month of June and document the entire process.

At the end of the Artist INC II program there was a competition, where the participants pitch the idea in front of the audience. Shay was in the final three, but she didn't win the $1,500 prize. She did, however, receive her first donation of $100 at the after party and that was plenty of inspiration.

Video of Shay pitching our project

I can remember Shay telling me that she had put a budget together for all of our travel and costs for a month and it was around $15,000! This just didn't seem feasible at first. After our debut performance we introduced the project to the audience and received a sizable donation from the Seely Foundation. That's what put us over the tipping point and made us realize that this was indeed going to happen. We have also received many small donation of $25- $100 from patrons all over the country and we still get a few every week. So far, we bought our airline tickets and rented a fantastic apartment in the center of Lisbon.

Early on, we set up a tiered donation/gift level program that most people will be familiar with. It's very much like when one donates to public radio and receives a coffee mug but we give away CDs, tickets and prints. We've been able to accomplish this by utilizing a 501-C3 fiscal sponsor, Ko-Arts (Korey Ireland) so that people may receive a tax deduction for their donations. We solicited donations using email newsletters and snail mail letters on nice paper. The later being the more effective. Most addresses were taken from ticket pre-sales of our monthly fado shows around Kansas City. We also send out frequent updates and thank you letters.

We also printed business cards with QRC codes for donations

As far a crowd sourcing donations goes, I feel there's a bit of a "kickstarter fatigue" in fundraising in the local arts. I've heard it expressed that donors are tired of being burned by projects that never happen so we opted not to use the crowd funding model at this point. We feel something like kickstarter is probably a better fit for out upcoming Casa de Fado project when we return from Portugal. Kansas City needs a Fado house right?


We've also been quite fortunate to receive international exposure via PRI's “The World.” This sent our web stats through the roof. You can see below that on the day that the segment aired (May 1st) we were around 11,000 hits. The radio segment resulted in many donations coming from around the country as well as many new friends

By far the most effective device for Fado Novato is something we invented called the "anti-band meeting". I'm sure most of you know how awful business meetings can be. Whenever we met, we actually tended to socialize more than talk business. In the anti-band meeting we set up a conference call on our smart phones and open a shared google drive with a dated document outlining the topics that need to be taken care of (fundraising, travel, concerts, repertoire etc,). Each of us is assigned tasks from these topics and the ones that aren't completed are bumped up to the next week’s anti-band meeting. I've been in a lot of musical projects and this is nothing short of a miracle. We simply get things done - quickly. The meetings never go over an hour and we all do them from our homes in front of computers so no commute.

Here's an example of an anti-band meeting and our google drive directory.

It's been a mountain of work but we've all grown tremendously from this process. It doesn't seem like there's anything we can't accomplish. Although making an effective Portuguese press releases last week almost killed us.

- Beau Bledsoe

Fado Guitar to Guitarra

Learning the Portuguese Guitar (Jordan Shipley)


Of all the exciting things that have been happening lately with Fado Novato, one stand out for me these days is beginning to learn more about the feel and technique of playing the Portuguese guitar, or Guitarra. With its unique, and at first baffling tuning, and "backwards" right hand technique (in relation to classical guitar fingerstyle technique) it was quite a challenge at first. For you guitarists out there; get ready to get used to fluttering your i finger up and down while being out in front of your thumb (feels so strange at first).

I have spent a great deal of time learning the cavaquinho and bandolim (mandolin), both traditional Brazilian instruments for chorinho and samba, with my project Mistura Fina here in Kansas City. Both were challenging at first because of the scale of the instruments and the tuning of the mandolin, but I was able to wrap my head around them fairly quickly since I had been playing many styles of Brazilian music for several years and I knew the role of the cavaquinho and bandolim well before learning to actually play the instruments. My experience with improvisational music from my jazz guitar training, and thorough knowledge of the guitar fretboard also helped with learning the geography of other similar plucked string instruments with different tunings. It has been a somewhat similar experience for me with the Portuguese guitar since I have been primarily playing the Spanish guitar in Fado Novato and learning how to interact with the Portuguese guitar parts that Beau is playing before learning those parts myself. However, there were far more materials (books and online resources) and easily accessible recordings available to guide my study of Brazilian music. Not to mention I had been playing Brazilian music for half a decade before I branched out to cavaquinho and bandolim. And neither the cavaquinho nor bandolim have any strings tuned in seconds like the Portuguese Guitar (Lisbon tuning low to high strings DABEAB).

In the Beginning

It may not have been the most productive way to go about it but I began with Carlos Paredes' composition "Verdes Anos," and one of my favorite new fados from Ana Moura, "Os Buzios." Those two songs inspired me to pick up the instrument in the first place so I was determined to make them work. Both really helped to break me in on the instrument, but I am now going back and learning parts for more tradition fado forms like fado menor, fado Mouraria, and others.


Off to Lisboa

I am indescribably excited for the opportunity to travel to the motherland of Fado and further my study on the Portuguese guitar and Spanish guitar parts. My travel to Brazil made a lasting impact on me and I expect this experience to be just as eye opening and humbling as my travel to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro! I was lucky to have the chance to visit Lisbon for a week this past January but I barely got a taste of the city. I can not wait to have more time to get to know Lisbon, Coimbra, O Porto and other important cities where this beautiful urban folk music is thriving, and bring some of that energy and inspiration back here to Kansas City.

 - Jordan

Shawl Collecting: The Kindness of Strangers (and of Friends)

I am a scarf junkie.  I will wear pashmina when it's ninety degrees outside.  I like to buy them when I travel abroad, so I can take a piece of gorgeous places home with me.  I like to buy them from local stores, so I can take a piece of home with me abroad.  I am a full-out addict.  I love it most when I get them as gifts, because it's like wearing a hug from the one who gave it.  Thus, when we first undertook the project and the research, I was giddy about the shawl thing.  It seemed like the natural next step in my scarf obsession!

"What's the shawl thing?" you may ask.  Well, I will explain.  Long ago in the Alfama district of Lisbon, there lived a prostitute and fadista named Maria Severa Onofriana, or simply A Severa.  She was beautiful, talented, and beloved of the Count of Vimioso.  At this time, Fado was still the music of the working and lower classes, not of nobility.  A Severa died a tragic death of tuberculosis at a young age, and the legend says that the Count was unbearably distraught and mourned her death very publicly.  Many credit the Count's affection for Severa as popularizing Fado with the upper classes.  In truth, the love story is so moving and tragic - it just smacks of La traviata - that it was immortalized in a popular book in by Júlio Dantas.  That book was turned into very popular stage play in 1901, which was then turned into the first ever Portuguese language sound film in 1931.  All of this brought Fado into the limelight of Lisbon.

"But Shay," you may be saying, "what does any of this have to do with you collecting shawls?"  Patience, meus amigos.  I am getting there.  Severa was famous for not only wearing the classic black lace shawl herself, but tradition holds that all female fadistas wear the shawl in eternal mourning of her death.   (There is a beautiful scene in Carlos Saura's Fados in which fadista Catarina Moura sings the story to a crowd in period clothing.  I'd post the YouTube video, but I cannot find one with English subtitles.  Anyway, if you're following this blog and you haven't seen the movie yet, it's time to bite the bullet, get a bottle of wine and a box of tissues and tuck in.  It's on Netflix.  Just do it already.  It's worth it.)

Back to shawls, and my collecting of them.  I have been borrowing a flamenco manton from Beau's wife (who is very kind and a great dancer, by the way) since our first concert.  I knew this could not continue forever, so I set about seeing what other contemporary fadistas were wearing.  I would hate to get to Lisbon and find that I am already out of fashion.  After much research, I can tell you that these girls are getting pretty creative with the concept of shawl.  Any Google image search of Mariza or Ana Moura will show some pretty varied options.  Along with gorgeous, updated versions of the traditional shawl in new shapes or colors, they're using shrugs and scarves, wraps and short jackets; Jordan said he saw Cuca Roseta in a blazer at a club one night!  I knew I needed to procure some impressive and distinctive pieces to keep up.  Enter Laura Issac.

Laura is a good friend and an amazing interdisciplinary artist.  I have been working with her husband, James, in The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City for years, but just started working with Laura this year, as - of all things - a model for her artistic clothing and knitting project line, 10kHrs. Laura has made me some beautiful pieces in the past, but when she offered to design and make me a shawl, I knew I was in for something special.  She's concocted a hybrid of sorts; a glove that turns into a shawl.  The gorgeous yarn she selected is light as air, and on it's way to KC.  It should be ready just before we leave.  This is a sketch of the piece.  You can see why I am so excited.

In the meantime, I have been gifted two beautiful shawls, one long, lace, and Egyptian from my good friend Linda, and another airy, velvet one given on a whim last weekend by my new friend Michelle.  She literally took it off her own shoulders and gave it to me.  I also picked up a loose-fitting lace shift that is working nicely, so I'm feeling set in the shawl department.  (That is, of course, not to say that I will not be acquiring more in Lisbon. I'm just set for NOW.)

However, I still felt like something was missing.  I saw a photo that got me thinking about Coimbra fadistas.  Coimbra is home to a large university, and the fadistas (which for years were only men and mostly students) dress in the academic uniform of a dark robe, cape and dark leggings.  Somewhere, I had seen an old black-and-white still from a film of men and women in the open black robes, singing and laughing together while playing Coimbra Fado.  On a recent trip to West 18th street, an area of KC filled with wonderful local shops and boutiques, I instantly found what I had been missing.  International designer Hadley Johnson keeps a small storefront there, and hanging in the back, was the most gorgeous black kimono I had ever seen, reminiscent of the beautiful black robes of Coimbra.  It was outside of the price range of a girl saving for a month-long trip to Portugal, but Hadley saw how much I loved it and offered me an incredible deal.  I was just blown away by her kindness.  I get to go pick it up tomorrow!

When I think about these women, what they have done for me, and their unbelievable generosity, I see it as a parable for all the amazing folks who have reached into their hearts and their pockets to support this project.  I am honored and humbled at the response to our fundraising campaign; never in a million years did I begin to imagine it possible, and you all have made it so.  This music is the music of community, it is meant to be shared and played together.  It is fitting, then, that this project has been one made successful by not just Fado Novato, but by all of you.  Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart.  I can scarcely type this without crying to think of how grateful I am to everyone who has helped make this dream of our come true.  When I wear these shawls in Lisbon, they will truly feel like an embrace from each and every one of you.

Most Sincerely,

Shay Estes

Yet another guitarra...

I am a very instrument driven musician. I have a very well worn behavioral pattern when it come to learning a new style involving a new instrument. I'll often test the waters with an experimental instrument and sometime later, when it's evident that I'm going to be playing in the new style for a long time, I'll take the plunge and purchase a professional level instrument. With this fado project I've had the great pleasure to work with the local Kansas City luthier, Dave Bucher. His interpretation of the Portuguese guitar is quite amazing. It follows the tradition but has many of it's own innovations and sound qualities. Kerry Stanley donated an old guitarra from the 60's that is roughly built but a blast to play. I love to have it hanging on the wall in my studio so I can just grab it when ever I like. My most resent aquisition is from the Portuguese guitar builder António Martins. I found his work via his blog artedaguitarraportuguesa.blogspot.com which is filled with beautiful photos by his son-in-law Hugo Macedo. Antonio was very helpful and writes in excellent English (my Portuguese is pretty awful) and he is obviously enamored with process of building the guitarra portuguesa. I've had this instrument for about 24 hours and its starting to open up and reveal it's sound. It's quite aesthetically beautiful. traditional with hints of modernism. The rosette is made from a circle of rosewood "heartwood" that forms a star pattern around the soundhole. It has many of the the soulful qualities I love about hand made instruments. It is slightly asymmetrical in places and you can see marks from wood tools if you look very closely. It has also been French polished (very time consuming) and features a set of hand made tuners that appear to be made from brushed steel rather than traditional brass. This really helps with the overall weight and balance of the instrument. It feels like I'm holding an oud rather than a guitar. The intonation is very good and the neck is much smaller than I've ever seen. It is much easier to employ the thumb over techniques that are so often used in this style of playing. The sound is very even, refined and projects easily. I look forward to getting to know her over the next few months. A really professional instrument made by a great artist. - Beau Bledsoe

102 forms of traditional Fado found...

Exciting new blog find:
http://fadotradicional.blogspot.com

We haven't yet had the chance to spend much time shifting through the site (and it is in Portuguese), but if you take a look at the right hand side of the webpage you will see 102 links, each to several recordings of a different style of traditional Fado!

We currently have around six songs that we know are forms from this particular list (Fado da defesa, Fado menor, Fado corrido, Fado mouraria, Fado Lopes, Fado menor do porto), but we could be performing more without knowing it yet. Where do we go from here? This is what we signed up for!

It is a part of our mission to pull together this level of resources for the Portuguese language-impaired English speaking Fado aficionados, and soon we hope to have a similar list with recorded examples going on our site for the styles we learn and perform.

We would love to hear from others who have found similar resources so that we can include links here on our blog. Please be in touch! So much to learn...

~ Jordan

Fado Forms (Fado Menor do Porto)

Jordan came home with an iphone full of live fado video from Lisbon last month. I really liked this one in particular. David Mendonça from Fado in the U.S. on facebook finally helped solve the mystery as to which fado form it is. We will most definitely learn this fado.

Here's the video from Jordan's iphone

Sónia Santos

Camané

Celeste Rodrigues !!!!