MARIZA

Isabel Pinto
MARIZA
FADO TRADICIONAL
Has it been ten years since Mariza came, seemingly from nowhere, and changed the
way people looked at Fado all over the world?
Her striking looks, no-nonsense attitude, stage savvy and soaring voice brought Fado,
Lisbon's melancholy popular song, out of its previous fusty closet. Mariza propelled
Fado to a new international stardom.
The facts speak for themselves. Four acclaimed studio albums; countless world tours
and rapturously received shows, with performances at venues such as New York City's
Carnegie Hall, London's Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House or the Paris
Olympia; three BBC Awards for Best European Act, among many others, plus two
nominations for the Latin Grammy Awards.
Now, more than one million records in sales and 32 Platinum awards, Mariza comes
full circle.
On her 2001 debut album, “Fado em Mim”, she said “Fado is in me”. The follow-ups
“Fado Curvo” (2003), “Transparente” (2005) and “Terra” (2008) moved the goalposts,
showing her modern, refreshing approach to this centenary song closely identified
with the Portuguese capital.
Now, as if to celebrate the tenth anniversary of her journey, Mariza returns to her
roots in “Fado Tradicional”.
In her fifth studio album, she unashamedly embraces the origins of the genre: the
time-honoured standard melodies that have been passed on through decades from
singer to singer.
It is said that no Fado singer can ever be a “true” Fado singer until she or he tackles
these classics and makes them unmistakably her/his own.
Such is the challenge Mariza faces head-on in “Fado Tradicional”, by taking on Fado's
classic melodies , already sung by so many of the genre's influential stylists.
And Mariza passes the test with flying colours, as befits someone who was steeped in
Fado since her childhood in the old Lisbon neighborhood of Mouraria, and who carried
its emotion inside her ever since.
Mariza may have travelled the world these past ten years, but at heart she remains a
Lisbon girl – and to hear her sing the classics like she does here is to realize how much
she has moved on and grown up without ever losing her unique identity.
Mariza's unique blend of the old and the new, as Fado historian Rui Vieira Nery writes
on the album's liner notes, is the best evidence that she may have come full circle, but
this is not a step back. Rather the realization that you need to know where you come
from to understand where you're going to.
That is what Mariza does in “Fado Tradicional”: she builds something new within the
confines of the tradition, proving her mettle as a true Fado singer.
Yes, it has been ten years already – and the journey continues.
Released in Portugal last November, “Fado Tradicional” has already gone platinum in
her home country – and it's a matter of time until the same happens everywhere else.
Crítica de Música
O triunfante regresso
de Mariza à taberna
Em Terra (2008), Mariza acentuou
infl uências do fl amenco, jazz
e música africana, que já
anteriormente se faziam sentir
na sua carreira. Fado Tradicional,
disco lançado ontem e apresentado
em estreia mundial no Porto, tem
um título muito auto-explicativo:
trata-se de um back to basics,
do regresso da intérprete à sua
infância e adolescência e aos fados
que ouvia na taberna dos pais
(melodias tradicionais como o Fado
alfacinha, Fado Vianinha ou o Fado
Zé António).
Mariza dirá, justificadamente,
que nunca abandonou a matriz
fadista. Concordamos, mas há
claramente uma faceta mais
conservadora: face à anterior
digressão, foi dispensado o
piano e o trompete de Simon
James e o protagonismo do
percussionista Vicky Marques é
muito menor. Ironicamente, foram
as intervenções do convidado
Artur Batalha que nos puseram
de volta à terra: o fado de Mariza
nunca será tradicional como o
deste fadista “castiço” dos seus
tempos de infância.
Há uma
sofisticação, uma orientação pop
nas melodias e um estilo próprio –
evidente, por exemplo, nas pausas
que imprime nas canções – que
nunca lhe permitirão carimbar-se
com esse rótulo. Naturalmente,
o intuito da cantora não é esse,
mas sim revisitar o passado,
sem abdicar daquilo que a torna
única. Tendo em conta esse
objectivo, apresentou-se de forma
irrepreensível e mostrou estar,
provavelmente, no auge da sua
carreira.
No palco (quase sempre mantido
na penumbra), o cenário criado
pelo arquitecto Frank Gehry
procura recriar o intimismo de uma
casa de fados. O autor do Museu
Guggenheim, em Bilbau, imaginou
este dispositivo em Outubro de
2007, para um dos concertos da
portuguesa no Walt Disney Hall, em
Los Angeles.
Atrás dos músicos estavam sete
mesas, ocupadas por gente de
carne e osso com quem Mariza
procurou frequentemente interagir.
Para além disso, apenas uma série
de discretas telas como pano de
fundo. O dispositivo surpreende a
princípio, mas não consegue criar
calor humano numa sala tão ampla
como o Coliseu do Porto. Aliás, a
própria fadista já anunciou que esta
digressão é destinada a palcos mais
pequenos.
Voltando à música, importa
referir que Fado Tradicional foi
passado em revista na íntegra,
sendo vitaminado por alguns dos
temas mais conhecidos da carreira
da intérprete, como Primavera,
Chuva, Cavaleiro monge e Meu fado
meu (seleccionados de acordo com
as reacções que foi colhendo no
Facebook, como revelou em pleno
concerto). Aliás, parte do sucesso
de Mariza deveu-se ao facto de ter
intercalado de forma inteligente
canções mais antigas com os novos
temas, bem como fados mais festivos com
outros melancólicos: a
passagem de Dona Rosa (poema de
Fernando Pessoa no Fado bailarico
de Alfredo Marceneiro) para Ai, esta
pena de mim (de Amália Rodrigues)
é disso exemplo.
Quando dizíamos que Mariza
se encontra em grande forma,
referíamo-nos ao facto de nos
parecer mais equilibrada, até
um pouco mais contida – esteve
tão à vontade nos fados mais
expansivos e corridinhos, como
nos mais introvertidos e tristes e
tão desenvolta nos agudos como
nos sussurros. Por exemplo, em
Fado Primavera, pareceu pesar
cada palavra, a sua voz teve a
quantidade certa de grão, angústia
e solenidade.
Num concerto em crescendo,
o encore revelou-se apoteótico:
primeiro, houve direito a fado sem
amplifi cação, à boca do palco;
depois, Mariza atirou-se a Ó gente
da minha terra, provocando a
comoção generalizada. Circulando
pela plateia, cumprimentou
dezenas de pessoas e terá deixado a
maioria dos espectadores com um
arrepio na espinha. Naquele refrão,
é difícil não sentir a nostalgia da
portugalidade.
João Pedro Barros
Mariza apresenta Fado Tradicional
no Coliseu dos Recreios, em Lisboa,
na segunda e na terça-feira (21h30)
PAULO PIMENTA
Mariza
Coliseu do Porto. Quinta-feira, 26 de
Novembro, 21h30 Sala cheia
in Público 27/11/2010
Mariza’s triumphant return to the Taverna
João Pedro Barros in Público 27/11/2010
In Terra (2008), Mariza accentuated the flamenco, jazz and African influences that we could
already see in her work. Fado Tradicional, released yesterday and presented for the first time
ever in Oporto, has a self explaining title: it’s back to basics, the return of the singer to her
childhood and adolescence and to the fados she heard in her parents Taverna (traditional
melodies like Fado Alfacinha, Fado Vianinha or Fado Zé António).
Mariza will rightfully say she has never left the fado path. We agree, but clearly there is a more
conservative side: comparing to the former tour, the piano and trumpet of Simon James were
dismissed, and the relevance of the percussionist Vicky Marques is much smaller. Ironically it
was the intervention of the guest Artur Batalha that brought us back to earth: Mariza’s fado
will never be traditional like the one from this singer, part of her childhood years. There is
sophistication, a pop orientation in the melodies, a personal style – very clear, for example, in
the pauses she inputs in her songs - that will never allow her to label herself as traditional.
Naturally, that is not her intention, but to go back to her roots without giving away what
makes her unique. Having that in mind, she presented herself irreprehensible and proofed to
be, probably, at the peak of her career.
On stage (almost always kept in shadows), the set created by the architect Frank Gehry tries to
recreate the intimacy of a Fado Taverna. The author of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, created
this set in October of 2007, for one of Mariza’s shows at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los
Angeles. Behind the musicians there were seven tables with real people, with whom Mariza
interacted frequently. Besides that just discrete canvas as backdrops. The set is surprising at
first but it fails to give us the human warmth of proximity in such a large venue as Coliseu do
Porto is. Furthermore, the singer as already announced this tour was thought of for smaller
venues.
Going back to the music: it’s important to say that Fado Tradicional was showed and it had a
bust of vitamins by the singers’ better known songs like Primavera, Chuva, Cavaleiro Monge
and Meu Fado Meu (she revealed during the show these themes were selected according to
the requests on facebook). Part of the success of the show was due to the smart combination
of old and new songs, as well as the melancholic with the festive ones: going from Dona Rosa
(Fernando Pessoa’s poem in Alfredo Marceneiro’s Fado Bailarico) to Ai, esta pena de mim
(from Amália Rodrigues) is a good example of that.
When we say that Mariza is in very good shape, we mean that she’s more balanced, a little
more controlled – she is so at ease with faster and more open fados as with the more closed
and sad ones, and so nimble in the high notes as in the whispered words. In Primavera, for
instance, she seemed to weight every word; her voice had the right grain, anguish and
solemnity.
In a gaining concert, the encore was an apotheosis: first there was an unplugged fado at stage
front, then Mariza thrown herself to Ó gente da Minha Terra, provoking the generalized
commotion. Walking among the audience she greeted dozens of people and has certainly left
them with a chill down the spine. On that chorus is difficult not to feel the nostalgia of being
Portuguese.