Continuing the tradition of occasionally ‘cheating’ a bit and featuring non-Brazilian music here at BMoF, this week I’m posting a couple of songs by the Portuguese band Madredeus. They are very well known in the world music circuit, among other things as a consequence of their prominent role in Wim Wenders’ Lisbon Story (1994). Their music is heavily inspired by traditional Portuguese music (including but not restricted to Fado), in particular the traditional melancholic themes of Portuguese music: sailing, traveling, longing, nostalgia (saudade!). The voice of Madredeus, the wonderful singer Teresa Salgueiro, left the band in 2007, and now pursues a solo career.
I must say that I am in fact a big fan of their 1990s work, not having followed them much since their 2001 album Movimento. But the ‘classical’ Madredeus years of Ainda (1994) and O Paraiso (1997) are a constant presence in my iPod (others may think that their true classical years are those of the first half of the 1990s, when their music remained closer to traditional genres). I’ve been fortunate enough to see them live once in 2001, in Rotterdam, in what was (together with Milton Nascimento at the Blue Note in NYC (2005)) the most amazing, emotional concert I’ve ever attended. Perhaps because it took place in a concert hall for classical music, the sound was pure and dense at the same time: every layer of it could be discerned, and Teresa Salgueiro’s voice was otherworldly, ethereal and textured all at once.
I am posting ‘Haja o que houver’ from O Paraiso (1997), ‘Ainda’ straight from Lisbon Story, and ‘Ecos na Catedral’ from Movimento (2001). (‘Haja o que houver’ is particularly dear to me, as it was sung by my aunt, classical singer Malu Lafeta, at my wedding back in 2002.)
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