Mariza, Queen of the new fado, is singing in town this Friday. It may not be too late to get tickets. For the benefit of Cool Cleveland readers who don’t know (enough about) fado or why Mariza should be crowned Queen of the new Fado, we talked to the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art's VIVA! & Gala Around Town series, Massoud Saidpour, who booked Mariza. We decided to let him lay it out:

CC: What is fado?

Massound Saidpour: Fado means “fate” or “destiny.” It is a Portuguese style of music that dates back to the 19th century and became the national music of Portugal the same way flamenco is for the Spanish and tango is for the Argentineans. Then in the 70’s it was really forgotten until Amalia Rodriguez revived it. After Rodriguez there arose a new generation of fadistas and they began adding their own touches so the music of someone like Mariza is very much alive with new influences and new blood.

What’s the dominant emotion of fado?

It’s a very, very emotional music because at the heart of fado is a word, “saudade,” which means “missing,” “longing”. It’s a longing for something you can never have, for example a lost love. The memories are there, you can’t get them out of your system, so you sing, and that song becomes very powerful because it has a powerful human emotion, longing, behind it.

Ninety minutes of sad songs sounds like a downer.

No, it’s really levitating. I can’t describe it. It’s something you have to experience. Especially with Mariza. She’s a unique performer. We’ve presented many fado singers here as part of the Viva! series and she is by far my favorite. There’s something about her, her stage presence, the music, and the Portuguese guitar. You can listen to it forever and never get tired of it – at least, that’s how I experience it.

As it happens, we wholeheartedly agree. We’d been listening to fado for a while when we saw this young woman on an album cover and thought, “she’s too young to sing fado; what can she know?” - but we liked her singing a lot and have since listened to everything of hers we could find. So, tell us about Mariza.

Mariza was actually born in Mozambique to a Portuguese Dad and an African, Mozambiquan Mom, so she definitely has African blood. She moved to Portugal when she was 3. Her father was a fado aficionado who listened to it a lot, and since age 5 she began really liking it and singing it. Then when she was a teenager, with peer pressure and people thinking fado is an old-fashioned music she dropped fado and began singing jazz and pop. But her love and longing for this music crept back again, until she began singing in the fado bars, building a name for herself within the local community.

She did her first CD, really, as a tribute to her dad, and this CD became a huge hit in Portugal, selling a lot of copies, and she became an overnight celebrity in Portugal. Then she did all these gigs in big concert halls – in Moscow, Sydney Opera -- she sold out Carnegie Hall, Theatre de la Ville in Paris, and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London – a very strange ride to fame, and very quick. The interesting thing is, the fado aficionados also approve of her very much, even though she experiments with different kinds of music.

Is Mariza a full-fledged pop star?

MS: Mariza is not yet a household name in America, and actually I’m glad she’s not, but people interested in music are becoming more and more aware of her and her CD’s are doing better and better.

Tell us more about the instrumental accompaniment for fado.

Traditionally, fados are with just 2 guitars, the acoustic and the Portuguese guitar. The acoustic guitar is the same 6-string that they use in flamenco. The Portuguese guitar is a little bit pear-shaped – I think it takes influence from the oud of the Middle East and the lute of the western world – it has 12 double strings and it has a twangy sound to it that’s a little like the banjo or the tar, the Persian lute, and it’s very sweet when it’s played well by these fado musicians.

Mariza is also bringing an acoustic bass player, a percussionist, and also a pianist who plays the trumpet as well. I think the piano and trumpet reflect the jazz influence in her concerts. For this tour, I believe, she’s doing Charles Chaplin’s ‘Smile.’

CMA is also showing a fado film directed by Carlos Saura.

Yeah, this is a big deal, actually, and Mariza is one of the main performers in the film. I think it’s going to be a great movie.

Writers' notes: (We’re longtime fans of everything directed by Carlos Saura, so we’re understandably excited over this first opportunity to see ‘Fados,’ which showed at film festivals in the US and Canada as early as 2007 but only went into general US release on 3/6/09. Judging from the trailer on You Tube and early reviews, ‘Fados’ is much like Saura’s ‘Flamenco’ and ‘Tango,’ a series of musical vignettes shot on a soundstage. Gorgeous production values, lots of dancing, and a love of both the music and movie making can be expected as part of the standard Saura treatment.)

We’re told Mariza’s North American tour performs 46 shows in 50 days.

Yes. She’s reaching a huge audience.

Anything else our readers need to know?

People shouldn’t be afraid of this. It’s going to be a very enjoyable experience.

Mariza appears at 7:30PM this Friday, April 10 at the Ohio Theatre. For group and student rates and to purchase tickets, go to http://www.clevelandart.org/tickets or call 888-CMA-0033.

Fados directed by Carlos Sauras and featuring Mariza is presented as part of the CMA Film Series at CMA’s Morley Lecture Hall on Friday, April 17 at 7PM and Sunday April 19 at 1:30PM. Tickets are available in exactly the same manner.

By the way, Some of the best is yet tocome for CMA’s VIVA! series: Basil Twist’s Japanese puppets, and Goran Bregovic’s Wedding and Funeral Orchestra. VIVA! erformances in PlayhouseSquare and Cleveland Play House are good news for those who make plans at the last minute, since these larger venues are less likely to sell out. Early birds will benefit from something called "50/20," which gives the first 50 people who call for tickets a 20% discount. Phone the CMA Box Office for details at 888-CMA-0033.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsaATearthlink.net
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