Music |
Mariza
By
Published: Sep 30, 2009
Category:
World
She sobs. Sighs. Screams. Spits. This isn’t music, you think — it’s spiritual begging, desire pressed against the inadequacy of language. If Joe Cocker could sing the Portuguese blues, he’d have been huge in Lisbon.
Mariza is a smarty. She is a blend: African and Portuguese. Fado too is a blend of influences: Gypsy, Jewish, Arabic and Andalusian. But traditional fado is of limited appeal, if you are not in its cult — it needed some broadening to appeal to the World Music audience. Mariza has provided that.
She came along after the 1999 death of Portugal’s greatest fado singer. She was immediately successful. And, almost immediately, she began tweaking her repertoire for the international market. By 2004, she was singing with Sting at the Olympics.
Of Mariza’s many CDs, the place to start is “Concerto em Lisboa.” Recorded in 2005, it’s a return to her country’s traditional music; for foreigners, it comes with a bonus DVD that explores fado and makes Lisbon look irresistible. [To buy “Concerto em Lisboa” from Amazon, click here. To buy the MP3 download of “Concerto em Lisboa” from Amazon, click here.]
As for Mariza herself, I’m hugely impressed. Whether singing with just a guitarist behind her or an orchestra, she’s completely in command. You may think you see that she’s gone to school on Annie Lenox. Or that she’s a mainland version of Cape Verde’s Cesaria Evora. Or, with that exceptionally blond hair, that she’s learned a thing or two from Madonna. But in the end, she’s the one who has you on your knees.
