By The Modesto Kid
I come not to share my own playlist but to link to another man’s. I would not be able to put a good playlist of fado together anyway, since I know hardly anything of the music; but luckily there is one pre-existing. I recommend it! It’s Carlos Saura’s 2007 movie “Fado” — a series of videos of bands playing and dancing to the wide variety of the music. (I think not all of the songs are strictly speaking fado, but they all go together miraculously well.) Trailer:
The high point for me might have been Catarina Moura interpreding “The Fado of Severa” — a funeral paean to a dead fadista — or possibly NBC, SP and WILSON rapping an homage to Alfredo Marceneiro — or, or — the movie is just absolutely full of high points. Lila Downs interprets “Foi na Travessa da Palha” with Patrick de Bana’s brutally
vivid choreography.
But maybe the best thing about it all is the way the songs fit together. As a playlist it is just beautifully crafted.
A good article about the origins and history of fado is here: http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page.basic/genre/content.genre/fado_717/en_US
Thanks for this, Modesto! I found a Fado record at a yard sale a few years ago and love it, but I haven’t put the time into learning more. Now you’ve done the legwork for me, and I appreciate it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It’s beautiful! And the dancers: the dark silhouettes, the development, the sequence of moves, wow!
Glad you liked it!