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If the great Amália Rodrigues was the undisputed fado queen, singing with a raw intensity every bit as dramatic as Édith Piaf or Maria Callas, her spiritual heir Mariza spectacularly introduced the Rodrigues legacy into the 2000s, texturing her crushing power with style and elegance.
Ana Moura is a mellower inheritor of this deeply evocative legacy, providing a more subdued yet nevertheless affecting link in that same proud and colourful chain. Her main collaborator is Jorge Fernando, who once played alongside Rodrigues and, with the brilliant Custódio Castelo, not only adds some of the lovely fluid acoustic guitar work that paints busy backdrops behind Moura’s mournful voice, but is also the album’s producer, musical arranger and predominant songwriter.
Neither Fernando nor Moura have previously been afraid to veer from fado’s venerated café history as the expressive voice of Portugal’s underclass – apart from Moura’s exploits with The Rolling Stones, there were previous dalliances with pop and rock and enticing talk of a Prince collaboration. But the three acoustic guitars/one voice format of this fourth album pitches it at the pure heart of the fado tradition.
Her melancholic intimacy dominates the moment it sashays out of the speakers over Castelo’s masterly Portuguese guitar on the title-track (which translates as Take Me to a Fado House), setting a mood of mesmerising sorrow. This is a mood that’s sustained, even when the pace lifts and the mood brightens on Tozé Brito’s Como Uma Nuvem No Céu or enters poppier territory on Rumo Ao Sul, a Fernando song that wouldn’t be out of place in a smoky jazz club.
The one departure, the upbeat Não Ė Um Fado Normal (This Is No Ordinary Fado), features Portuguese folk group Gaiteiros de Lisboa and proves Moura has plenty more strings to her bow. Sleeve translations of the songs in both English and French are indicative of her growing international standing, but by nailing fado with such natural soul, she scarcely needs much else.
--Colin IrwinFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
has other fine ambassadors finding their way into the wider listening world.
Portuguese singer Ana Moura is one such worthy representative.
Her most recent album 'Leva-Me Aos Fados' is a perfect marvel.
Ms Moura's voice is an extraordinary instrument. She guides us through
the seventeen tracks in this generous collection with restrained passion
and astonishing technical ability. These are not easy songs to sing but
with her gentle vibrato and perfectly focussed line they arrive fully-formed
and blissfully unadorned as though she has plucked them out of the air.
The instrumental ensemble does nothing more or less than is absolutely
necessary to frame Ms Moura's glorious performances with sympathetic
and economic musical grace and understanding.
Jump straight to 'Rumo Ao Sul' for a wonderful example of her craft.
It is a beautiful melody delivered with the kind of reigned-in emotion
which doesn't need to shout from the rooftops to realise its inherent magic.
'Esta Noite', too, is a truly beautiful composition delivered with just the
right amount of emotional distance and absence of sentimentality to
make the words burst into life with subtly refined fire.
There are many treasures to savour here and Ms Moura is the perfect guide.
Highly Recommended
Nicolai Manoliakis
My order was received well before the expected delivery date and arrived well packaged and in perfect condition
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