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CHASING THE FADO

Paul Vernon shares his enthusiasm for those
Portuguese Blues

> In the late 1980's I lived for a time in San Francisco where, among other
> diversions, I frequently dropped into the Purple Heart Thrift Store, a huge
> barn of a place run by Vietnam Veterans. On a bright spring day in 1987 I was
> checking, as usual, the gritty pile of old records that sat between the
> ancient typewriters and the pulp literature. Usual stuff. You've got your
> Doris Days, your Bings, your Tommy Dorseys. This day, however, I found
> something quite different. The first one off the top of the stack was on
> English H.M.V. In California, that was unusual. I almost expected it to be
> Jack Hylton or maybe a stray Paul Whiteman but the name was unfamiliar.
> Perhaps South American. The legend below read "ace. Viola e Guitarra". I
> realised I had found some kind of ethnic folk recording but I had no idea
> where it was from. I dug deeper, found more, and by the time I was through had
> assembled twenty- seven 78rpm records on an enticing selection of labels, none
> of them American. I'd Definitely Found Something. Totally suckered, I shelled
> out my dollars and left clutching a brown bag.
> 
> Back home I cranked up the phonograph and let the needle drop. The sound
> knocked me sideways, I felt like I'd discovered the lost chord. Dinner was
> ignored. I'd found the Fado. Or it had found me. To explain its elusive and
> haunting beauty is no easy task. The Fado is deceptively simple, like
> quicksand. The listener is enmeshed in the Fado before quite knowing how or
> why. It sounds like a bowlful of echoes from everywhere.
> 
> Down to basics; the literal dictionary definition of the word "fado" is
> "fate". The meaning invested in this small word by the Portuguese, however, is
> as rich, deep and complex as the Portuguese character itself. The music at
> least in Lisbon, could be defined as an urban cafe style and parallels can be
> drawn with Rebetika, blues and original Tango. Like Rebetika, its subject
> matter is life's harsh reality. Like Rebetika again, its instrumental
> accompaniment is largely stringed - in this case the Portuguese guitarra and
> viola* - but unlike Rebetika its approach is much more about the graceful
> acceptance of one's destiny rather than a garrulous resistance to it. The Fado
> speaks with a quiet dignity born of the realisation that any mortal desire or
> plan is at risk of destruction by powers beyond individual control.
> 
> An illuminating description, by the author Lawton McCawl, can be found in his
> book Portugal for Two in 1931;
> 
> > > "We realise that a Fado can be considerably more than just A song At
> > > midnight when the lights are low. In fact, theFados are spontaneous poetry
> > > of the human heart, shared with an audience that feels and understands."
> 
> When I arrived in Lisbon, following the path that led from that clutch of
> unsleeved Fado 78s in San Francisco, I almost dared not hope to find what I
> was looking for. I did, however, and moreover I found it in cafes and on the
> street. Not just as music but also as poetry, as speech, as attitude and
> ultimately as a whole way of life. A coping mechanism that the Portuguese have
> employed, arguably for over a century and a half, as a means of making sense
> of life's quirks. " The Fado is life" one man told me in a Bairro Alto cafe. I
> believe him. Lawton McCawl's account of a night in a Lisbon Fado tavern
> differs little from my own experience some 56 years later. That in itself is
> astonishing in a world of instant communication and fast-withering tradition.
> 
> So where did it start? And how? There are many theories and almost all of them
> contain some essential truths, for the Fado is an old tree of a music, with
> deep and tangled roots formed over a longer time frame than many folk art
> forms. It is half as old again as the Blues but with an international exposure
> less than one tenth of that form. What you find, therefore, is a very long
> tradition which, in its cultural isolation, has remained almost completely
> unchanged at . the core. Sifting through the evidence a pattern begins to
> appear. Portugal's early involvement in colonialism ensured that the home
> country was exposed to a broad wedge of other cultures, principally and
> initially African and South American. Black emancipation had occured in
> Portugal over a century before the American Civil War and a substantial black
> population, African in origin but often filtered through a Brazilian
> experience, was firmly ensconced in the Alfama district of Lisbon by the
> beginning of the 19th century.
> 
> 
> 
> Guitarristas de Lisboa: Avelino (viola) and Adelino (guitarra)
> 
> The dances most commonly associated with this cultural group were the Lundu
> (or Lundum) described with contemporary horror as "the most lascivious thing I
> ever saw", and the Fofa. Later, elements of these two dances came to be known
> as "the Fado". In this it is similar to the Spanish Jota, a dance that became
> a street song.
> 
> So we can IIOW see that a fundamental ingredient of the Fado is identifiably
> African in origin, and it seems certain that the term Fado applied to a
> guitar- accompanied black dance form first. The next factor to consider is the
> long Portuguese tradition of poetry and literature, both academic and folk. In
> folk terms both the quatrain (rhyming couplet) and modhina, or ballad
> tradition, were provably part of Portuguese culture long before the early 19th
> century.
> 
> The popular folk quatrain was used in many forms by a largely rural community
> to celebrate specific calender events, preserve folk-lore, tell children's
> stories and declare undying love. All the usual concerns of a pure folk form.
> It's arguably the lyrical genesis of the Fado. The ballad tradition extends
> back to the 14th century at least and, in its cultural isolation, remained
> largely unadulterated until the first tentacles of post-industrialist
> technology reached it in the early 20th century. So that one may NOW see these
> three basic ingredients, dance, modhina and quatrain as supplying rhythm, form
> and content. At some point lost in the log of history these ingredients gelled
> and matured to form the recognisable music that we now call Fado. This is not
> to ignore the evidence of Pop-Fado or Tourist Fado; these styles have evolved
> and remain intact, but the central structure of the original form is still
> living and breathing as it was at the time of Maria Severa.Who? Maria Severa
> is where the enigmas really begin.
> 
> According to most dependable contemporary accounts, Maria Severa was the first
> great exponent of the Fado and the originator of the female Fadista tradition
> of wearing a dramatically draped black shawl while performing. Born and raised
> in the Alfama district of Lisbon (that is, the wrong side of the tracks) she
> and her mother ran a small tavern in which the embryonic music was practised.
> It was her Fado that the Comte De Vimioso heard and with her this noble
> aristocrat entered into what historians of the time referred to as a
> "tempestuous love affair".
> 
> The impact on Lisbon society of this scandalous, high profile, mismatch was
> considerable. The resultant exposure that the Fado received brought it to
> general public attention for the first time. Sheet music was published,
> articles were written, the whole matter was hotly debated by the Portuguese at
> every level. Like any new music that appears to threaten the status quo,
> people quickly took sides and dug their heels in. The controversy was probably
> not dissimilar in essence to the emergence of the Tango in Buenos Aires. It is
> a testament to the impact of these events that there are many different songs
> about Maria Severa by a wide variety of Fadistas de Lisboa.
> 
> For how long before these events in 1836 the Fado had been an identifiable
> song we can never be certain. There is some evidence to suggest it was known
> in Brazil as early as 1829, but it is clear that the Fado we hear on record
> from at least 1910 (the Fado that is still nightly practised in Lisbon) is the
> same Fado that emerged from this 19th century scandal. It might therefore be
> reasonable to assign to Maria Severa the role of unwitting catalyst rather
> than inventor, as some have previously claimed.
> 
> But the Fado lives not just in Lisbon. There is yet another side to this
> story, one of a Fado which shares the origins and keeps the basic form, but is
> recognised by both devotees and critics alike as essentially divorced from the
> barrel-house of the Lisbon style.
> 
> Coimbra, the old university town of Portugal, is a place of deep and unbroken
> tradition. Here among the old streets and university buildings Portugal's
> heritage of literature, song and poetry has been quietly and lovingly nurtured
> for more than five centuries. Those who practice the Fado da Coimbra are a
> very different breed from the bus-drivers, barbers, labourers and shoeshiners
> who use it in Lisbon for cathartic purposes.
> 
> While it retains the same form and instrumental accompaniment, its attitude is
> markedly different. It has been described as a more refined strain of Fado,
> but this empty phrase does little to accurately reflect the majesty and
> emotional summits that a good singer can reach; one listener to whom I played
> a selection of pieces described them as a fusion of blues and opera. Certainly
> a Coimbra Fado would be deemed unseemly if it were not highly rehearsed and
> stylised. Rodney Gallop, writing in 1936, brilliantly and succinctly defined
> the difference; "It is the song of those who retain and cherish their
> illusions, not of those who have irretrievably lost them".
> 
> The 1920's and early 30's saw a remarkable flowering of this style which,
> fortunately for us, was preserved on record. A group based around Dr. Antonio
> Menano, including singers Dr Edmundo de Bettancourt and Dr. Lucos Junot,
> guitarristas of astonishing virtuosity such as Artur Paredes and Jose Joaoquim
> Cavalheiro, produced a body of music that documented the Coimbra Fado in its
> true glory. They also interpreted other Portuguese song forms from rural
> regions such as the Beirra Baixa and Alemtejo. Their recorded legacy affords
> us a glimpse, at least, of a sub-culture that would otherwise have been
> irretrievably lost. It is also clear from Rodney Gallop's published works that
> their efforts spawned vigorous debate in contemporary music journals.
> 
> Coimbra Fado is nevertheless full of longing, and it is that spirit which lies
> at the very heart of the Fado, be it from Lisbon or Coimbra. There is a
> Portuguese word, 'saudade' that has no direct equivalent translation. The
> closest English definition is 'yearning'. Its emotional parallel is Spanish
> 'duende', insofar as defining the depth of feeling involved. But the direction
> it takes is different. It may be useful to think of it as the Portuguese
> equivalent of that which fuels the deepest of Mississippi or Texas blues.
> Saudade is, in short, a measure of the depth of feeling that passes back and
> forth between singer and audience.
> 
> Both strains of Fado must possess saudade if they are to be considered genuine
> and a singer will not last long before a Portuguese audience without it.
> Audience behaviour is actually crucial to a live performance and the rules for
> the audience are at least as strict as for the singer. In the typical Lisbon
> situation, no audience will suffer a poor performance to the end, nor will
> they tolerate interruption during a good one. I have witnessed noisy patrons
> being physically jostled from the room, and poor singers rudely halted in
> mid-song.
> 
> 
> Jose Reis a coach driver singing In Barrio Alto
> 
> It's a serious business for all concerned and anyone experiencing the genuine
> Fado for the first time will need to bear those simple rules in mind,
> especially when fiery debate breaks out, as it often can At the end of a song
> it is perfectly acceptable to indulge in applause, whistling stamping,
> shouting, table-banging and beer-spilling. Indeed it is expected. For
> especially fine renditions the appellation 'Fadista' pronounced faaadeeshta!!)
> is especially appropriate.
> 
> The term 'Fadista', like most things Portugese, has deeper layers of meaning
> than just 'A Singer Of Fados'. From the mid- 19th century until at roast the
> early 1900s it was a term applied to a picaresque section of Lisbon society.
> Fadista's were the Portuguese counterparts of Athenian Mangas, people whose
> dross code, attitude and pocket knives spoke eloquently of their disdain for
> 'normal' society. A contemporary description is worth noting for its refined
> sense of outrage;
> 
> "Fadistas wear a peculiar kind of black cap, wide black trousers with
> close-fitting jacket, and their hair flowing low on the shoulders - they are
> held in very bad repute, being mostly vauriens of dissolute habits." -
> Catherine Charlotte Lady Jackson, Fair Lusitania London, 1874.
> 
> Whether Lady Jackson ever heard the music of these dissolute vauriens or not
> she does not say, but her attitude persists to this very day. I had been in
> the Bairro Alto for over three weeks when a Seriously Concerned Representative
> of the Tourist Office issued grim warnings about the Footpads and Jack
> O'Lanterns lying in wait up there for my watch, wallet, spectacles... it
> seemed churlish of me to shatter his delusions with true tales of the
> honestly, friendship and humanity I was nightly experiencing.
> 
> Maria Severa, like Buddy golden, never had a chance to leave any recorded
> examples of her art. One who did, however, and one whose impact upon the
> direction of the Fado has been immeasurable, is Amalia Rodrigues. Like Severa,
> Amalia Rodrigues was born into the poverty of the Alfama district. Her mother
> was an orange-seller and an early photo shows mother and child at the
> dock-side peddling fruit. A strikingly beautiful woman with a powerful
> personality, Amalia's greatest talent lies in her voice. Astonishing range and
> control allow her to produce music of great beauty and emotional depth Do I
> sound like her publicist ? She needs only to be heard at her best to he
> appreciated.
> 
> 
> In a long career that started in 1939 and continues to this day Amalia's style
> has defined and crystalised the Fado. If you've had only a passing
> acquaintance with this music, it's likely you've heard Amalia Rodrigues. And
> you may have heard some of the later, more popular pieces with orchestral
> accompaniment. 'There are, however, early recordings that not only reflect the
> roots but also the heights to which a real fadista can rise.
> 
> Amalia Rodrigues's first records are intense, heartfelt, deeply traditional
> and strikingly innovative. They represent a pinnacle of development in Fado's
> history. Let's put it this way; if Robert Johnson had been a Portuguese woman,
> he would have been Amalia Rodrigues.
> 
> As a folk-music the Fado has been woefully overlooked and misunderstood by the
> rest of the world. Today's broad minded Ethnic/World fan (that's probably you)
> would do themselves and their oars an enormous favour by turning their
> attentions to Fair Lusitania, where they will find, if they dig deep enough, a
> folk music of unsurpassed beauty. I've been chasing the Fado for over five
> years, and it's been worth every minute.
> 
> * The guitarra is (generally) 12-string see photo -- hut some can be
> 10-string. 'The viola, confusingly, is the Portuguese name for the Spanish
> Guitar. This is the classic instrumental configuration
> 
> 
> Available Recordings:
> 
> Presently, it is not easy to find genuine examples of the Fado in UK record
> stores. Interstate have an album available, Early Portuguese String Music
> 1908-1931 that is instrumental only. On this are some fine examples of
> guitarra and viola duets recorded in Lisbon along with Portuguese- American
> titles that are perhaps less typical of the classic style. (Heritage LP 323
> and CD 05).
> 
> EMI-Portugal issued two volumes by Dr. Antonio Menano (2605983 & 2612283) and
> one by Dr. Edmundo de Bettancourt (2402451) some five years ago. 'These are
> prime examples of Coimbra in the 1920s and the De Bettancourt is especially
> interesting. Don't ask me where you'll get them in this country though.
> 
> At your local Our Price, fairly recently, a double-play tape of some good
> early Amalia Rodrigues recordings has been seen lurking in the 'world music'
> section. It contains a few pop-ish songs but in the main it's a good, solid
> selection. (Festival 400134). From your favourite specialist you should be
> able to procure an album on Ocora CD559041 by Fernando Machado Soares, a
> genuine modern Coimbra stylist.
> 
> As yet, the classic early Lisboa recordings from the '20s and '30s have yet to
> appear. However, a pair of 24-track CDs of 1928-36 Fado are promiser! in the
> early summer from Heritage, one of which will from Lisboa (75% female singers)
> and the other Coimbra (all male vocals or instrumental).
> 
> 
> Further Reading:
> 
> There's not very much. Rodney Gallop's epic 1936 volume Portugal, A Book Of
> Folkways contains a chapter on the Fado and much useful background information
> about Portuguese folk-lore an cl culture. Currently out of print, it's
> novertheless well worth searching for. If you read Portuguese, try to find
> Historia Do Fado by Pinto De Carvalho, first published in 1903, and reprinted
> in 1984 by Contexto (Lisbon). From the same publishing house, shore's Amalia,
> Uma Biografia by Vitor Pavao Dos Santos. This excellent volume contains many
> absorbing illustrations and vintage photos, and is worth finding even if you
> can't say so much RS "Bom Dias". Ask your library to find Aubrey Bell's In
> Portugal from 1912 if they can. Bell was an eccentric Englishman who spent
> most of his life in Portugal. His views are perhaps quirky, but worthy of
> attention.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> I also just learned from Paul Vernon that he finished writing his book on
> Fado. The title is not yet desided but it will be published by the The Scola
> Press, London & Vermont, an is to appear in the bookshops in January -98.
> [LF-970418]
> 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> [The following paragraphs are possibly not by Paul Vernon and some information
> may no longer be valid but I include it here just in case it is of any help to
> anyone... ]
> 
> 
> 
> FADO ROUTES
> 
> Getting there: Flights from London or Manchester to Lisbon run at around 100
> return off season, rising to 120-150 in the summer. Useful agents include
> Abreu (071-229 9905), Destination Portugal (0893-773269) and Portuguese Travel
> Centre (071-581 3104)
> 
> Red tape: None for E.C. citizens. North Americans can stay up to 60 days
> without a visa, Australians for up to 3 months; New Zealanders, for some
> reason, need visas. The Portuguese Consulate in London is at 83 Brompton Rd,
> London SW3 (071-581 8722)
> 
> 
> Costs: Reckon on 20 a day minimum for the essentials (double rooms in pensions
> start at around 8), plus 15 - 40 for a fado night out.
> 
> 
> Information and maps: A range of leaflets are dispensed by the Portuguese
> National Tourist Office, 22/25a Sackville St, London W1 (071- 494 1441). Maps
> of the country are best bought on the spot. The Falkplan: Lisbon is invaluable
> for finding your way to the capital's clubs and bars.
> 
> Getting around: Trains and buses provide a comprehensive network around the
> country; car hire is cheap if booked in Britain, with a flight or from an
> agency like Holiday Autos (071-491 1111). Trams - built in Britain at the turn
> of the century - are a treat in Lisbon, and taxis are cheap.
> 
> Festivals: Lisbon's Alfama quarter is the place to be for the Popular Saints
> 'Festivals in June. In Coimbra, the biggest celebration is the Queima Das
> Fitas, at the end of the academic year (end of May), which is a very promising
> time for spontaneous outbreaks of fado.
> 
> Fado clubs: Lisbon. There are about a dozen fado clubs, or adegas, up in the
> Bairro Alto quarter. Some are established and expensive, with the big names
> and high prices - examples include A Severa, Rua das Gáveas 55; Machado, Rua
> do Norte 91; and Painel do Fado, Rua de São Pedro de Alcantara 65. Cheaper,
> earthier places, where the cooks and waiters do most of the singing, include
> Adega do Ribatejo, Rua Diário de Noticias 23, and Mile a Cem, Travessa da
> Espera. In furtherflung quarters of the city (take taxis), try: Fado Menor,
> Rua das Praças 18, Santos; and in Alcantara, Timpanas and A Cesária, Rua
> Gilberto Rola 16 and 20, respectively. Most people go to an adega for a meal,
> though some will allow customers just to drink; minimum charges are around _8
> a head, but can be a lot more at the fancier places.
> 
> Fado clubs: Coimbra. Regular sessions take place at Cafe Santa Cruz, Praça 8
> de Maio, and Bar Diligencia, Travessa da Rua Nova. Check the action, too, and
> enquire about events, at the students' bar, Associaceo Académica, on Rua
> Castro Matoso.
> 
> 
> These travel notes have been compiled with the indispensable assistance of the
> very wonderful Rough Guide To Portugal (Harrap-Columbus, 7.99) which features
> a decent section on Portuguese music, and lots of bar and club
> recommendations, in addition to all the nitty-gritty on travel.
> 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> This article was originally published in the magazine FolkROOTS.
> Copyright belongs to the author.
> Electronic edition by Lars Fredriksson, April 17
> 1997