Christmas music gifts

As well as books, my main Christmas presents were music CDs – and it was an eclectic set of work:

  • “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by J.S. Bach
  • “High Times: Singles 1992-2006” by Jamiroquai
  • “The Sweet Escape” by Gwen Stefani
  • “Concerto Em Lisboa” by Mariza

The one you are least likely to have heard of is the last. Following the death of Amalia Rodriques, Mariza Nunes is probably the greatest living exponent of a form of music very special to Portugal called ‘fado’. I first came across this music when I visited Lisbon for the first time in 1993 to attend a conference and it moved me deeply. If you don’t know it,you should try it – you may be amazed how distinctive and wonderful it is.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 7:39 am and is filed under Cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Comments

  • funkypancake
    January 4th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

    i just tracked down the Mariza album on my Napster subscription service (keep it legal kids).
    on the ‘people who liked this also liked’ … it recommended the Iggy Pop Anthology so i was hopeful !
    The Mariza is nice but not really my cup of tea. i’ll give it a few more listens though.
    Meanwhile i’ve turned my speakers up to 11 with Lust For Life keeping my kids awake at bedtime !
    Happy New Year Roger
    dave

  • Roger Darlington
    January 4th, 2007 at 8:21 pm

    Thanks for trying out Mariza and thanks for the New Year greetings, Dave.

  • Roger Darlington
    January 4th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

    My good Portuguese friend Paula Neves comments:
    It´s good to see that you keep interested on Portuguese matters. Regarding Fado, I must confess that Marisa is far from one of my favorites, she screams too much! Although I recognize she is good, she also had the luck of a good agent behind her. I do like Ana Moura. I’m also sending a glimpse of the history of fado, please have a look on the following links:
    http://www.anamoura.com
    http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~fado/eng/index-eng.html
    http://www.clube-de-fado.com/index.html

  • Vicki Cornelius
    January 5th, 2007 at 11:09 am

    The first time I heard Mariza was while visiting the castello in Lisbon, and her haunting voice matched the environment perfectly. I also went to Clube de Fado while in Lisbon and got completely hooked by the music. Good choice Roger!