Mariza "Fado tradicional" (2010)

Fado tradicional

release date: Nov. 29, 2010

format: cd

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]

producer: Diogo Clemente

label: EMI Music Portugal / Capitol / World Connection - nationality: Portugal

Track highlights: 1. "Fado Vianinha (Fado Vianinha)" - 3. "As meninas dos meus olhos (Fado alfacinha)" - 4. "Mais uma lua (Fado Varela)" - 6. "Ai, esta pena de mim (Fado Zé António)" - 8. "Rosa da Madragoa (Fado Seixal)"

5th studio album by Mariza following the album Terra (Jun. 2008). The album is Mariza's return to the roots of the fado after having released albums of more experimental content, where she have challenged the style, or perhaps better: she has widened her repertoire by incorporating stylistic elements from contemporary folk, pop, and latin jazz.

As the title suggests, Fado tradicional is her so far most traditionally shaped album of pure fado compositions. It consists of 12 songs but only reach a total running time of 35 minutes. All songs here are not surprisingly closely bonded songs with small variations, which is also stressed in the arrangements with only acoustic guitars supporting Mariza's vocal. That said, Mariza here reassures her status as one of the best and most wonderful exponents of the Portuguese fado.

Highly recommended.

[ 👍The Telegraph 4 / 5, The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]

Mariza "Fado em mim" (2002)

Fado em mim [debut]

release date: Apr. 2002

format: cd (2016 reissue)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]

producer: Jorge Fernando, Tiago Machado

label: Warner Music Portugal / Parlophone - nationality: Portugal

Track highlights: 1. "Loucura" - 2. "Poetas" - 3. "Chuva" - 4. "Maria Lisboa" - 5. "Ó gente da minha terra" - 6. "Que Deus me perdoe" - 8. "Terra d'água" - 9. "Oiça lá ó Senhor Vinho" - 11. "Oxalá" - 12. "Barco negro"

Studio album debut by Portuguese Mariza (aka Marisa dos Reis Nunes) originally released on Dutch label World Connection residing in Haarlem.

Mariza skyrocketed into Portuguese fame via this very album, although, no national label paid any interest in the music as she was an unproven artist; however, Mariza has soon become one of the most valued performers of the traditional fado.

Fado em mim is not only the essence of a national genre, it's also beautifully arranged and displaying elegance and sophistication on the highest level.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Edmundo Ros "Patricia / Little Serenade" (1958) (single)

Patricia / Little Serenade, 7'' single

release date: 1958

format: vinyl (reissue)

[single rate: 2 / 5] [2,08]

producer: ?

label: Decca - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: A) "Patricia" - - B) "Little Serenade"

Single release by Edmundo Ros (aka Edmund William Ross) in a Danish-versioned single credited 'Edmundo Ros Og Hans Orkester'.

This single was part of my parents' record collection, and it's a song I don't remember all too well. In addition, the cover has gone missing many years ago.

~ ~ ~

This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.

Lisa Ekdahl "Look to Your Own Heart" (2014)

Look to Your Own Heart
release date: Oct. 23, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Mathias Blomdahl & Tobias Fröberg
label: Jive/Epic / Sony Music - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "Heavenly Shower" - 2. "Happiness Is Brief" - 7. "Look to Your Own Heart" - 8. "Moving On"

8th studio album by Lisa Ekdahl released 7½ years after Give Me That Knowing Smile. Before this she released the live album At the Olympia, Paris (2011) (commonly sold as a 2-disc album with a cd and a dvd). Quite often a new studio album from Ekdahl also means a new mix of styles, and in that way this is no different, although, it's a mix of musical styles she has tried out before. It's not entirely singer / songwriter nor folk, nor is it vocal jazz but all these genres are present with the addition of standards, jazz pop, and bossa nova. It's like the ultimate mix of all the styles she has released albums in over the years. All tracks are written and composed by Ekdahl herself but many tracks are with a strong influence from latin jazz and something that sounds as Ekdahl standards with the addition of big band arrangements.
It's all very sweet and quiet but not really close to great. I think, she should keep away from latin styles - somehow it doesn't suit her voice, and the album also lacks memorable compositions.

Lisa Ekdahl "Sings Salvadore Poe" (2000)

Sings Salvadore Poe
release date: Oct. 27, 2000
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,92]
producer: Salvadore Poe, Magnus Lindgren, Lisa Ekdahl
label: RCA Victor - nationality: Sweden

4th studio album by Lisa Ekdahl released after the collaboration album Back to Earth (1998). This is her first album of bossa nova and latin jazz to lyrics and music composed by American composer, and husband, Salvadore Poe, and with additional orchestral music arranged by Magnus Lindgren.
Well, the lyrics may very likely be fine - I haven't been able to concentrate much on that part, 'cause the music isn't performed to my liking. I don't mind latin jazz, bossa nova or easy listening, but sung by Ekdahl, the lyrics, and music become somewhat tiresome. Her English is... not good, and her bright and light singing voice doesn't fit, I think. Of course it could be a lot worse, and the album is by no means a mediocre one, but for the standards of Ekdahl, this is probably her least favourable album.

The Creatures "Boomerang" (1989)

Boomerang

release date: Nov. 6, 1989

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,44]

producer: Mike Hedges, The Creatures

label: Polydor / Wonderland - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Standing There" - 3. "Pity" - 4. "Killing Time" - 7. "Pluto Drive" - 10. "Fury Eyes" (single remix version) - 13. "Simoom"

2nd studio album by The Creatures following nearly 6½ years after the debut Feast (May '83) and 1 year after the most recent album Peepshow by Siouxsie and the Banshess, and they are all three albums with producer Mike Hedges as co-producer. The Creatures still only consist of Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie.

Musically, Boomerang continues in the footsteps of Feast with a mix of world music, mainly spun around the style of exotica with the use of various percussion instruments. The album doesn't have the same focus on the incorporation of natural sounds as found on the debut, but in place of an inspiration of sounds originating in Hawaii, the music here is based on Iberian-inspired music with elements from flamenco and Spanish jazz, and the album is also partly recorded in Andalucia.

As the debut, this was generally met by positive reviews, but without the band winning any further popularity. The tracks #1 and #10 were selected for singles releases, although, unable to match the previous positions on the singles chart. However, the track "Killing Time" was later 'adopted' and often played by Siouxsie and the Banshees at live concerts, as well as Jeff Buckley succesfully made a live cover of the song.

Boomerang has more of an art pop feel to it and it reaches more towards recognisable mainstream music structures without impressing altogether. Still, the album rises above the purely curious and wins after multiple spins, where several tracks appear as more solid and sonically simple compositions than found on Feast.

After this, The Creatures continued as a project, but it was nine years before the duo released their next follow-up, Anima Animus (Feb. 1999).

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, NME, Record Mirror 4 / 5 stars ]

Omara Portuondo "The Best of Omara Portuondo" (2008)

The Best of Omara Portuondo (compilation)
release date: Jun. 23, 2008
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: various
label: Union Square Music - nationality: Cuba

Best of compilation album by Omara Portuondo in the series 'The Cuban Heroes Collection'.

Omara Portuondo "Flor de amor" (2004)

Flor de amor
release date: Jul. 13, 2004
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Jerry Boys, Nick Gold, Demetrio Muniz, Ale Siqueira
label: World Circuit Records - nationality: Cuba

Studio album by Omara Portuondo. Another splendid release by this great singer.

Susana Baca "Eco de sombras" (2000)

Eco de sombras
release date: Jul. 1, 2000
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Track highlights: 1. "De los amores" (4 / 5) - 2. "Valentín" - 4. "Los amantes" - 5. "El mayoral" - 7. "Golpe e' tierra" (4 / 5) - 8. "Panalivio / Zancudito" (4 / 5) (studio session) - 10. "Xanaharí"

Studio album by Peruvian vocal jazz artist Susana Baca. This is a wonderful version of latin vocal jazz or Música Criolla Peruana closely related to the Portuguese fado, the coladeira of Cape Verde, AND Son Cubano of Cuba. Baca has also been engaged into politics, and was Minister of Culture (2011-13).
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

2000 Favourite releases: 1. PJ Harvey Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea - 2. Susana Baca Eco de sombras - 3. Olesen-Olesen Der er brev fra onkel Bob i Amerika

Cristina Branco "Corpo iluminado" (2001)

Corpo iluminado
release date: 2001
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Meu amor, meu amor (Meu Limão de Amargura)" - 5. "Meu amor é marinheiro" (live) - 10. "Locais"

A studio album by Portuguese artist Cristina Branco. The music is close to that of Susana Baca of Peru, Cesária Évora of Cape Verde, and Omara Portuondo of Cuba because of the close relationship between the African morna and coladeira with both Portuguese fado and latin jazz of Peru and Cuba. They all have the mournful and folk based narrating character accompanied by percussion and primarily acoustic (Spanish or jazz) guitar, violin, and other typical latin instruments. It's stories about lost love and the motherland. Cristina Branco sings in a convincing mature way despite her relatively young age (born 1972).
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Omara Portuondo "Buena Vista Social Club Presents: Omara Portuondo" (2000)

Buena Vista Social Club Presents: Omara Portuondo
release date: May 9, 2000
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Jerry Boys, Nick Gold
label: World Circuit Records - nationality: Cuba

Track highlights: 1. "La sitiera" - 2. "He perdido contigo" - 3. "¿Dónde estabas tú?" - 4. "Mariposita de primavera" - 5. "Canta lo sentimental" - 8. "No me llores más"

Studio album release by Omara Portuondo that followed the famous Buena Vista Social Club album (1997), on which Omara performs with Ibrahim Ferrer. The music is cuban jazz, latin jazz, vocal jazz, or son cubano, a style that blends vocal jazz with afro-cuban rhythms and Spanish Portuguese folk-oriented music like fado, sometimes bolero. The music is wonderfully sentimental, and it's really wondrous how closely related the music is with that of the coladeira or morna as heard by Cesária Évora of Cape Verde in Africa, the 'musica peruana by Susana Baca of Peru, and fado by Cristina Branco of Portugal. All four of them are sublime vocalists and performers of music that combines latin jazz with African jazz and in that make strong use of traditional elements of (Spanish) Portuguese folk traditions.

Cesária Évora "The Magic of Cesária Évora" (2011)

The Magic of Cesária Évora (unofficial) (compilation)
release date: Dec. 2011
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5]

producer: various

label: Chinese Dragon Music - Cape Verde

An unofficial [bootleg] best of compilation album with Cesária Évora of Cape Verde, Africa issued on the bootleg label Chinese Dragon. The album was probably released shortly after her death (Dec. 17, 2011).

It contains 18 tracks and has an extensive running time for 1 disc albums at just above 77 mins.

This is a very fine collection of the wonderful Évora. I only have two original studio albums with her, and two best of compilations, and the compilation albums does what they do so fine: they introduce and showcase more of her repertoire. Only, I prefer original studio albums.

Cesária Évora "Radio Mindelo (Early Recordings)" (2008)

Radio Mindelo (Early Recordings) (compilation)
release date: Dec. 5, 2008
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: various
label: Lusafrica - nationality: Cape Verde

Compilation album with the subtitle "Early Recordings" by Cesária Évora with music from six early recording sessions. This is just one of dozens of beautiful compilations with music by with Évora. I don't know anything about the selected songs but it's a fine collection of the Cape Verdian morna and coladeira she's so famous for. Some of the recordings seem like live recordings and poorly mixed early takes but nonetheless, the music lives extremely vitally.

Cesária Évora "Cafe Atlantico" (1999)

Cafe Atlantico
release date: Aug. 1999
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Studio album by Cesária Évora and the follow-up to Cabo Verde (1997). I really enjoy the former album but I think this one even surpasses it. Before this release, she wasn't internationally an unknown artist, as she had already harvested some broad recognition for both her 1988 album La diva aux pieds nus, and Miss Perfumado (1992), however, in 1996 she was nominated Best World Music Album for the first time at the Grammy Awards for her album Césaria. This release only underlined her status as one of the most renowned African artists as it was also nominated Best World Music Album at the 2000 Grammy Awards. The album also received 4,5 stars from 5 stars at allmusic.com (her highest ranked album here). The music on this album is rather close to that of her musical 'cousins' Cuban Susana Baca and Peruvian Omara Portuondo making it a beautiful cocktail of latin jazz, vocal jazz, and African jazz.

Cesária Évora "Cabo Verde" (1997)

Cabo Verde
release date: Mar. 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: José Da Silva
label: Lusafrica / RCA / BMG - nationality: Cape Verde

Tracklist: 1. "Tchintchirote" - 2. "Sabine Largá'm" - 3. "Partida" - 4. "Sangue de Beirona" (4 / 5) - 5. "Apocalipse" - 6. "Mar é Morada de Sodade" - 7. "Bô ê di Meu Cretcheu" - 8. "Coragem irmon" - 9. "Quem Bô ê" - 10. "Regresso" - 11. "Zebra" - 12. "Mãe Velha" - 13. "Pe di Boi" - 14. "Ess pais"

Studio album by Cesária Évora originally released on French record label, Lusafrica, founded by the album's producer, José Da Silva.
This is beautiful African music from Cape Verde. Cesária Évora didn't make a great number of albums in her lifetime, although she lived to be 70 years old (born 1941). At the age of 47, her studio debut album is as late as 1988, and unfortunately she passed away in 2011 having by then released about a dozen studio albums. There's many more live and compilation albums with her fine melancholic singing voice, and her music continues to live on, and this album is a fine place to start. The music is African morna, or maybe more specifically coladeira (a faster style developed from the slow and more monotonous morna). I think, it's world vocal jazz and much in family with latin jazz, at least more so, than i.e. African mande folk, and frankly, I think, the music is somehow closely related to the music of Susana Baca of Peru and the music of Cuban grand lady Omara Portuondo. Without knowing the exact sources, one could imagine a musical relationship due to historical origins of Portuguese and Spanish folk and its effect on local music in both Peru, Cuba, and Capo Verde. Anyway, the music is original and B-A-Utiful. It's music I will always return to, and I cannot imagine that I should ever dislike it. I only need more of this.
Highly recommended. [ here's more ]

Buika "En el último trago" (2009)

En el último trago
release date: Oct. 19, 2009
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Sombras" (live) - 6. "En el último trago" - 7. "Se me hizo fácil"

Studio album by Spanish artist Concha Buika, or: Maria da Concepción Balboa Buika [birth name], better known as just Buika on an album featuring the Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. The music is latin jazz with mostly just Buika singing accompanied by piano. It's simple and nice.

BEST OF 1997:Buena Vista Social Club "Buena Vista Social Club" (1997)

Buena Vista Social Club [debut]
release date: Sep. 16, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 5 / 5]
producer: Ry Cooder
label: World Circuit Records - nationality: Cuba

*Track highlights: 1. "Chan chan" - 7. "Veinte años" - 9. "Candela" - 10. "Amor de loca juventud"
*should be the entire album.

How I wish the world would have much more of this kind. This is a studio debut album in the sense that it's the first of its kind. The album features various traditional Cuban artists who were brought together by the Cuban musician, Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist, Ry Cooder. Cooder's love and interest for world music was the starting point of the project, which was an idea of releasing music with famous national Cuban artists who were literally unknown - internationally speaking. Luckily, Cooder realised the project of his dreams, which is so unique. Most of the performers were at the heights of their career in the 1940s and 1950s, and it's a mere wonder that they were still able to record this fabulous music for everyone to experience.
The album won international fame, topped the album charts world-wide, and it was nominated and won many prizes in the aftermath of its release. It's quite naturally enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", and several of the featuring artists on the album launched a late solo career, e.g. Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, Eliades Ochoa, Rubén González, and Omara Portuondo.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 5 / 5 stars ]

1997 Favourite releases: 1. Buena Vista Social Club Buena Vista Social Club - 2. The Chemical Brothers Dig Your Own Hole - 3. The Divine Comedy A Short Album About Love

BEST OF 1960:Miles Davis "Sketches of Spain" (1960)

Sketches of Spain
release date: Jul. 18, 1960
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Tracklist: A) 1. "Concierto de Aranjuez" (Adagio) (Joaquín Rodrigo) - 2. "Will o' the Wisp" (Manuel de Falla) - - B) "The Pan Piper" (aka 'Alborada de Vigo') (traditional) - 2. "Saeta" (Gil Evans) - 3. "Solea" (Gil Evans)

Studio album by Miles Davis released on Columbia Records and produced by Teo Macero and Irving Townsend. Initially, Davis went to the studio to do his and Gil Evans' version of "Concierto de Aranjuez" (classical concert by Joaquín Rodrigo), but in the rehearsal process the idea to make a Spanish album came up. This is great, beautiful, and really cool jazz with much Spanish tone to it.
[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone Album Guide 5 / 5 stars ]