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- CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE One of the many great things about living musical traditions is that we constantly get to hear new artists taking them up. Their passion and excitement as they discover more about the tradition and through that process, more of themselves, is a wondrous thing. In this classic way Sara Marrieros is discovering her own voice by merging the music of her roots and the music she came of age with. Fado is to Portugal what flamenco is to Spain and what the blues are to the American South: songs clearly from the folk and their experiences of life's crueller moments. What begins as poetry and music about loneliness and broken hearts becomes an expression of saudade (the yearning). Its roots go far back in Portugal to when it was the music of the dangerous bohemian underground, and even further back into imperial history. As contact between Portugal and Africa grew, music, as always, was part of the exchange. Now, fadistas (fa-DEESH-taz) are among the best-known artists in the country. It is gorgeous music, brimming with soul and in as many hues and styles as the blues. Although Sara was born in Victoria, she grew up spending time in her father's village in Portugal. Her mother's love of improvisational music led her to study jazz in high school where she discovered that singing, not flute or saxophone, was her passion. She began performing with the Juno-nominated world beat group, Djole, sang jazz in clubs, turned up at local improv nights, and started working in electronica. She learned constantly, pushing her voice and herself to try new things and above all, to keep singing. They weren't all good experiences, but even the bad ones would be useful. She could always hear the siren song of fado, but it wasn't until her heart had its own cruel experiences with life that she felt ready to sing the music she had heard since she was a girl. Her father helped her find her way into the many layers of meaning that are so much a part of fado and a whole new musical world began to open. She studied the history of the music and traced its roots back to the influences from which different styles evolved. Now her jazz has a little fado in it, and her fado has the grace note of jazz and her love for bossa nova. 8:00 PM - Saturday, February 23, 2008 |
- Terrace Academy of Music Hawkair |
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