Time: 56:18
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Fado, World
Art: Front
01. Fado Portugues (4:30)
02. Vou Dar De Beber A Dor - A Casa Da Mariquinhas (4:30)
03. Tudo Isto E Fado (7:45)
04. Foi Deus (4:35)
05. Estranha Forma De Vida (4:51)
06. Uma Casa Portuguesa (3:55)
07. Barco Negro (6:34)
08. Gaivota (4:33)
09. Ai Mouraria (3:27)
10. Amendoa Amarga (7:10)
11. Medo (Dueto (Im)Possivel Com Amalia Rodrigues) (4:23)
There’s only ever been one Amália, now in the National Pantheon with the honour of being Portugal’s biggest voice of the twentieth century. In 2013, 14 years after the passing of this diva of fado, pianist Júlio Resende decided to pay tribute to her in his first solo album. It’s a surprising album, just him and an acoustic piano playing classics of Lisbon song immortalised by Amália. That’s it, until the no less surprising final track, which removes the guitar accompaniment from the original recording of “Medo” (1965) to create a magical meeting of singer and pianist, a meeting which obviously never happened.
Resende went on the road with Amália and his piano, and the fado within him has flourished ever since. So much so that his latest release is Fado & Further, the live recording of his tour, including the performance of Spanish singer Silvia Pérez Cruz, performing a freestyle version of “Cucurrucucú Paloma” on stage with him at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Auditorium. There’s even a bonus DVD which includes a conversation with author Gonçalo M. Tavares.
Amália by Júlio Resende was his first solo album but it really isn’t the debut of a musician desperate to come of age. “I’m 33, but I don’t really like saying how old I am, much less the label of promising young thing, which has been said of me several times. It happens just because people focus on the age, not the work.” It’s an understandable stance, especially given that this pianist, born in Faro, had already released three jazz albums, fronting trios and quartets (on the prestigious Portuguese Clean Feed label) before the age of 30.
The three discs were rooted in the great classics of jazz, but with unorthodox touches, and quickly got him noticed at home and abroad. In relation to Jazzatustra, the second album released in 2009, the influential All Music Guide said: “This recording is a fine example of how European jazz musicians have taken cues from their American counterparts, and have upped the ante to a point where they are the ones making fresh sounds and unique statements, while many U.S. musicians linger stubbornly on tradition. Make no mistake, Resende and his band have got it goin’ on”. With such praise, it would be easy to foresee a quiet career on the jazz circuits, but Resende wanted to gamble beyond this. “After three albums with groups, I decided I wanted to record solo. That’s when I turned back to fado, because what I really like is to say the things bubbling away within me. Well, I’d already been working with fado for six years or so, I’d already done a few duets with fado singers, and I felt I could achieve this equation of me, piano and fado. I felt it was the most personal disc I could make and along the way even imagined a duet with Amália, from whom I’d learned the fado songs thanks to her television and radio appearances.” It’s worth mentioning the beautiful music video which charts this virtual meeting, produced by Pedro Cláudio (available at youtu.be/En7gHOAjGvI).
Until Resende, fado rarely mixed with jazz. Amália and Don Byas recorded together in 1967, Carlos Paredes and Charlie Haden in 1990 and not much else. That’s why this pianist from the Algarve speaks of the challenge surrounding Amália. “In jazz, there’s a whole history of piano, but in fado there isn’t the same history. I felt very much that I was starting from nothing. Amália dives into fado, but it’s infused with improvisation. I say improvisation and not jazz because jazz has connotations of American-style music.”
Amália is fado mixed with jazz that’s not quite jazz. But what are fado and jazz to Júlio Resende? “I don’t really know how to define fado. I know it’s something very deep, connected to silence, absence, sadness – but also to the happiness of waiting for someone who might still show up. So I built on the idea that fado started during the Portuguese Discoveries, with wives were waiting for their men folk who had left, and men folk waiting to go back to them. All of the lament and all of the hope is what makes fado for me.” And jazz? “One of the nicest jazz mottos is that of freedom. Freedom to ‘not repeat, do it differently.’ I feel like a vacant musician, wanting to construct an identity, as long as the identity isn’t always the same.”
Resende chose Amállia for her voice and charisma, but also for her repertoire – and all that represents in terms of national identity.”It was through her that we learned these songs, the songs we have in our memories. My idea was to take apparently worn-out songs and show that this tiredness is only a matter of how we see them. If you look very carefully at someone you’ve lived with for a long time, you can always (re)discover that special something that she has.”
Even if most Portuguese people grew up singing Amália, the same isn’t true abroad, which is why going international is another challenge. “I wanted to see the reaction of a public that don’t know these songs. From the concerts in Germany, I realised there could be a spontaneous reaction, even when the public don’t know the words, or have never heard them before. What happened was the discs I took with me sold so quickly at the first of the German concerts that I had to keep some back to sell at the second.” Like Amália, Resende believes the best thing in the world is giving and receiving. “I don’t find much fun in travel for travel’s sake – I’d rather discover a place, find inspiration there and then give something back in return. I particularly like travelling to play.”
Resende went on the road with Amália and his piano, and the fado within him has flourished ever since. So much so that his latest release is Fado & Further, the live recording of his tour, including the performance of Spanish singer Silvia Pérez Cruz, performing a freestyle version of “Cucurrucucú Paloma” on stage with him at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Auditorium. There’s even a bonus DVD which includes a conversation with author Gonçalo M. Tavares.
Amália by Júlio Resende was his first solo album but it really isn’t the debut of a musician desperate to come of age. “I’m 33, but I don’t really like saying how old I am, much less the label of promising young thing, which has been said of me several times. It happens just because people focus on the age, not the work.” It’s an understandable stance, especially given that this pianist, born in Faro, had already released three jazz albums, fronting trios and quartets (on the prestigious Portuguese Clean Feed label) before the age of 30.
The three discs were rooted in the great classics of jazz, but with unorthodox touches, and quickly got him noticed at home and abroad. In relation to Jazzatustra, the second album released in 2009, the influential All Music Guide said: “This recording is a fine example of how European jazz musicians have taken cues from their American counterparts, and have upped the ante to a point where they are the ones making fresh sounds and unique statements, while many U.S. musicians linger stubbornly on tradition. Make no mistake, Resende and his band have got it goin’ on”. With such praise, it would be easy to foresee a quiet career on the jazz circuits, but Resende wanted to gamble beyond this. “After three albums with groups, I decided I wanted to record solo. That’s when I turned back to fado, because what I really like is to say the things bubbling away within me. Well, I’d already been working with fado for six years or so, I’d already done a few duets with fado singers, and I felt I could achieve this equation of me, piano and fado. I felt it was the most personal disc I could make and along the way even imagined a duet with Amália, from whom I’d learned the fado songs thanks to her television and radio appearances.” It’s worth mentioning the beautiful music video which charts this virtual meeting, produced by Pedro Cláudio (available at youtu.be/En7gHOAjGvI).
Until Resende, fado rarely mixed with jazz. Amália and Don Byas recorded together in 1967, Carlos Paredes and Charlie Haden in 1990 and not much else. That’s why this pianist from the Algarve speaks of the challenge surrounding Amália. “In jazz, there’s a whole history of piano, but in fado there isn’t the same history. I felt very much that I was starting from nothing. Amália dives into fado, but it’s infused with improvisation. I say improvisation and not jazz because jazz has connotations of American-style music.”
Amália is fado mixed with jazz that’s not quite jazz. But what are fado and jazz to Júlio Resende? “I don’t really know how to define fado. I know it’s something very deep, connected to silence, absence, sadness – but also to the happiness of waiting for someone who might still show up. So I built on the idea that fado started during the Portuguese Discoveries, with wives were waiting for their men folk who had left, and men folk waiting to go back to them. All of the lament and all of the hope is what makes fado for me.” And jazz? “One of the nicest jazz mottos is that of freedom. Freedom to ‘not repeat, do it differently.’ I feel like a vacant musician, wanting to construct an identity, as long as the identity isn’t always the same.”
Resende chose Amállia for her voice and charisma, but also for her repertoire – and all that represents in terms of national identity.”It was through her that we learned these songs, the songs we have in our memories. My idea was to take apparently worn-out songs and show that this tiredness is only a matter of how we see them. If you look very carefully at someone you’ve lived with for a long time, you can always (re)discover that special something that she has.”
Even if most Portuguese people grew up singing Amália, the same isn’t true abroad, which is why going international is another challenge. “I wanted to see the reaction of a public that don’t know these songs. From the concerts in Germany, I realised there could be a spontaneous reaction, even when the public don’t know the words, or have never heard them before. What happened was the discs I took with me sold so quickly at the first of the German concerts that I had to keep some back to sell at the second.” Like Amália, Resende believes the best thing in the world is giving and receiving. “I don’t find much fun in travel for travel’s sake – I’d rather discover a place, find inspiration there and then give something back in return. I particularly like travelling to play.”
Amalia Por Julio Resende
