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Written in Folk Roots issue 141, 1995

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Musical Travel - Portugal
Auvidis/Silex YA 225703 (1994)

ENSEMBLE VIDIGUEIRA
Voices of Alentejo
Auvidis Ethnic B 6796 (1994)

JÚLIO PEREIRA
Acústico
Columbia COL 478058 2 (1994)

It’s wise to be initially wary of albums that purport to represent the music of a country. Most have national-dress/airport-doll sleeves; that’s not necessarily a bad sign, but it can take a few grim MOR experiences before the eye is attuned to the characteristics of a potential gem among the dross.

      Usually a clue to a good one is a wide variety of performers and lots of writing on the sleeve - a substantial sort of feel. Musical Travel - Portugal (subtitled Portugal and the islands - it takes in the Azores and Madeira too) is that sort, a very fine example. It consists of field recordings made by Jacques Erwan, with lots of atmosphere and with their circumstances and performers well described in exemplary notes in French and English.
      Judging by the mapped itinerary, it appears to be the result of a single trip; if that’s so, he was extremely lucky in arriving at right places at right times, because there’s some fine music here, informal recordings of singers and instrumentalists reflecting Portugal’s varied regional styles and instrumentation: vocal groups, braguesa, cavaquinho, fado, percussion, pífaro, diatonic accordion, fiddle, bagpipes and more.
      It’s not intended as a “best of” Portuguese music, but a lucid exploration of what’s there now vibrantly representing the tradition which, as he says, “withstands forgetfulness, enriches modernity”. Yes, Erwan is an outsider, but this is no superficial “Jacques goes to...”; his name can only be found by careful reading of the fold-out CD insert, and he’s in a grand tradition of outsiders seeing the distinctiveness of what to insiders is perhaps just familiar. It’d be interesting to see what someone like him would make of a trip around England, and how the result would be viewed here.

      The Vidigueira male vocal group, from the town of that name in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal, has been in existence for at least 60 years. Most of the ten members on this recording work on the land or in wine production, and together they make an impressive, moving, Mediterranean sound reminiscent of the Corsican male ensembles, slow songs, a thread of grace-noted vibrato’d solo vocal joined by strong thirds and fifths, but with less harmonic interweaving and soaring tenor.

      Júlio Pereira has been a leading figure in Portuguese tradition-rooted contemporary music since before the 1974 revolution, working with the provider of that welcome upheaval’s theme song, José Afonso, as well as Fausto and many others (recently including the Chieftains) playing mandolin, guitar, braguesa, cavaquinho and synths. At his Purcell Room concert in November ’94 he played only mandolin, showing high technique and awareness of the subtlest sounds to be drawn out of the instrument, accompanied by guitarist Moz Carrapa and singer/keyboardist Minela. Both of them, and singer Maria João, appear on Acústico, his 11th solo album, on which, having concentrated on mandolin on the 1992 O Meu Bandolim, he returns to a full range of fretted instruments in a set of his own compositions.


© 1995 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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