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Written in Folk Roots issue 154, 1996

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Women's Voices of Portugal
Auvidis Ethnic B 6816 (1995)

BRIGADA VICTOR JARA
Danças e Folias
Farol FAR 00006/95 (1995)

Jacques Erwan, who recorded the excellent and varied Musical Travel - Portugal (on Silex/Auvidis, reviewed in FR 141), here concentrates on women’s voices - including the acapella ensembles Cramol and Flores de Alentejo, Catarina Chitas (the black-dressed octogenarian shown on the sleeve accompanying herself on the square drum adufe), Maria and Isabel de Igreja from Trás-os-Montes, and probably the oldest fado singer still performing, Judite Pinto, 83 but strong in voice and authority, recorded in the fado venue A Tasca do Caraca accompanied by Portuguese guitar and six-string, in one item trading improvised lines with Sebastião de Jesus.
      This is no dry academic recording; the age of a singer in no way diminishes their passion, and this is the real thing. It’s continuing, too; Flores de Alentejo and the city group Cramol mix the generations in a sound of great strength and vibrant texture.

      In the course of European society’s tendency towards treating music as something you buy rather than do, several countries and regions with living traditions have developed another layer, that of the touring, festival-gigging folk band. Economics and transport usually dictate that while bands such as the 20-year-established Brigada Victor Jara draw, with sincerity and skill, on a range of their country’s traditional material and instrumentation, there are aspects of those traditions they have to pass on - they can’t for example hope to reflect the sound of large-group vocals.
      Danças e Folias, with the lead vocals of Aurélio Malva, is well-researched and varied, and, while definitely lyrically, melodically and rhythmically Portuguese-centred, has nevertheless that pan-European folkscene tinge to its sound for much of the album, but develops much more character with the entry of guest José Medeiros’ warmly passionate, gruff vocal on the lovely fado-like A Fofa (an Azorean balho, a form that died out at the turn of the century, so here the band brings new life to what would otherwise remain dead), and in the reeds and percussion of the Terra de Miranda song/dance Fraile Cornudo.


© 1996 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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