Since the last time I went to the BAMcafe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music I had such a good time seeing M.A.K.U Soundsystem, I decided to go to another on of their free live music on Friday nights events. And not surprisingly at all I was not disappointed by this decision. This past Friday night Natalie Pires was performing. She is a fadista, a singer of fado, which a type of urban folk music unique to Portugal. She was at BAM advertising her debut album, Corre-me o fado nas vejas. Because of how obscure I assume fado is, I was surprised to see the large following that this female vocalist had, especially for her debut album. Natalie Pires, performed the music accompanied by a bass, a guitar, and a Spanish guitar. The music for the most part had a very jumping and up beat gait, that would have been very good for moving one’s feet to. Except that despite the gait the majority of the songs had a mournful note to them at least part of the song. The guitar and Spanish guitar would slow and stop to dramatize Natalie’s passionate belting. She would hold a note for what seemed longer then humanly possible, and then the guitars would pick up and create a clap-inducing rhythm as Natalie sings away. Apparently its very much a part of fado music, this melanchol-iness and the rhythm that the guitars always fall into is also something that is unique to Portuguese folk music. This I know because I used to live in a very Portuguese neighborhood and thus there were various Portuguese festivals every year that would showcase Portuguese folk dancing. I even knew some of the children who were the dancers at these events. I think that it should be noted that despite the constant rebuttal by Portuguese friends and acquaintances there are many parallels between Portuguese music and music from Spain. Specifically the jumping and very danceable gait, not to mention the many similarities between the Portuguese language and the Spanish language, which means there are many similarities in the song of their singing.
I was a little disappointed that Natalie sang only in Portuguese, since I don’t speak Portuguese. When I had heard she was performing at BAM, I had hoped that because of my Spanish I would be able to understand at least a little bit of her singing. Sadly enough I overestimated myself, but I still enjoyed her music and her ridiculously good voice.
HERE’S A LINK TO A VIDEO CLIP OF HER.
Artist: Natalie Pires
Venue: BAMcafe, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Duration: 2 hours December 2, 2011
