Photo by Isabel Pinto
In recent years Portugal's longing fado music has gotten the international recognition it's long deserved. Much credit goes to the genre's most contemporary exponent Mariza, who herself is at the crossroads of diverse global influences. On her fourth studio album Terrra, fado's reigning queen -- who was born in Mozambique and raised singing in her father's taverna in Lisbon -- enlisted Spain's most in-demand producer Javier Limón, known for his artistry and fusions on the albums of artists such as Buika, Bebo Valdés, Diego El Cigala, and Paco de Lucía, among many others. On Terra Mariza infuses fado with loads of universal appeal by collaborating with a who's who list of high-ranking international artists, including mercurial singer Buika in a duet, Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés, Brazilian luminary Ivan Lins, Cape Verdean icon Tito Paris, and Portuguese rocker Rui Veloso. A beautifully crafted album under the impeccable direction of Limón, Terra ends on a whimsical note with a playful moment between Mariza and Lins, doing their version of "Smile," a Charlie Chaplin composition, on which they had no idea they were being recorded. What follows is an interview with Mariza. Her feisty personality comes through, leaving little doubt that Mariza is a musical force to be reckoned with.
GGC: You’ve stated in previous interviews that you express fado from a different perspective. How so?
M: Well some media write things that I clearly don’t say exactly in that way. What I said is that I don’t call myself a fado singer. I call myself a Portuguese singer and I’m still respecting the basis and the lines of what I learned since I was a child but more and more I have my own perspective about this music. I have my personality that I put inside and that makes me kind of a vehicle of a culture, respecting bases, lines, roots, everything but having my own personality.
GGC: It’s true, however that you’ve taken fado, which is a genre that has many purists, into a modern era and it’s transcended geography. How do you feel when people say that about you?
M: Well I don’t, how can I say this to you, I don’t judge myself or my records. I prefer that people listen and try to understand because each person has their own way of feeling music or seeing art. In Portugal for example I never had any problems with the things I’ve been doing and what I think is that I’m trying to be kind of a vehicle of a culture of the heartbeat of a country and of a people, showing that the music we do, our culture is not minor, we have a lot to give, it’s very rich. We are in the back of Europe but we have so many things to show, so many things to give. So it’s a little bit difficult when people say I set out to change, I didn’t change anything, I didn’t want to break anything, I was just doing my music.
GGC: But at the same time, it’s very obvious that you’re open to collaborating with other musicians, and incorporating other influences into fado, which is something that happens in all kinds of music all over the world, there is no such thing anymore as a pure genre because everything is so blurred now and I think in a way you represent this future face and sound of fado, which is very global and eclectic. Would you agree with that?
M: I’m sorry they were knocking on my door and for a few seconds I lost you.
GGC: OK, I don’t know where you lost me. I was saying that at the same time, it’s obvious in your new album Terra, that you’re very open to collaborating and to incorporating influences within fado from different styles…
M: Well more and more, I don’t think people go to see, when they go to see a concert of mine, they’re not going to see a fado concert, they’re going to see a Portuguese singer. This album, Terra, the name Terra means land, land because of the music I do, I’m respecting bases, lines, traditions, roots, everything I learned with my feet in my country, in my Portugal. But at the same time I’m bringing 8 years of touring to this record, where I’m exposed to different cultures, musicians, songs, countries, everything is inside of it. This music is organic, it’s music that has movement, it’s not static, it’s music that moves, it’s music that’s in your soul, in your heart, it moves with your emotions. So when you ask me that the only answer I can give you is this. I’m not trying to break any traditions, I’m not trying to be different, I’m just giving my point of view about music and that’s my truth and I would be not sincere, I would be a fake if I didn’t do it.
GGC: Yeah, I’m not saying that you’re doing it in a calculated way, I’m just saying that you’re a product of the kind of world we live in today, which has a much more universal language when it comes to music.
M: Music is music, people like to put names, like this is bossa nova, this is tango, this blues, at the end we are talking about music.
GGC: Yes, we’re talking about feeling…
M: Music is a kind of religion. I remember in my last concert asking people if they knew the person sitting next to them, sometimes people don’t know who’s sitting beside them, the question I ask is if they notice that for one hour or two hours they were connected by the same line, it was the music, emotions, and in some way we were all a family, while for the most part maybe they have different points of view, different political ideas, different colors, different religions, I don’t know, many different things, but for one hour and a half or two hours we were in connection.
GGC: I think that’s what music is meant to be, a connection for people, a communion between the artist and the listener.
M: Yeah.
GGC: Let’s talk about Terra. I find it interesting that you chose Javier Limón to producer the album. How did that come about?
M: I met Javier in a dinner and we started talking about music and suddenly I felt we were on the same wavelength and I decided to introduce him to Lisboa, to listen to a little bit of fado and suddenly we were making a record.
GGC: Wow, I’m sure I missed a lot of details in between.
M: [LAUGHS]
GGC: I read that you invited him to a taverna. Did he play at the taverna? Did he play guitar? Did you listen to him play?
M: Yeah.
GGC: What did you think at that moment?
M: It was Javier playing, Javier is a musician, he lives for music, so for him playing with fado musicians or flamenco musicians, or Brazilian musicians, for him it’s the same thing, for him it’s music.
GGC: I’m sure you’ve heard all of the great albums he's produced and all of the great artists whom he has produced for.
M: Yes.
GGC: He has a very long trajectory in producing for giants in music. Did that come into play at all in making your decision?
M: No. Actually no. That was something that actually made me think about not asking him to do the record. I’m not here to do a commercial thing. My music is very cultural.
GGC: Anyone who knows Javier’s work knows that he doesn’t produce commercial music.
M: Yeah… and um… but then we started really talking about music very seriously and I felt like he was the person to help get in what I was looking to put in there, the message I was trying to send and he was the one who was not afraid of anything, he understood me so well. You know everybody was afraid, like ‘What do you want to do? You want to put what? You want to make what?' Everybody was afraid and suddenly Javier was the one who made me feel very peaceful inside, like ‘Let’s do it, let’s try, let’s see, if we don’t like it we stop.' And I said, ‘This person, I have to trust in him.’ I showed him what I had and then we started working in his studio in Madrid.
GGC: The album is beautiful. I have to say that I’ve been taken aback by it and especially on some of the collaborations. One of them that comes to mind is “Beijo de Saudade” with Cape Verdean icon Tito Paris. What was that like?
M: I know Tito for many, many years, since I was a teenager. He was the first person to show me African music. We are friends, I love Tito as a person and as an artist and I know he has the same feelings for me. So when I decided to sing this morna, I was singing Portuguese and I asked Tito to sing in Criollo, because in some way we are bridging Africa, some parts of which used to be a colony of Portugal, and Portugal, so we cross in the middle of this bridge.
GGC: I also loved “Pequenas Verdades” sang with Buika.
M: With Concha, yeah.
GGC: She’s wonderful. Two divas singing together…
M: She’s fire onstage, she brings the house down.
GGC: And also there’s a collabo with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. What was that like?
M: Well Chucho was thinking he was going to be playing something very difficult, you know very jazzy, and suddenly when we say to him ‘No, it’s nothing like that, it’s very simple, we want you to play folk, traditional rhythm from Portugal,’ he was like ‘What?’ And with Chucho you feel the Cuban thing but in a very simple, simple, simple way.
GGC: Well that’s great, he’s known for very complex music.
M: Yeah and this one was not.
GGC: You collaborated with Brazilian singer/songwriter/composer Ivan Lins on “Smile,” a very surprising way to end the album. Very whimsical.
M: Well that was kind of a… we were joking around together, everybody was talking around the studio and Ivan never stopped playing, he’s always on the piano or keyboard, he doesn’t stop, for Ivan everything is music. Let me tell you Ivan doesn’t drive because when he listens to music he crashes. For Ivan music is life, it’s everything, it’s skin, it’s being able to breathe. So all of a sudden he says you know I’m going to do something and you follow me and I said ‘What are you going to do?’ ‘Smile.’ ‘Smile?’ ‘I never played that.’ ‘Oh let’s just have fun.’ And we started playing and we didn’t know we were being recorded, they didn’t stop recording. So we played and when we finished everybody was so serious, looking at us and we looked at each other like ‘We did something wrong.’ And we were like ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ And everybody was like ‘No… this must be on the record.’ ‘I said no way my English is not good enough to put into the record, I’m not going to sing in English. I don’t know how to do it, we were just having fun with the music.’ For the European album we didn’t include it but for North America we decided to put it. It’s like my obrigada (thank you) to all the people who have been supporting my work and being so wonderful to me, it’s like a kind of present.
M: Well some media write things that I clearly don’t say exactly in that way. What I said is that I don’t call myself a fado singer. I call myself a Portuguese singer and I’m still respecting the basis and the lines of what I learned since I was a child but more and more I have my own perspective about this music. I have my personality that I put inside and that makes me kind of a vehicle of a culture, respecting bases, lines, roots, everything but having my own personality.
GGC: It’s true, however that you’ve taken fado, which is a genre that has many purists, into a modern era and it’s transcended geography. How do you feel when people say that about you?
M: Well I don’t, how can I say this to you, I don’t judge myself or my records. I prefer that people listen and try to understand because each person has their own way of feeling music or seeing art. In Portugal for example I never had any problems with the things I’ve been doing and what I think is that I’m trying to be kind of a vehicle of a culture of the heartbeat of a country and of a people, showing that the music we do, our culture is not minor, we have a lot to give, it’s very rich. We are in the back of Europe but we have so many things to show, so many things to give. So it’s a little bit difficult when people say I set out to change, I didn’t change anything, I didn’t want to break anything, I was just doing my music.
GGC: But at the same time, it’s very obvious that you’re open to collaborating with other musicians, and incorporating other influences into fado, which is something that happens in all kinds of music all over the world, there is no such thing anymore as a pure genre because everything is so blurred now and I think in a way you represent this future face and sound of fado, which is very global and eclectic. Would you agree with that?
M: I’m sorry they were knocking on my door and for a few seconds I lost you.
GGC: OK, I don’t know where you lost me. I was saying that at the same time, it’s obvious in your new album Terra, that you’re very open to collaborating and to incorporating influences within fado from different styles…
M: Well more and more, I don’t think people go to see, when they go to see a concert of mine, they’re not going to see a fado concert, they’re going to see a Portuguese singer. This album, Terra, the name Terra means land, land because of the music I do, I’m respecting bases, lines, traditions, roots, everything I learned with my feet in my country, in my Portugal. But at the same time I’m bringing 8 years of touring to this record, where I’m exposed to different cultures, musicians, songs, countries, everything is inside of it. This music is organic, it’s music that has movement, it’s not static, it’s music that moves, it’s music that’s in your soul, in your heart, it moves with your emotions. So when you ask me that the only answer I can give you is this. I’m not trying to break any traditions, I’m not trying to be different, I’m just giving my point of view about music and that’s my truth and I would be not sincere, I would be a fake if I didn’t do it.
GGC: Yeah, I’m not saying that you’re doing it in a calculated way, I’m just saying that you’re a product of the kind of world we live in today, which has a much more universal language when it comes to music.
M: Music is music, people like to put names, like this is bossa nova, this is tango, this blues, at the end we are talking about music.
GGC: Yes, we’re talking about feeling…
M: Music is a kind of religion. I remember in my last concert asking people if they knew the person sitting next to them, sometimes people don’t know who’s sitting beside them, the question I ask is if they notice that for one hour or two hours they were connected by the same line, it was the music, emotions, and in some way we were all a family, while for the most part maybe they have different points of view, different political ideas, different colors, different religions, I don’t know, many different things, but for one hour and a half or two hours we were in connection.
GGC: I think that’s what music is meant to be, a connection for people, a communion between the artist and the listener.
M: Yeah.
GGC: Let’s talk about Terra. I find it interesting that you chose Javier Limón to producer the album. How did that come about?
M: I met Javier in a dinner and we started talking about music and suddenly I felt we were on the same wavelength and I decided to introduce him to Lisboa, to listen to a little bit of fado and suddenly we were making a record.
GGC: Wow, I’m sure I missed a lot of details in between.
M: [LAUGHS]
GGC: I read that you invited him to a taverna. Did he play at the taverna? Did he play guitar? Did you listen to him play?
M: Yeah.
GGC: What did you think at that moment?
M: It was Javier playing, Javier is a musician, he lives for music, so for him playing with fado musicians or flamenco musicians, or Brazilian musicians, for him it’s the same thing, for him it’s music.
GGC: I’m sure you’ve heard all of the great albums he's produced and all of the great artists whom he has produced for.
M: Yes.
GGC: He has a very long trajectory in producing for giants in music. Did that come into play at all in making your decision?
M: No. Actually no. That was something that actually made me think about not asking him to do the record. I’m not here to do a commercial thing. My music is very cultural.
GGC: Anyone who knows Javier’s work knows that he doesn’t produce commercial music.
M: Yeah… and um… but then we started really talking about music very seriously and I felt like he was the person to help get in what I was looking to put in there, the message I was trying to send and he was the one who was not afraid of anything, he understood me so well. You know everybody was afraid, like ‘What do you want to do? You want to put what? You want to make what?' Everybody was afraid and suddenly Javier was the one who made me feel very peaceful inside, like ‘Let’s do it, let’s try, let’s see, if we don’t like it we stop.' And I said, ‘This person, I have to trust in him.’ I showed him what I had and then we started working in his studio in Madrid.
GGC: The album is beautiful. I have to say that I’ve been taken aback by it and especially on some of the collaborations. One of them that comes to mind is “Beijo de Saudade” with Cape Verdean icon Tito Paris. What was that like?
M: I know Tito for many, many years, since I was a teenager. He was the first person to show me African music. We are friends, I love Tito as a person and as an artist and I know he has the same feelings for me. So when I decided to sing this morna, I was singing Portuguese and I asked Tito to sing in Criollo, because in some way we are bridging Africa, some parts of which used to be a colony of Portugal, and Portugal, so we cross in the middle of this bridge.
GGC: I also loved “Pequenas Verdades” sang with Buika.
M: With Concha, yeah.
GGC: She’s wonderful. Two divas singing together…
M: She’s fire onstage, she brings the house down.
GGC: And also there’s a collabo with Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés. What was that like?
M: Well Chucho was thinking he was going to be playing something very difficult, you know very jazzy, and suddenly when we say to him ‘No, it’s nothing like that, it’s very simple, we want you to play folk, traditional rhythm from Portugal,’ he was like ‘What?’ And with Chucho you feel the Cuban thing but in a very simple, simple, simple way.
GGC: Well that’s great, he’s known for very complex music.
M: Yeah and this one was not.
GGC: You collaborated with Brazilian singer/songwriter/composer Ivan Lins on “Smile,” a very surprising way to end the album. Very whimsical.
M: Well that was kind of a… we were joking around together, everybody was talking around the studio and Ivan never stopped playing, he’s always on the piano or keyboard, he doesn’t stop, for Ivan everything is music. Let me tell you Ivan doesn’t drive because when he listens to music he crashes. For Ivan music is life, it’s everything, it’s skin, it’s being able to breathe. So all of a sudden he says you know I’m going to do something and you follow me and I said ‘What are you going to do?’ ‘Smile.’ ‘Smile?’ ‘I never played that.’ ‘Oh let’s just have fun.’ And we started playing and we didn’t know we were being recorded, they didn’t stop recording. So we played and when we finished everybody was so serious, looking at us and we looked at each other like ‘We did something wrong.’ And we were like ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ And everybody was like ‘No… this must be on the record.’ ‘I said no way my English is not good enough to put into the record, I’m not going to sing in English. I don’t know how to do it, we were just having fun with the music.’ For the European album we didn’t include it but for North America we decided to put it. It’s like my obrigada (thank you) to all the people who have been supporting my work and being so wonderful to me, it’s like a kind of present.
