Saturday, October 08, 2005  

Mariza
"Transparente"
Transparente
(Times Square, 2005)

"O Silencio da Guitarra"
Fado Curvo
(Times Square, 2003)

Washington Post, Saturday, October 8, 2005; Page C05

Mariza
Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University
Washington, D.C., October 6, 2005

Fado music is often referred to as Portuguese blues -- filled with sorrowful lyrics, African-slave-derived rhythms and minor-key melodies that touch on flamenco and Arabic music. Thursday at Lisner Auditorium, the striking Portuguese singer Mariza and her powerful contralto voice performed 17 songs, each one a rich mini-drama. You'd have to watch Telemundo to see such overtly demonstrative theater.

Backed primarily by the oud-like Portuguese guitar, classical guitar and acoustic-electric bass, Mariza sang of death, lost loves and longing while also dealing with a mean case of the sniffles. She displayed a keen sense of humor with her stage banter. During the upbeat, popular folk song "Uma Casa Portuguesa," long associated with fado's queen, Amalia Rodrigues, Mariza had the Portuguese nationals jumping out of their seats. During a breakdown in the tune, she heard kissing noises from the percussionist, so she gave him a stern look and a gentle verbal chastising. Then Mariza started to blow loud, extremely noisy kisses to the audience with all the messy fervor of a 2-year-old. It's no wonder she is fast becoming fado's leading ambassador. --Christopher Porter

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Outtakes
The original version of this review had a riff about how Mariza reminds me of Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies. A REALLY PRETTY version of the horror-flick icon, of course, but still: With her cropped blond hair, long and lean torso, and body-hugging black dress that slowly fanned out like a thin bell as it traveled down her legs and ended just above the floor, I couldn't help but think of Pinny. Mariza also displayed a flair for the dark and dramatic, walking very slowly across the stage and intensely staring at the audience with her deep, penetrating eyes. Thankfully, Mariza's gorgeous head wasn't filled with sewing implements.

Anyway, my wife thought that version of the review was, uh, how should we say, really effin' stupid. But I was in a rush to turn it in because we had an office outing on Friday and I couldn't hang around to change it up. So I sent the review to the paper and wondered what would happen. I'm thankful to report that the editors thought the Pinhead angle was moronic, too, so they switched it up like pros. I mean, there's just no way to compare someone to Pinhead and have it not seem like an insult, even if it isn't meant to be.

But really: Doesn't she look like Pinhead, just a little?

The two songs I posted are pretty representative of Mariza's sound. "Transparente," the title track to her new CD, is one of the more African-influenced songs in Mariza's repertoire, and at Lisner the Mozambique-born singer dedicated the tune to "my black grandmother." The other song, "O Silencio da Guitarra," kicked off the concert, as it does her 2003 album, Fado Curvo.

Buy some Mariza.

Posted by CP | Link |

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