Fado and Mariza

Fado is a 200-year-old musical genre that is said to blend African slave rhythms and Arabic influences with Portuguese traditions. Typically, it is performed with a singer and accompanying guitar, but can be backed by string quartets and even full orchestras. Thanks to the pop music critic of The Oregonian, Luciana Lopez (I highly recommend that you add her blog to your RSS reader), I learn about Mariza, who recently appeared in Portland in concert with the Oregon Symphony, and you can see an example of her work here:



And here:



Somehow, I suspect that Rohit, living in Portugal last year and in Brazil now, is all over this stuff. But it is new to me and I like it and I have to share.