Why fado?

Friends sometimes ask me why I am so fond of Portuguese fado, where my interest in fado comes from, or other questions concerning my relationship with fado. I love other types of music too, but I am rarely asked similar questions about those genres. Fado seems to be a relatively unknown and/or different kind of music in the culture where I belong, and people are obviously curious about the qualities that fado has that attract me – and maybe could be attractive to them. This is my attempt to provide some answers.

So, why fado? It is a long story. You might think the beginning of it is not so relevant, or relevant to all music that I have come across and learned to love. That might be, but at some point, the story of how I came to discover new music wants to be told, and why not in connection to fado – a genre that, somewhat unexpectedly even to me, has entered the centre of my love of music.

My story about fado is personal. I do not tell the story from an expert’s perspective. I tell the story of the fado I have encountered, and how I have experienced fado. Maybe it can still interest someone who wants to get to know fado.

Background

How and when did I first discover fado? I must confess that I do not remember, but this is the background.

Like many others, I discovered new music almost every day in the intense years of my youth. The music we discovered was sometimes genuinely new, but sometimes only new to our ears. We conquered new and old musical continents and made them part of our lives. However, at some point, my musical expansion stalled, as I believe happened for many in my generation. Maybe it happened because we were establishing our adult roles in society, and many new things demanded our attention.

Some of us tried to find the energy again by buying albums with compilations of music from our youth, but we did not look for music outside our well-known scope. Other experiences and impressions replaced the role of music in our journey towards new worlds. Nothing wrong with that, but something was nonetheless lost.

It was not until some twenty years later that I was ready again. One day at the beginning of the new millennium, I heard a Burt Bacharach song on the radio in an interpretation that was new to me. The vocalist had a deep and sensual voice, and she sang slowly with a strong sense of presence and with a serious emotional expression. And then there was the beautiful and restrained piano. The expression of this interpretation reached something in me that had not been reached for a long time. The song was The Look of Love, and the singer, and pianist, was Diana Krall. Right there in life I was struck by music again, and it was Diana Krall who hit me. As is often the case with particularly strong experiences, I remember not only the experience itself, not only the first Diana Krall song I heard, but also exactly where I was when I heard it. I even remember the chair that I was sitting in.

Soon I had listened to all her albums and enjoyed videos found on YouTube. If I could find a musician that could light up my passion for music again just by chance, I realized that there probably were many more with that power. So, in between enjoying Diana’s music, I started to search for music that in different ways was close to hers, using different associative tools of the Internet.

Over time, the search widened the circles where I looked and what I found. Even if the music that I found was new to me, it did not have to be new in any other sense. A lot of the music that I learned to love had been around for quite some time. Of course, I came across many jazz musicians and vocalists, but also other genres of music. Eventually different genres emanating from countries south of northern Europe and North America became increasingly important to me.

Early on, I introduced my wife to the music I found, and it turned out that she also appreciated it. We began to enjoy the newfound music in connection with our weekend dinners, and eventually even the search itself became integrated in those dinners. At some point we realised that we could travel to different European cities to enjoy concerts by some of the artists that we listened to at home.

In 2012 I started to write about music and experiences of music, and Musik.pm was born. I prepared some of the articles through interviews, and we thereby came to know some of the artists we followed.

Altogether, these different activities formed a new dimension of life that turned out to be very rewarding for the both of us. So, finding methods to discover new music to love led us to several new ways of enjoying life with music.

Finding fado

One of the trails I followed led me to Brazilian music, and I decided to look for more. I cannot be sure, but I believe that the associations of the streaming services then led me from Brazil to Portugal, which is not surprising given the significant cultural connections between the two countries.

Maybe the first Portuguese song I found was not a fado song, but I believe it was in 2013 that I definitely found one. I cannot remember which one was the first, but it probably was a song by an internationally popular and well-known singer – such as Cristina Branco, Carminho, Mariza or Ana Moura. Later, those four fadistas were the first fado singers that we experienced live in concerts, all in our home city Gothenburg.

However, we later realised that not all songs that fadistas sing are fado songs. I cannot say how much of each genre we experienced in those first concerts, but I recently found a pedagogical oversight by Ricardo Pons (2021) who provides a structure to these experiences. According to Pons, Traditional Fado and Fado Canção are different genres, but both are fado genres. Traditional Fado is Fado in its purest state and Fado Canção, sometimes called Fado Musicado, is the result of the integration of other musical languages into Fado. As this integration varies in degree, Fado Canção is not a homogeneous genre. “Sometimes it gets closer to Fado’s aesthetics, but other times it completely distances itself.” However, Marchas and Portuguese Folklore, which are sometimes included in the repertoire of fadistas, are not Fado at all, according to Pons. You might like them anyway, but they are different genres. In the rest of this article, I will not pay attention to Pon’s distinctions between the different genres we can hear sung by fado singers.

Considering the fact that fado has become so important to me, one might expect that I should remember my very first experiences of the genre, but I do not. This differs greatly to my clear memories of the first song I heard by Diana Krall. It took some time for me to develop the close and warm relationship I now have with fado. But I obviously became interested enough to search for more.

In the beginning we primarily listened to fado on audio and video recordings, and the circles of fado musicians that we enjoyed on those recordings became wider and wider. We realised that the Portuguese fado culture was very rich, although as a genre it was mainly concentrated in one city, Lisbon. Eventually, we realised the importance of the many local Lisbon restaurants that offered live fado entertainment. However, there were not many recordings from fado restaurants on streaming services, so in 2016 we decided to go to Lisbon to experience Portuguese fado live and on location at those restaurants.

Preparations for a journey

To prepare ourselves for our first trip to Lisbon, we visited our local library to borrow some books on fado, Lisbon and Portugal. To my surprise, the book on fado that turned out to be the most important to us was written in Swedish by the Swedish writer Ulf Bergqvist. Translated into English, the title was Fado. A Guide to the Music and the Musicians. It was, and is, a very useful introduction to fado. Later we also found Ulf’s blog Tema med variationer (Theme with variations), in which Ulf expressed his views on fado and other cultural forms of expression.  We felt much better prepared for our Lisbon trip having read the book and some blog entries.

In addition, we wrote to some Portuguese associations located in different Swedish cities and asked for advice. We received several friendly replies with useful information, and we were invited to the meetings of the Portuguese association in Gothenburg, the city where we live.

A Portuguese woman living in another Swedish city became a particularly important contact. Her name is Vera, and we have remained in contact over the years. She has provided us with many useful pieces of information. For our first visit to Lisbon, she arranged a contact with a young fadista that she knew. Once in Lisbon we visited the restaurant where the fadista performed regularly, and she recommended another restaurant where she also performed. We went there and the advice proved to be very good.

However, as we had never been to Portugal before, we decided to visit not only Lisbon, but also Porto where we started our visit. Before going there, I had made contact with a Porto fadista through Facebook and asked for advice. She recommended one of the few fado restaurants of Porto, Casa da Marinquinhas. This restaurant gave us our first experience of live fado in a fado restaurant, and it proved to be a perfect first experience of the fado restaurant culture in terms of what to expect and how to behave.

Supplemented with information that we found on the Internet, this was the research we did in advance of our first visit to Lisbon. The information we garnered through Ulf Berqvist’s book and his blog, contacts with Portuguese immigrants in our country and fadistas in the local communities of fado, points to some fruitful ways to approach the local culture of fado. With some determination, I am sure you can find similar or other kinds of information sources where you live.

Continued fado visits

Coming home from this first visit to Porto and Lisbon we contacted Ulf Bergqvist, and he generously shared his experiences and knowledge with us. When he became the fado guide of a small Swedish group trip to Lisbon in 2017, we joined that group. His knowledge and network in Lisbon were very valuable, and we visited many fado restaurants together. The base of what I today know about fado comes from Ulf. He was also well-known in the fado community of Lisbon. He knew many musicians as well as restaurant people, which of course was a great benefit to us.

In 2019, my wife and I decided with Ulf to go to Lisbon together again. We spent a week in Lisbon and visited fado restaurants every night. He took us to several interesting places.

Ulf often visited Lisbon on his own, but he also enjoyed company, so we decided to go there together once more the following year. But the pandemic got in the way of our plans. Then something tragic happened. Quite unexpectedly, Ulf died in October 2020 unrelated to Covid. Ulf’s death was a great loss to many. He was not only a knowledgeable man; he was also a generous and loyal friend.

My wife and I have continued to investigate fado in Lisbon (and Porto), and with the good start that Ulf gave us, we now manage well enough to navigate the world of fado on our own. Vera has also continued to be a great help, and sometimes we recieve help from people we meet in the fado culture of Lisbon.

One advice that Vera gave us early on was to visit the music restaurant Conserva-te, where the owner Domingos Mira played Portuguese guitar. His idea was to highlight music from different Portuguese speaking countries – Portugal of course, but also Brazil, Cap Verde etc. I wrote an article about his interesting restaurant concept, The Conserva-te Experience. As Domingos has now left the restaurant business for another occupation, but still plays fado, we nowadays meet him at the different restaurants where he plays when we are in Lisbon. Domingos and other musicians we get to know are happy to give us guidance on the fado community of Lisbon.

We have now visited Lisbon six times, and we intend to continue to go there annually, as long as we are well enough to travel. When we are at home in Sweden, we often enjoy fado recordings. It is not the same, but our experiences at Portuguese fado restaurants deepen our experiences of the recordings.

Conclusions

This story started by friends asking me how we found fado, or what it is that is so special about fado. In short, why do we love it, and why have we started to travel to this faraway country to experience fado? Especially considering that, due to climate concerns, we now travel the long way from the north of Europe to the very south by train.

To summarize our route of discovery: our first fado experiences were recordings that we experienced at home. Then we attended concerts of famous fadistas touring in Europe. Eventually we decided to go to Lisbon to experience live fado in its many fado restaurants. Then there were the preparations for going there, Ulf Bergqvist and his book, the Swedish Portuguese associations, Vera, the continued travels to Lisbon to explore new fado restaurants and musicians, my interviews and articles, the contacts with musicians etc.

A reason to tell this story is to show that we did not start all our activities because we loved fado from the very start. Rather, we were curious from the beginning, but the more we engaged in the world of fado the more we loved it. And our experience in the fado restaurants of Lisbon became crucial to our love of fado.

Sometime on the way I realised that my love of fado was due to its beauty, seriousness, emotional involvement and concentration of expression. All four qualities are important to me, and I realized that seriousness and emotional involvement match important traits of my personality. The same goes for the seriousness and involvement expected from the audience in a fado restaurant. This is the culture where I feel most at home when I enjoy music.

Where can you enjoy fado?

As other music genres, you can enjoy fado by means of audio and video recordings on physical discs or on streaming services. And like music in general, it is today easier to find a broad spectrum of fado recordings on streaming services than on physical records.

If you want to experience live fado performances, there are basically two possibilities – at concert venues in different countries and performances at fado restaurants. Most of the fado restaurants are to be found in Lisbon.

A number of well-known fadistas frequently give concerts nationally and internationally but never or rarely perform at fado restaurants; among those we have attended concerts by are Carminho, Mariza, Cristina Branco, Ana Lains and Ana Moura. However, some other well-known fadistas that we have experienced, such as Maria Ana Bobone, Lina (previously called Carolina) and Joana Amendoeira, perform at both kinds of venue. But I believe most fadistas that we have experienced perform only or mainly at fado restaurants.

Some fado musicians combine their musicianship with owning and running a fado restaurant. The guitarist and composer Mário Pacheco was for a number of years the owner of the famous fado restaurant Clube de Fado. Rodrigo Costa Felix (singer) and Luis Guerreiro (Portuguese guitar) together own Fado ao Carmo. Pedro de Castro (Portuguese guitar) owns Mesa de Frades, and there are more examples. Many small fado restaurants are family businesses owned by musicians. When musicians own a fado restaurant they usually also perform there.

Lisbon is the uncontested fado capital of Portugal, and of the world. In Portugal’s second-biggest city, Porto, there are only a few fado restaurants. I mentioned Casa da Marinquinhas above. Another restaurant in the Porto area is Fado Português in the neighbouring city Vila Nova de Gaia, created and run by the well-known fadista Sandra Correia, earlier performing at Clube de Fado in Lisbon.

In the city of Coimbra, situated between Lisbon and Porto, there is another kind of fado culture. It is more academically oriented, and it is dominated by male students. The music is quite different. This is not the kind of fado featured in this article.

Guitars – and other instruments

I do not live in this city, not even in this country. I do not understand the language. I have never been to this restaurant before. Still, when the typical opening of the Portuguese guitar resounds in the room, I sense a strong feeling of coming home.

This was my reflection at a fado restaurant on February 16^th, 2024. The opening tones of the fado song were played by Domingos Mira on his Portuguese guitar, followed by Gustavo on his viola fado. The restaurant was A Muralha Tasca Tipican in Lisbon. What engendered the feeling of home was not the place as much as the fado; even more specifically, it was the initiation of the fado song by the guitars. I had felt that feeling before in Lisbon, but it was particularly strong this time, maybe because my wife and I had gradually become more and more close to fado.

When people who have few experiences of fado think about the genre, I believe they mainly think about the singing of a vocalist, a fadista. However, when you listen to fado music, especially live in the intimate setting of a fado restaurant, you realise how important the guitarists also are to the expression of a fado performance. In fado restaurants, there are almost always a Portuguese guitar and a Spanish (classical) guitar involved. The Spanish guitar is in the Portuguese context often called viola fado, which I will call it from now on. Sometimes there is also a base involved – a base guitar with four strings (viola baixo) or a counter base. The base was introduced rather late in the fado tradition.

One could argue that the Portuguese guitar comments on the phrases of the singer, and in that way their collaboration can sometimes almost seem to be a duet. The viola fado has more of an accompanying role, and if there is a base, the two share that role. The Portuguese guitar often (but not always) commences the song, followed by the viola fado (and sometimes a base) establishing the rhythm before the voice joins in. The three steps are each a step towards completion of the expression. I have spent many nights at fado restaurants, so it is natural that it was the Portuguese guitar, followed by a viola fado, that triggered my feeling of coming home. Home in the music of fado.

But on records and concerts, other instruments are often involved. Sometimes even without guitars. Variations of instruments between different kinds of performances and recordings might be due to a mix of tradition, artistic ambitions and practical reasons. Practical reasons? Well, it is not easy for a musician to bring a piano to a performance when there is no piano at the venue, as is usually the case at most fado restaurants.

When other instruments than guitars are introduced into a fado recording or concert, the result can be as beautiful as with only guitars. To me, the difference is not one of beauty. The difference is the experience of home that the guitars provide. It is like the landscape of your home area compared to other landscapes. There are many landscapes that are beautiful, but only one that is your home area.

A last point on guitars in fado. They make wonderful contributions, but in my view there is a limit on how far they can carry the fado expression alone without vocal contributions. I can enjoy a few instrumental fado songs in live performances (in concerts or at fado restaurants), but no more. And I seldom enjoy instrumental pieces of fado on audio recordings. A human voice adds an emotional expression to be moved by, even if you do not understand the language of the song. Actually, the human voice even makes the expression of the guitars stronger.

The fado restaurant

A fado restaurant both serves food and drink and provides entertainment by fado music. The fado part is so important to the public image of such establishments that they are sometimes referred to by the concept “fado houses”.

The relationship between the restaurant part – the serving of food and drink – and the fado performances is delicate. At its best, this is what happens. Food is ordered and served in sequences to fit in between the different performances of the night. Before every performance the lights in the restaurant go down and a couple of spotlights light up the small performance area. It is totally quiet. No one continues to eat, and everyone is focused on what is going to happen.

And then one of the most beautiful combinations of instruments – the Portuguese guitar and the viola fado – start to colour the background of the fado song. Soft, but nevertheless energetic. They do so with a delicate weave of tones in which it is sometimes difficult for the unexperienced to distinguish who is contributing which thread. Still, the different sounds of the two guitars are very distinct. Sometimes there is also a base.

After a short and beautiful introduction, often with a bittersweet colour, the fadista starts to sing. And the song is no less beautiful. The fadista tells the emotional and usually sad story with drama, often with closed eyes and he/she might not open them until a storm of applause releases the tension of the fadista and the audience. There is never a second of silence between the song and the applause. It is as if the concentration of the strong emotions that the fadista and the instrumentalists create is released by the last, sometimes forceful, tones of the guitars and the fadista.

This is the ideal type of relationship between guests and the musicians in a fado restaurant. At its best, the fado experience is created in a close relationship between fadistas, guitarists and fado restaurant guests. Fadistas sometimes say that they need the connection with the audience to create true fado. Guests are sometimes informed that “you and your silence are important parts of the fado experience”. This message has two parts. It means that the guests of fado restaurants are co-creators of the fado experience – but also that the guests cannot be co-creators if they disturb the fadistas, themselves or other guests by talking, eating or even just focussing on something other than the performance. Fado is serious business, and if you are not interested in participating on these terms you should probably do something else. These terms might sound a little bit too strict to some, but why not give it a try? You will be rewarded.

What about us who do not speak or understand Portuguese? Can we participate in the community of fado? I think we can. We might not understand the story that is told, but communication has more channels than language. The expressions of fado communicate strong emotions, and the beauty of the melodies, the voices and the instruments strongly relate to our emotions. For me it is enough if the singer understands the lyrics and that this understanding colours the expression. In fact, expressions communicate more effectively with my emotions than words do. As Amália Rodrigus, often called the queen of fado, has put it: “What matters is to feel Fado. Because Fado is not sung, it happens. Fado is felt, not understood, nor explained.”

But not everything is drama in a fado restaurant. In the subgenre Fado Canção, the fadista sometimes even invites the guests to sing (or hum) along in these more light-hearted pieces of music. This is a special kind of fado with verse and refrain, and the fado restaurant guests might be invited to gently join the fadista in the refrain. When the fadista sings a Marcha, there is again room for the audience to sing along. But make no mistake – it is the fadista who is in command.

Designs of fado restaurant nights

Within the basic combination of restaurant and fado performances, the design of fado nights can vary between different fado restaurants. Two key factors behind the variations are the size and finances of the establishments. During a fado night in the large and famous restaurant Clube de Fado, three singers give two performances each, all accompanied by the same three instrumentalists. Every performance consists of four songs. In the middle there is a shorter instrumental performance.

So, all in all, there are seven performances during a night at Clube de Fado. In advance of the first performance, and in between performances, the restaurant activities go on. As in all fado restaurants, you are expected to be quiet during the performances. A full fado night at Clube de Fado will therefore be quite long. Some guests stay the full night, but other guests arrive later or leave earlier at their own discretion – within the limits of available tables. The musicians at Clube de Fado are generally well-known and of high quality. If you want to stay until the last performance, you will not leave before 01.00 am.

Other fado restaurants have other ways of arranging their fado nights. The small and popular restaurant Canto da Atalaia has two seatings, which means that there will be fewer unique performances per night – and therefore they need fewer singers. Sometimes there is only one. Nevertheless, the performances at Canto da Atalaia are of good quality. Some well-known singers and instrumentalists perform there, and less well-known often become well-known later on.

Even those restaurants that have only one seating might have fewer singers than three. Sometimes there is one professional singer and maybe one or two amateurs. That design gives room for the participation of locals, which can be appreciated among both singers and restaurant guests.

One restaurant with an interesting concept is Mesa de Frades, established and owned by Pedro de Castro. Castro has been a professional Portuguese guitar player for many years, and he often plays himself in his restaurant. There are more professional musicians as the base of the performances, but the restaurant has also encouraged and opened up for young singers and instrumentalists to come and perform, which has made the restaurant quite popular with both fado guests and fado musicians.

Apart from providing the ordinary fado restaurant activities, Mesa de Frades has also become a place where you can go to end an evening. Both different professionals and amateurs, and new guests, might appear late at night, which can make the fado night quite long, even lasting until next morning. The restaurant has recently introduced the two-seating concept, and the profile of the restaurant inevitably makes the two seatings quite different.

The design of fado restaurant nights can be varied along these and other dimensions, but restaurants usually apply the same kind of design every night. If they change, they do so on a long-term basis. My main interest is the quality of the fado performances, but the variation of design can be of interest too.

The fado restaurants we have visited

My wife and I have now visited Lisbon six times to explore and enjoy fado. As we must travel far to experience the intense fado culture of Lisbon, we visit many fado restaurants there during each visit – and a few in Porto.

A Swedish friend once commented on one of our fado excursions that we had visited “a fado festival” in Lisbon. Yes, it might seem as we have attended a festival, to which Lisbon concentrates many of the fado performances of the year. After all, this is how music festivals usually are arranged. But fado in Lisbon is not concentrated to an annual festival. It goes on all year round with about the same intensity. And there are many fado restaurants. There might be a single date here and there with less intensity, but you do not have to worry about closed fado restaurants when you plan your fado trip to Lisbon.

However, if you want to experience specific singers or instrumentalists you must investigate who performs where at which date and make your bookings accordingly. If you have a preference for a specific restaurant regardless of who performs, you can book that restaurant any date. We make the most important bookings from home, several weeks ahead. Singers and instrumentalists usually have a special connection to one or two restaurants, maybe also to specific weekdays. But staffing plans can change for different reasons, also concerning musicians. Therefore, we always check our bookings when we approach the dates that we have booked. So, one important task during a fado excursion to Lisbon is to check your bookings and, if necessary, to rearrange them to optimize your experiences.

In the list below, you can find the different fado restaurants that we have visited over the years. We have visited Clube de Fado more times than any other restaurant, as we overall appreciate the singers and instrumentalists performing there. We have also visited Canto da Atalaia many times – the first times when it was still called Mascote da Atalaia. We like its simplicity and atmosphere, and we have experienced several interesting new as well as experienced artists there.

We have visited the other mentioned restaurants fewer times. These include a few that we have found recently, so we have not yet been able to visit them many times. Mesa de Frades is a restaurant that probably, because of its interesting concept, will become one of our regular restaurants from now on. And of course, there are others that we want to visit again to get another view of their concept and artists.

In Porto we want to re-visit the restaurant where we spent our very first fado night, Casa da Mariquinhas, and while in Porto we will cross the river to Vila Nova de Gaia to spend a night at the place we had our latest fado night, Fado Português.

Here is the list of visited fado restaurants:

• Adega Machado
• A Muralha Tasca Tipica
• Bica Sour
• Canto da Atalaia (previously called Mascote da Atalaia)
• Casa da Mariquinhas (in Porto)
• Clube de Fado
• Conserva-te
• Coração de Alfama
• Devagar Devagarinho
• Fado ao Carmo
• Fado em Si
• Fado Português (in Vila Nova de Gaia)
• Fama D’Alfama
• Mesa de Frades
• O Faia
• O Segredo D’Alfama
• Parreirinha de Alfama
• Tasca do Jaime D’Alfama

Altogether we have spent more than forty nights at different fado restaurants. We have heard about some additional interesting restaurants in Lisbon that we have been unable to visit so far, but we will prioritize them next time in Lisbon. O Corrido, Canto do Poeta and Tasca do Chico are among them.

Fadistas and instrumentalists

There are of course many very good fadistas and instrumentalists performing in the rich fado culture of Lisbon. When visiting Lisbon I recommend that you explore different musicians and different fado restaurants to get the chance to experience the variation of styles and expressions. And before travelling to Lisbon you can, as we did, find video and audio recordings on streaming services. And there are of course physical records to buy.

As mentioned above, there are few recordings of performances at fado restaurants, and the ones that exist are almost always amateur recordings of poor technical quality. So, most of the recordings you can find on streaming services worth experiencing are professional recordings from studios and concerts. Here, I will only present a few fadistas with instrumentalists, and only one recording of each. The idea is to inspire you to look for more on your own – on recordings and live at concerts and fado restaurants.

I am very sorry that I cannot give the names of all instrumentalists. They are seldom mentioned in comments on the YouTube videos, and I do not know the names of all of them. But I am sure you agree with me that they are all very important to the expression and the impressions of the music.

I will first link to five videos with examples of fadistas that we found before going to Lisbon the first time. Of these, only one performs at Portuguese fado restaurants. Quite naturally, this indicates that the fadistas you as a foreigner and fado beginner most often find from home are those who tour internationally, rather than those who perform at domestic fado restaurants.

Ana Moura – Fado Loucura

Mariza – Gente Da Minha Terra

Carminho – A Bia Da Mouraria

Cristina Branco – Se não Chovesse (Fado Súplica)

Pedro Moutinho – Fado da Contradição

When we started to visit Lisbon and its fado restaurants, we of course found many fado musicians new to us. These widened fado experiences also helped us to widen the range of musicians that we could find on streaming services and to some extent at international concerts. I will end this story by linking to six wonderful examples of fadistas that we have learned about as consequences of our fado experiences in Lisbon. These fadistas all perform at fado restaurants in Lisbon, and some also at international concerts. Of course, there are many more! The widened fado experience of visiting Portuguese fado restaurants is indeed worth the trip. Hope to see you there some day!

Maria Ana Bobone – Estranha Forma de Vida

Joana Amendoeira – Lisboa da Madrugada

Rodrigo Costa Felix – Paixões Secretas

Zé Maria – A Ponte dos Desejos

LINA_ & Marco Mezquida – O Fado

Teresinha Landeiro – O Tempo

As a bonus, here are links to four of my fado articles on Musik.pm.

Carminho

Maria Ana Bobone

Lina

O Fado

LINA_ and Marco Mezquida

What I want you to experience is the result of a very successful collaboration between Lina and the Spanish pianist Marco Mezquida. I did not know about the collaboration until their EP O Fado was released on March 14. That day a recorded video of the title song was shared on Lina’s and Marco’s Facebook pages. I was both surprised and overwhelmed by what I saw and heard.

Surprised, because I did not know that Lina planned a new record so soon after her album Fado Camões, released in January last year. Her earlier albums were released with longer intervals, and Lina is still touring extensively with the music of Fado Camões. O Fado was recorded in Barcelona in January this year and must have been planned and prepared much earlier. So yes, I was surprised that something so strong, solid and different as the new EP was released so soon after Lina’s previous album. And, as stated above, I did not know anything about the collaboration.

The songs, Lina’s voice and Marcos’s piano are all beautiful, but if I were to pinpoint one specific quality that I believe made me feel overwhelmed, I would put forward how the two musicians use the dynamics of voice and instrument to produce drama – most obvious in the title song composed by Lina herself. I do not remember when I last felt as touched by a song as I did when I experienced the video for the first time – and I can still feel that sensation when I watch and listen to it again.

In different ways, dynamics and drama are also important in the other songs of the EP. I believe an important key to the successful combination of Lina’s and Marco’s expression is the roles they play in their collaboration. Marco Mezquida of course accompanies Lina’s singing on his piano, but often in a way that makes you think of a duet of two soloists. Sometimes a strong voice and a powerful piano, sometimes more delicate expressions. Thereby the dynamics of the combined voice and piano create strong drama and beauty to the songs.

So, the EP with four songs is a very fruitful collaboration between Lina and Marco Mezquida, and I dare to say that it is a collaboration on equal terms. This shows in the music, and the record is released in the names of both artists.

I also feel a sense of paradox experiencing the fado music of Lina and Marco. On the one hand, the special combined expression of Lina’s voice and Marco’s piano is new to me. On the other hand, it is not an expression that is difficult to understand and learn to love. I feel very much at home in their music, and my enthusiastic appreciation came instantly when I experienced it for the first time – just as it would if the expression was well-known to me. Maybe I recognise dimensions of Marco’s piano expression from other genres, for instance classical music.

I felt that instant warm appreciation listening  to all four songs of the EP. But it is not the case that Lina and Marco have the same expression to all four songs. They adapt the expression to each song in a way that makes all four the leading song of the album.

Read about the collaboration between Lina and Marco Mezquida at the sites of UGURU and Galileo Music, where both artists express deep respect for each other, and each note that they can reach further together than they could on their own. There you can also read that Lina and Marco plan an international tour together in 2025. I will be there.

O Fado

Audio on YouTube

Fado da Defesa

El Rosario de Mi Madre

Gota D’água

Audio on Spotify

Full EP

O Fado

Fado da Defesa

El Rosario de Mi Madre

Gota D’água

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Websites: Lina_ / Marco Mezquida

Instagram: Lina_ / Marco Mezquida

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Clube de Fado, April 3, 2019

Expression and presence

What is it about Lina’s singing that attracts us? In trying to capture these qualities, I can draw upon the analysis by the Swedish fado connoisseur Ulf Berquist. The analysis can be found in a review of Lina’s second album, Encantado, where he also comments on her first album, Carolina. Although the review was published on Bergquist’s blog back in May 2015, I think it remains relevant. In my translation from Swedish, this is what he writes.

…/Carolina/ is a very musical singer who creates life and energy in the melodies through fine dynamic shades, flexibility in phrasing and elegantly ornamented lines. The music alternates between relaxation and tension, and despite a moderate sound level, Carolina creates a restrained drama in a soft, intimate and sensitive way.

He continues further down in the review:

I think Encantando is about as successful as Carolina, but testifies to a greater renewal in the choice of repertoire. I like both and hear them with the feeling that the singer is not using one hundred percent of her talent. What is missing? Not easy to say. My impression is probably based on having heard her sing on several occasions at the Clube de Fado in Lisbon (where she still sings four nights a week). With her pleasant voice, her concentration, her expressive, nuanced singing style and her measured and elegant body language, she can create a charged atmosphere, a meeting point between artist and audience that becomes a lasting memory. Her personal radiance in this environment is probably impossible to capture in recordings.

What I would like to add to his analysis is the concept of presence. While singing, Lina radiates a strong sense of presence. She is spiritually very much present and that sense builds a strong connection to me.

Is presence a quality that is particularly important for singers of fado? I cannot say whether it is more important, but I would argue that presence is definitely an important trait of fado singing. But, as is the case for singers in any genre, different fadistas can radiate presence to varying degrees. How much can you sense that a fadista is spiritually present?

This is where I believe that Lina’s fado singing has special qualities – not only her vocals, but also her body language. As Ulf Berqquist writes, both are somewhat restrained, which I believe make the dynamics of her singing more delicate. Her expression is graceful yet expressive. And, as a base for it all, Lina’s voice is beautiful. Overall, you very much believe in her presence; that Lina is ‘there’ and that her expression grows from a genuine and personal feeling. When you experience her perform in a fado house, and visitors adhere to fado house rules and concentrate on the performance, there is nothing that can disturb that feeling.

And as Ulf Bergquist writes, maybe it is impossible to capture on a recording Lina’s personal radiance in this environment. Presence is probably a quality that, for natural reasons, can best be communicated in live performances – and (to a point) the smaller the venue the better. This could be the case for all performers, but Lina’s particularly strong ability to radiate presence might mean that the difference to her recordings is greater than for many other fadistas. This does not imply that Lina’s recordings fall short of other fadistas’ recordings, but that she has a particularly strong ability to create and communicate presence in the intimacy of a fado house. Sitting close to a performance of Lina and her accompanying group in a fado house is a cultural experience that I would like to share with everyone.

Clube de Fado, February 2024

Last time we experienced a performance by Lina was in February 2024. We spent ten days in Lisbon to enjoy fado at different fado houses, and two of those nights we were happy to experience Lina’s performances at Clube de Fado. During a fado night at Clube de Fado, three different fado singers each perform twice. Usually, they are accompanied by the same three instrumentalists, playing Portuguese guitar, Spanish guitar (viola fado) and double bass. There is also an instrumental performance in between – altogether seven performances.

The first of the two nights, Lina was the third singer to perform, so her two performances were the third and the seventh. As guests should not eat or talk during a fado performance, and the performances are interlaced by the various parts of a three-course meal, the last performance can take place quite late. This was one of those nights, and as a guest you can become quite tired when the time is getting close to 1 am. But when Lina and the instrumentalists entered the room for the second time, and Lina started to sing, it was like magic. Her performance has never touched me more. If I remember correctly, she started with the first song from her last album, Desamor from the album Fado Camões. That choice of hers is an interesting choice. I will come back to that.

The main image above is from that first night. The next night that Lina performed at Clube de Fado we met her for an interview in between her two performances. Fortunately, Lina was the first singer that night, so after her first performance we met quite early upstairs at Clube de Fado. These were some of the topics we talked about.

Background

Lina was born in 1984 in Germany, where her family lived for eleven years. However, the family moved back to Portugal when she was only five months old. There she grew up in the countryside where the family had a farm. Lina’s first memory of fado was when her father drove a tractor, singing a fado song. He loved fado, and Lina found her way to fado by her father’s dancing and listening to the records of Amalia Rodrigues.

When Lina was ten, her mother moved to Porto along with Lina and her older sister, for the children to study. There, Lina combined the ordinary school subjects with studying music and taking singing lessons at a conservatory. She also sang in a choir and performed in operas. Once, she was chosen to play the main child character in a play.

The teachers had high and specific expectations on Lina, being “the most preferred child”, and they tried to orient her in cultural and intellectual directions that at that time were not hers. Lina’s comment is that she was not “the most sensitive child”.

My conclusion is that, from early on, Lina showed a tendency to develop along paths of her own. Her memory of fado was there, and fado gradually came to dominate her classical singing. When you hear Lina sing today you realise that, early on, she had professional vocal training and experiences, but her classical training eventually became subordinate to the development of the fado expression.

That choice has proved to be successful. Eventually she became a performing fadista in Porto – and later in Lisbon. In 2007 Lina became a regular fadista at the famous Clube de Fado, where she stills performs regularly. Lina has now released four albums, and she gives concerts in Portugal and internationally.

Presence from the inside

As the sense of presence is important to my appreciation of Lina’s singing, I ask her how she herself experiences this dimension of her performance. How does presence “feel from the inside?” (Although this question might seem obscure, Lina understands what I mean.)

However, asking this question, I am slightly concerned that I will receive an answer that will diminish my enchantment with her singing; that she will disclose techniques used to give an impression of presence. However, I am reassured when she talks about presence as a gift rather than as an impression created by a technique. The straightforward answer is that Lina feels what she sings. Sometimes her feelings are emotional, sometimes more meditative. And sometimes she can imagine some kind of light in her head, and she experiences herself as a messenger who receives something that she passes on.

This is enough for me, and I will continue to enjoy her presence without trying to understand what I am experiencing.

Venues and recordings

Musicians perform at different kinds of venue. For a fado singer, a fado house is a typical venue. Some singers combine performing in fado houses with performances in concert halls of various sizes, and some only give concerts. And music can be recorded on audio or video – live or in studios. These different ways of creating music differ in many ways – both to the musicians and to the people who experience what the musicians create. I asked Lina a few questions about how she experiences the different venues and forms of producing music.

Lina feels that the fado house is, in some ways, like a school to the musicians. It is a more relaxed venue than a concert hall. In fado houses you can over time sing many different songs, you can test a performance and it is accepted that you sometimes make mistakes. In those ways the performance in a fado house is less formal than one in a concert hall. But the informality of a fado house has its limits. Musicians need the audience to be quiet in both types of venue. I suppose that for people not used to fado, being concentrated and quiet might come less naturally in a restaurant than in a concert hall.

Lina likes both kinds of venue, with their different characteristics and qualities. She explains by giving examples. In a fado house there are many kinds of people, sometimes children. Some come when visiting the city for the typical Lisbon experience of a fado house. Others come there to enjoy a meal with music. Still others come mainly to enjoy the music. Some investigate beforehand who is singing which night, but others just want the general experience of fado in a fado house. In a concert hall the focus is, of course, on the musicians and their (well  prepared) performance. People who are interested in the performing musicians and their music come there to see them, with an extra emphasis on literally seeing them.

Lina also likes to record albums, and she appreciates the possibility of receiving feedback on her albums from listeners on social media. However, as some listen to music on streaming services instead of buying albums, it is a financial problem to musicians that the remuneration from streaming services is very low.

Lina also points to the fact that recordings of music need to be well prepared. The recording sessions are expensive, and when the recordings have been released the result will be there forever.

Based on my idea that presence can be more easily conveyed through recordings when you can actually see the artist, I asked about her views on making videos. However, Lina is sceptical as the costs are very high and the production complex. And without an audience, she thinks it is impossible to create the same emotions as in a live performance.

Unfortunately, we did not discuss the possibility of recording live performances. I believe such recordings of high quality may be a good enough substitute if you cannot visit a fado house or a concert hall.

Artistic development

Lina has released four albums, and I say to her that they are quite different. “That’s the point”, Lina comments, as the differences relate to her personal and artistic development.

• Carolina (2014)
• Encantado (2017)
• Lina_Raül Refree (2020)
• Fado Camões (2024)

Her first two albums are those that I find most alike. The music is close to the fado tradition.

Although Lina sings classic fado songs on her third album (Lina_Raül Refree), the arrangements are very different. The album is a collaboration with the Spanish musician and producer Ra​ü​l Refree. He is a guitar player but chooses to play piano and synthesisers on this album – which gives quite a different character to the songs when compared to traditional fado music.

Lina appreciates the freedom that Raül gives her in their collaboration. With Raül, she can do more than traditional fado songs. She says that she needs “space to sing”, and that she likes to sing acapella. She feels free not to care about rhythm and instruments. She also likes the extreme opposites between silence and the noise that instruments can produce. She wants to feel the differences. Raül helps her to understand this and to feel freer. I think that knowing these ambitions adds to the experience of listening to their collaborative album.

However, Lina perceives her latest album, Fado Camões, as her most important. It is different to all of her previous albums. Although she continues along some of the lines drawn in her third album, I would say that – with poems of the great national poet Luís Vaz de Camões, and together with the producer Justin Adams (also on percussion, guitar and programming) – she has created an album with a more harmonious expression than her third album. Some of the music has been borrowed from traditional fados, and some is newly composed by Amélia Muge or by Lina herself.

Although more harmonious than her third album, the music is still serious and sad, as fado most often is. A Portuguese guitar is involved, played by Pedro Viana, and John Baggott contributes on piano, Fender Rhodes, Moog, bass and, drum programming. The fact that the instruments play roles different to those in traditional fado perhaps gives Lina some of the space and freedom that she wants. The album has been very well received in the community of world music.

But, as Lina says, it can be difficult to sing her own repertoire in the traditional fado houses. The fado house musicians know the traditional fado songs better.

This is where I want to return to the fact that Lina and the accompanying instrumentalist at Clube de Fado performed a beautiful version of the first song of her latest album, Desamor, when we were there. I would like to hear more of that combination, and hopefully we can eventually be able to enjoy more of her own repertoire in traditional fado houses with traditional accompanying instruments.

It was in connection to her collaboration with Ra​ü​l Refree that Lina abandoned her artist name Carolina. She now wants to appear as her true self (and call herself by her given name) as an artist. But the change of name has caused some problems. When you search for her music on streaming services, or search for her on the Internet in general, you need to know that she has appeared under different names. And even if you know, it is frustrating that there is not a way to find all of her music by using only one of the names. At least streaming services should have a way to connect all recordings of an artist, even if they are released under different artist names. I would not like her beautiful first two albums, or fabulous early YouTube recordings, to be forgotten just because they have been released under a different artist name than Lina.

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So far, I have only experienced Lina perform live in a traditional fado house, so I might be biased in my preference for her singing traditional fado. After all, it is in live performances that one can best enjoy an artist’s sense of presence. However, I will very soon attend one of the concerts of her current European tour, the Lina Fado Camões 2024 tour. I am looking forward to the possibility of enjoying dimensions of her music that I have not experienced live before.

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Dortmund June 31, 2024

This is a short add-on to the article above. About a month after the article was published, we attended one of the concerts of Lina’s Fado Camões 2024 tour, the concert at Club Domicil in Dortmund. It was mainly based on her latest album, Fado Camões. I am happy to say that experiencing Lina’s recent music in a live performance made us embrace this modern form of fado and include it into our music treasury. The venue was a small concert hall, of course not as intimate as a Portuguese fado house, but Lina’s stage presence and beautiful voice still reached through to our hearts. A compliment also to her two fellow musicians, Lanina Khemelik and Pedro Viana.

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Videos

Most of the videos linked below represent Lina´s four albums. In connection to the album Carolina, several live music videos of high artistic and technical quality were produced. They are live in the sense that you can see and hear Lina sing and her accompanying musicians play, but there is no audience. However, I have enjoyed these wonderful videos many times.

There are no such videos in connection to the album Encantado. Therefore, it is here represented by three ‘audio videos’. The two albums Lina_ Raül Refree and Fado Camoës are represented by different modern video concepts.

In addition, there are four other videos. One was recorded at the Museu do Fado in Lisbon (2021), another at the Festival de Flamenco y Fado de Badajoz (2022), and two at the small fado restaurant Mascote da Atalaia (2019), that later changed its name to Canto da Atalaia. These two last videos highlight how fado is not always sad.

Carolina (2014)

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Encantado (2017)

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Lina_ Raül Refree

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Fado Camões

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At Museu do Fado (2020)

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At the Festival de Flamenco y Fado de Badajoz on Juli 1, 2022

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Having fun at Mascote da Atalaia* (2019)

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*The restaurant later changed its name to Canto da Atalaia

Lina’s website
Lina’s Instagram

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Aafas Ensemble and Sílvia Pérez Cruz: Absencia

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When you write about something where the background is well-known to some people and unknown or less known by others, you must decide how much of a background you want to give. The main subject of this article is the Sant Andreu Jazzing Festival, but without knowing basics about Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, an important dimension of the Jazzing festival will be missing. So, for those who are not familiar with Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, or those who want to refresh their knowledge, I present my short version of that background in the following section. Others may wish to go directly to the Sant Andreu Jazzing Festival.

Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band

In 2016 I found a youth jazz band on YouTube, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band from Barcelona. I then got to know the band gradually through the enormous amount of well-produced video recordings from public performances and from studio recordings. I was amazed by the high quality of the music. More recently I have experienced a number of live performances – and many more recordings. There are recordings with the big band, as well as with smaller constellations of SAJB musicians – sometimes in collaboration with internationally acclaimed professional jazz musicians. All recordings are available on YouTube and audio streaming services.

The man behind all this is the jazz musician Joan Chamorro, who used to be a music teacher in a music school in Barcelona. He started the band in 2006 with eight very young music students, and since then he has developed the band, and a lot of spin-off projects, enormously. The young musicians pass through the band, leaving it when they are in their early twenties, and new young musicians are recruited to replace those who leave. The new ones can be as young as eight years of age. Many SAJB ‘alumni’ continue as musicians with professional careers of their own, and they often also continue to collaborate with Joan Chamorro and different constellations of current and former SAJB musicians. And there are often internationally acclaimed professional musicians within that frame. Thus, we are talking about an informal network of musicians around Joan Chamorro and the SAJB.

Ever since my discovery, my ambition has been to spread the word about Joan Chamorro and the SAJB. Many other fans have the same ambition, and they do so through social media, articles etc. There are links to some of my articles below. I also encourage you to search for articles by Garry Berman.

When writing about Joan and the band, I always mention the positive band culture that supports the successful education model that Joan Chamorro uses to train the young musicians. The culture is friendly and supportive, and the older members help the younger and serve as their role models. The culture strengthens the positive attitudes of the individuals in the group.

When the older members leave the band, the new seniors replace them as leading musicians and role models. New young members are recruited, and so the chain of the band’s development continues. With the leadership of Joan Chamorro, this model has made the SAJB a strong and sustainable educational music project in terms of music of high quality. Frequent performances and recordings are part of the project. They also provide the main financial resources of the project. There are some sponsors, but the students do not pay any fees.

The band now has many fans over the world, and there are several international Facebook groups following them with great enthusiasm. Testimonials from the professional musicians who collaborate with Joan and the band make it fair to say that they can be counted as fans too, in their own professional way.

The fans, of course, appreciate the surprisingly high quality of the music, but also the wonderful culture of the band and the charm of youth. There is also a lot of interest in Joan Chamorro’s method and the importance of his personal qualities.

The Sant Andreu Jazz Festival

In 2014, Joan Chamorro started a jazz festival in Sant Andreu, the district of Barcelona where the band has its home base, and where Joan lives. I believe that the official name of the festival still is Jazzing – Festival de Jazz de Sant Andreu, but the logo profiles the name Jazzing de Sant Andreu. Among fans the festival is referred to as the Jazzing Festival, or even just Jazzing. The location does not need to be mentioned among fans. These shorter names show the popularity of the festival.

The Jazzing Festival usually takes place in the beginning of September. For the first four years the festival concept was as is typically the case – a number of jazz concerts. Some of those concerts mirrored the activity of Joan Chamorro’s work with the SAJB big band, a number of its spin-off projects, and invited professional musicians. However, other jazz bands were also invited – in the first festival as many as ten big bands!

In 2018 Joan Chamorro expanded the festival to include the educational side of the SAJB project. The Jazz Education Stage was introduced as an important part of the festival, where Joan, invited professionals, and SAJB seniors/alumni led master classes and workshops in jazz music. SAJB members participated, and anyone else was invited to register for the sessions of the Jazz Education Stage. Those who played an instrument could bring it and participate, but you could also, as an ordinary festival visitor, register and sit in just to see and listen to what happened in the educational sessions – which meant that you did not have to be a musician to attend. Not least, the educational sessions became a way for festival participants to get to know each other, socially and music wise.

The Jazzing Festival 2023

Together with my wife, I have experienced quite a few concerts by SAJB and its spin-off projects, in Barcelona and in other European cities, but the festival September 1-3, 2023, was our first Jazzing Festival. There has been a lot of communication among fans about the Jazzing Festivals, but for some reason we have not until this year come around to visit Barcelona in September, when the festival celebrated its 10-year anniversary.

This festival was wonderful in many ways. The concerts with different groups and bands were exquisite, and members from different bands were mixed in several concerts. The formidable saxophonists Scott Hamilton and Joel Frahm played together with many constellations, to the joy of the audience and the young musicians who got the opportunity to play with these famous musicians. They both know the SAJB project well. Late Saturday night there was a jam session at which musicians of quite different ages played together.

Scott Hamilton, Joel Frahm and the trombonist Alba Pujalso also joined the Jazz Education stage for one session each, where they shared their experiences from music life with the participants. Many questions were raised by the participating young musicians.

The Jazz Education Stage sessions all took place before lunch each day, and Joan Chamorro himself led three master classes (one each day). Those three had the form of rehearsals of three songs that were performed by the participants after the last education session. Do remember that this constellation was a big band of musicians that had themselves registered for the Jazz Education Stage, meaning that they had different experiences of music, and that they had never played together as a band. It was very interesting to study all these education sessions, and then a joy to experience the ‘exam’ of the participants in their performance of the three rehearsed songs.

The very special experience of attending this festival made me analyse the different formats of how I experience live concerts. To attend a single concert is of course precisely that. You go to a concert and enjoy it, and there is after that nothing more than your memories of that particular concert, and maybe a CD that you bought at the concert venue. It can be a wonderful concert, which gives you wonderful memories, but there is nothing more around that single concert.

A music festival is generally a number of such single concerts arranged in one location (often a city), within a certain period of time, and within a more or less broad theme such as jazz. There need not be any other connections between the festival concerts. The bigger the city, and the more spread out the concerts are in time and/or geography, the less you get the feeling of a festival. When I visit such a festival, I do so to enjoy a few artists that I like, but the festival as such does not contribute much to these different music experiences. This is where I believe the Sant Andreu Jazzing Festival differs in an interesting way from most other jazz and other music festivals. I am aware of the fact that the Sant Andreu Jazzing Festival has developed over time. My analysis reflects the current state of the festival.

The multitude of SAJB constellations, and the diversity of jazz subgenres played by them, means that these constellations offer almost enough music to form a festival by themselves. However, an important part of the SAJB culture would then be missing – the welcoming of outside influences and the willingness to share and learn. So, a number of well-known professional jazz musicians are always invited to the festival, as well as other young big bands. Within many of the concerts, and in the sessions of the Jazz Education Stage, musicians meet, collaborate, and learn. And the festival visitors who cannot play themselves, but nevertheless love music, are invited to everything.

As the centre of a Sant Andreu Jazzing Festival is Joan Chamorro and the different SAJB constellations, there is at a Jazzing festival a base of the very special SAJB culture. As other invited musicians already have connections to Joan Chamorro and the SAJB, they easily contribute to that cultural frame. The collaboration on stage rests on a professional and serious approach, but at the same time it seems fun, warm and informal.

I would say that the audience also fits into the cultural frame. We are there because we love the music and the culture of Joan and the SAJB, and being there almost feels like being at a big (extended) family party. During breaks we meet and talk to both musicians and fan friends from other parts of the world. We can also meet and talk to the different important people who administrate SAJB activities, run the site of Joan and the SAJB, and who record concerts on audio and video. We might also get the chance to meet and say hello to parents and other relatives to the young musicians, which of course contributes to the feeling of a family party.

As does the fact that the festival is arranged at one single venue, an old textile factory in the local Barcelona district of Sant Andreu. In that complex, the concerts of the festival were played in a big hall, and the sessions of the Education Stage in another hall. Outside the concert hall there was a large foyer where you could mingle, have a drink and/or something to eat, and also buy CDs and SAJB T-shirts. But as the weather was beautiful, you could also socialize outside in the old factory area. A common meal, a paella (Paejazzing), was as a tradition served outside on the last day of the festival.

However, do not jump to the conclusion that the local aspect of the festival means that the music was not of high quality. Joan, the SAJB and the festival are world class in their cultural domain, which is shown by the fact that visitors of the festival come from many different countries of the world.

So, I recommend you to one day visit the Sant Andreu Jazzing Festival – a festival with a soul. Just to get a flavour of what we experienced at the Jazzing Festival 2023, here are a few videos, shot by festival visitors.

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“The Masters Show” with Élia Bastida, Scott Hamilton and Joel Frahm.
Recorded by Philippe Aubert.

Links to earlier articles about Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band Formula, October 2018

Joan Chamorro, August 2019

Why do we love the Sant Andreu Jazz Band?, June 2020

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band in pandemic times, April 2021

Dear Joan, December 2021

We meet Sant Andreu Jazz again, in Stockholm!, June 2023



Sant Andreu Reunion Jazz Band at the Blue House Youth Jazz Festival

Early this year (2023) I discovered that Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Reunion Jazz Band from Barcelona would be guests of the annual Blue House Youth Jazz Festival in Stockholm, March 24-26. The festival welcomes 400 pupils/students and teachers for three intensive days of workshops, lectures and concerts. Invited professionals give the lectures, lead the workshops and perform. There is also a competition between the participating young jazz groups and another one between the participating young big bands.

Sant Andreu Reunion Jazz Band is a combination of members from different generations of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, albeit not the youngest. Joan and the band’s role at the festival was to lead workshops, give concerts and in general to be a role model band for the young Swedish bands and their leaders. Maybe some of you, by this description of the festival, are reminded of Joan Chamorro’s own Jazzing Festival in Sant Andreu, Barcelona. But there were of course many differences and one significant difference is that Joan Chamorro would never organise a competition in music. (I will come back to this.)    

Of course, my wife Margareta and I decided to attend the festival. Our aim was to enjoy the different parts of the festival, not least the closing concert by Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Reunion Jazz Band, but also to study the methods of the workshops. We also agreed with Joan Chamorro to meet for an interview after the concert.

However, the arrangers made it clear that the only part of the festival open to the public was the last day’s competition and the closing concert by Joan and his band. (This restriction was another difference to the Jazzing Festival in Barcelona.) So, we attended part of the competition and the closing concert, and afterwards we met with Joan. To our great joy, band member Èlia Bastida also came along to meet us, and if needed to help with translations. The reunion band’s concert was only 45 minutes, but every minute was a joy! It was one of those occasions when you ask yourself if you have ever heard a Sant Andreu Band constellation sounding better. That may or may not be accurate, but was certainly how I felt. I was overwhelmed, not least by the vocals included in every piece.

Another café interview

After the concert, we went, along with Joan and Èlia, to the same café where I interviewed Joan, Èlia and Carla Motis almost five years ago. That interview resulted in the article The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula and I wanted to follow up with Joan on parts of that interview, and bits from later articles. Our meeting became partly an interview, partly an enjoyable and interesting conversation.

Joan, Èlia, Bengt-Ove and Margareta

The latest SAJB-related concert that Margareta and I attended, before this Stockholm concert, was the SAJB anniversary concert on December 10, 2021, in the Palau de la Música, Barcelona. That was a very special concert for the audience, not least because Joan Chamorro had managed to gather together almost all young musicians who have been members of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band during its first 15 years – some 70 musicians. Joan confirms that this anniversary concert was also a very special experience for the musicians on stage. It was an unusually big and difficult project to carry out, but it was very successful, and it was great to do this together with all former and current SAJB-musicians.

I ask Joan what the plans are for the reunion band, the Sant Andreu Reunion Jazz Band. “I start new projects every year”, says Joan, “and this band is one of my new projects”. As Joan puts it, he has started to “recycle” musicians. It is not far-fetched to believe that this new idea is the fruit of the ambition to gather musicians from different SAJB generations to celebrate the SAJB’s anniversary in 2021. (As he also did with the Joan Chamorro Presenta’s Big Band.)

Sant Andreu Reunion Jazz Band

All members of this band are soloists and are good at improvising. Joan is also happy that several members also sing very well.

Every piece in the Stockholm performance included vocals with a lead singer and sometimes backup vocals. Joan earlier put together three projects profiling the vocal side of SAJB – La Màgia de la Veu 1, 2 and 3. Although this project has the same profile, Joan did not want to use that label again. The reunion aspect was instead highlighted. These are the members of the reunion band, the first six of which sing lead vocals.

• Èlia Bastida, violin, tenor sax, vocals
• Koldo Munné, alto & baritone sax, vocals
• Joan Martí, soprano & tenor sax, flute, vocals
• Clàudia Rostey, trombone, vocals
• Edu Ferrer, alto & baritone sax, vocals
• Perot Rigau, trombone, vocals
• Lola Peñaranda, tenor sax
• Elsa Armengou, trumpet
• Gerard Peñaranda, trumpet
• Pau Garcia, piano, sax
• Joan Chamorro, double bass, director
• Arnau Juliá, drums

The band has already played several concerts in various places, and I would not be surprised if it continues to play for quite some time – and maybe eventually develops into something else.

Sant Andreu Jazz Band

Our conversation then moved on to the current version of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. Joan is amazed about how well everything works currently and feels that, overall, the performance of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band has improved. Many good musicians, who had reached a high level in the band, have left, but the band’s level is still rising meaning that the benchmark that the seniors set for the beginners to reach is also climbing. In particular, there are several good improvisers and vocalists in the band now.

Furthermore, Joan tells us that there are no problems at all with attitudes these days as has sometimes been the case in the past. All young players are happy and everyone is “on track”. Joan feels that the way the band now works is “like magic”; that the energy of the band is currently the best ever.

Sant Andreu Jazz Band of today

To me, this sounds as if Joan and the band are harvesting the fruits of all the work done over the years. Maybe the culture has even reached a state where it is self-reinforcing? As the band becomes increasingly well-known and acknowledged, this stronger “brand” of the band might strengthen the incentive for everyone to be part of the culture and contribute.

Values, behaviour and culture

So, what are the cultural traits that Joan has developed so well? In my interview five years ago, I asked about the basic concept of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. Joan pointed out four principles, mainly cultural in character.

• Firstly, the young musicians need to hear a lot of jazz. Listening makes you feel the qualities and the soul of the music, and how it differs from other kinds of music. Of course, you have to learn the songs and to play your instrument, but hearing jazz played is more important than the command of transcriptions.
• Secondly, there is the belief that young people, children and teenagers, actually can play jazz. As a leader and teacher of young musicians you have to have that belief. The young musicians then feel your confidence in them, and they also feel their own confidence in themselves.
• Thirdly, there is the sense of presence. When you play you have to be there, not somewhere else. You have to be in the music and together with the others in the group. You must not observe yourself from the outside, from the views of spectators or a camera (whether or not they are present). Such a preoccupation would split your focus.
• Fourthly, there is the positive energy of the group. The younger learn from the older and you are perceived as important regardless of the size of your contribution. And eventually the younger become more experienced and take on the roles of seniors and role models. (Boström, Bengt-Ove: The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula, 2018.)

I showed these quotes from my old article to Joan, and he felt that the principles remain the same. I also referred to Garry Berman’s interesting article from February 2022, where Joan talks about values and behaviour that are needed to make a group function.

I try to emphasize things like punctuality, effort, commitment, and other values ​​that are important to me, such as gratitude, humility, generosity, sincerity, honesty, etc. Dedicating yourself to music is not just playing your instrument well. We are part of a community and for things to work, we have to be people, as far as possible, serious with our work and respectful in all aspects, with the rest of the musicians and of course, with the public that listen.” (Berman, Garry: Joan Chamorro and the SAJB: Past, Present, and Future, 2022.)

These are important values and behaviour that Joan Chamorro wants to promote when educating the band members, as Joan has put it, “both as musicians and as people”. The values and the behaviour form a positive band culture, but also individual qualities that members can possess through life.

Every band member has, of course, heard Joan talk about the importance of these values and the behaviour emanating from them. But as culture is such an important dimension of the quality of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, I ask what Joan has done to promote and maintain a good culture.

There are two ways, says Joan. Firstly, I must lead by example. For example, as I require the members of a group to be on time, I should always be on time myself. And as I require humility, I must act with humility myself, etc. And secondly, if members do not respect the values of the culture, I must tell them to do so. On some occasions, it can be just by pointing out that a behaviour or an attitude is a deviation from what is expected. If someone shows a more general attitude problem over time, a longer conversation might be needed.

The two ways that Joan mentions are not new, or surprising, tools to educate young people, but of course, they need to be more than theory. They must be put into practice.

As a band leader Joan has a lot to teach other music leaders. When Joan gives lectures to teachers, he does not only speak about ways to teach music, he also talks about the importance of cultural aspects, such as the ones above. The musical and cultural aspects are important in themselves, but he believes that they also reinforce each other.

Comparisons and competition

I would argue that there is another trait of thought that can be seen as part of the culture that Joan wants to promote, and now we return to why Joan does not like music contests. In Garry Berman’s earlier mentioned article, Joan expresses this idea:

I like to think of music as something that isn’t a race to see who gets to the finish line first. It is a race without end, and during that journey, we musicians learn, improve, evolve, change, etc.” (Berman, Garry: Joan Chamorro and the SAJB: Past, Present, and Future, 2022.)

So, when I ask Joan about his views on the Blue House Youth Jazz Festival, he is very happy about the workshops and the concerts, and he expresses how nice it has been to meet all musicians, but then he ends by commenting on the festival contest between bands by stating that “you cannot compete in music”, a statement closely connected to his resistance to seeing music as a race between musicians.

But what about fans’ perspective, I ask Joan. I think it is clear from media posts that some fans have their favourites who receive more attention – typically girls rather than boys.

Fans might have favourites, but those are not my opinions, says Joan. “I never say that someone is my favourite. I treat everyone the same, young and old, boys and girls. Maybe singers have gained more attention from the fans, and more girls than boys used to sing in the band – but the trend now is that also boys come strong as singers.”

At this point Èlia had to leave us for a meeting, but Margareta and I continued our conversation with Joan for quite some time. Joan was very generous with his time this evening, but all good things sooner or later come to an end. We heartly thanked Joan for sharing the time with us at the café, and he left to join the band members.

When you have had a discussion with Joan, you tend to continue to think about the subjects afterwards. This occasion was no exception. Together with Margareta, I continued to reflect on the values and the culture that Joan wants to promote, and which he has so successfully developed in the SAJB.

Reflections

What I was contemplating, and still am, is what these values and this culture mean to us, the fans of Joan Chamorro and the SAJB.

Of course, we can enjoy the result of the values and culture in terms of magnificent music, and we can also enjoy and praise what we apprehend of the culture as such. But what do the values mean to our fan approach to the SAJB? What would happen if we embraced the values to the extent that we used them as guidelines for our own approach and behaviour towards the SAJB and its members? Can we, by adopting these values, even help Joan in developing the SAJB?

Let’s start with Joan’s statements about musical contests. Of course, one can see that different musicians have reached different levels in their development but comparing individual musicians with themselves might be of more interest; to see and appreciate the development of each individual. This is a natural view for a person who in practice educates young people, like Joan does, but it might also be a view of more general relevance for music life.

Adding to this philosophical view on competition there is also the problem of measuring quality. Competition rests on the idea that you can compare performances with some degree of objectivity, but there is always a measure of subjectivity involved in rating individual performances.

The non-competition value is closely related to the value that all SAJB musicians are perceived as important in the band, regardless of the size of their contribution. Together these two values form a culture where mutual appraisal and encouragement are more important than competition as driving forces of development. Of course, you never know what goes on in people’s minds, but I believe that the musicians’ behaviour towards each other on stage supports the case that these positive values are strong within the SAJB.

Equality

The value that each band member is important regardless of contribution has implications for equality. Joan treats everyone equally, but do we as fans always act like that? As I note above, often the girls, who have frequently been the vocalists, have appeared to garner the greater attention from fans in media posts. I think that fans who want to act in harmony with SAJB values, should embrace the same equality ethos as does the band.

This ethos is valid not only on the group level (boys and girls) but also on the individual level, meaning that everyone should get the same level of attention. Of course, I do not believe that this “ideal” is practically possible, and one cannot deny fans to have favourites. But it is one thing for fans to appreciate some individual musicians more than others, and quite another thing to proclaim, or in other ways make it obvious on social media, who their favourites are, I would argue.

Joan points out that the number of boys who are very good vocalists has increased, so, if the level of attention paid is dependent on the strength of vocalists’ performances, the difference in attention paid between the boys and girls will diminish or even disappear. If such disparities in the level of attention persist, the explanation for them lies elsewhere. Maybe we after all do not pay more attention to the voice as an instrument of expression than to other instruments of expression? But if we do, why is it right to do so?

All in all, my belief is that Joan and the SAJB would benefit from a more evenly spread attention from its fans.

Presence

One important principle that Joan has tried to implement in the band (I believe successfully) is the importance of presence, not thinking about yourself from the outside. The young musicians very much behave as serious musicians on stage. They concentrate, sometimes closing their eyes to get deeper into the music, and seldom smile – just like many professionals. I have read a few comments on social media in which fans complain about the serious expression of SAJB musicians, probably expecting these young adults to appear to be having more fun. But why? Joan trains them to be serious about their music, which often leads to intense concentration and a measure of inwardness.

The reason he wants the young musicians to refrain from imagining themselves from the outside (like the object of a camera) is that such a preoccupation would disturb their concentration on being in the music together with their fellow band members. Therefore, we should not demand any other behaviour from the young musicians than that which comes naturally to them when concentrating on the music – like we do with all professional jazz musicians.

As a matter of fact, any comment from fans on looks is irrelevant to the musical professionalism and quality that Joan wants to promote with the students – and such comments can disturb the students’ concentration on being in the music. Therefore, I believe that we, by refraining from comments on looks, help Joan with the SAJB project.

A musical garden

Joan Chamorro’s many different music projects are like parts of a ‘musical garden’ where a lot of different ‘garden arrangements’ are created and nurtured. They continue to develop or give way to new projects – and maybe they return later. The garden develops all the time.

The different projects, in one way or another, all emanate from Joan and his base project, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band. But, although Joan is behind all the projects, he tries to give room for the different wishes and profiles of the musicians involved. And of course, he develops individuals as well as the groups, often by giving them challenging musical tasks and by paying attention to the cultural aspects of the band.

Along the way, the seniors might be involved in co-leading projects, thereby getting ready for the day when they start their own careers outside the SAJB. But ‘outside’ might be a tricky condition to determine. Musical networks are by nature not strictly defined. For instance, in the Meraki project of Èlia Bastida and Carolina Alabau, we find Joan Chamorro himself and some other musicians accompanying Èlia and Carolina in some of the songs.

One of the early SAJB members who is now a member of the Reunion band is Edu Ferrer; he is one of several prominent singers, a talent he showed early on as a young SAJB musician. Edu likes to sing songs from the Sinatra songbook, and he received several opportunities to do so in the Stockholm concert. Edu is also part of the project Joan Chamorro trio & Edu Ferrer tribute to Frank Sinatra.

Joan Chamorro trio & Edu Ferrer tribute to Frank Sinatra

The SAJB alumni Edu Ferrer and the Sinatra project is only one of many project examples. Below, you can find all ongoing projects along with their different members with different musicians frequently appearing in different contexts.

It is natural that members of the SAJB spin-off projects are experienced, but there are exceptions. In the project the Sant Andreu Dixieland Band, Joan Chamorro has assembled the youngest members of the current Sant Andreu Jazz band. The Joan Chamorro ‘garden of music‘ grows, evolves and flourishes! And as many SAJB fans know, even outside Joan’s ‘musical garden’ there are many projects grown from SAJB seeds.

Sant Andreu Dixieland Band

Joan Chamorro’s current projects

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band

• Sander Theuns, alto & soprano sax
• Pere Company, tenor sax, clarinet, and vocals
• Shanti Ming, alto sax
• Koldo Munné, alto & baritone saxes, vocals
• Lola Peñaranda, tenor sax and clarinet
• Andreu Romero, tenor & baritone sax
• Noa Abike Bazuaye, alto sax
• Bernat Benavente, alto sax
• Martí Costalago, trumpet
• Max Munné, trumpet
• Gerard Peñaranda, trumpet
• Elsa Armengou, trumpet
• Martha Vives, trumpet
• Luc Martín, trombone
• Perot Rigau, trombone, vocals
• Claudia Rostey, trombone, vocals
• Hugo Vlach, trombone
• Anna Ndiaye, piano, vocals
• Pau García, piano
• Nils Theuns, drums
• Blai Forns, drums
• Didac Moya, drums
• Jordi Herrera, double bass
• Mateu Teixidó, double bass

Sant Andreu Reunion Band

• Èlia Bastida, violin, tenor sax, vocals
• Koldo Munné, alto & baritone sax, vocals
• Joan Martí, soprano & tenor sax, flute, vocals
• Clàudia Rostey, trombone, vocals
• Edu Ferrer, alto & baritone sax, vocals
• Perot Rigau, trombone, vocals
• Lola Peñaranda, tenor sax
• Elsa Armengou, trumpet
• Gerard Peñaranda, trumpet
• Pau Garcia, piano, sax
• Joan Chamorro, double bass, director
• Arnau Juliá, drums

Sant Andreu Dixieland Band

• Martí Costalago, trumpet
• Sander Theuns, soprano & alto sax
• Pere Company, tenor sax, clarinet, vocals
• Luc Martin, trombone
• Anna Ndyae, Pau Garcia, piano
• Jordi Herrera, double bass
• Nils Theuns, drums

Joan Chamorro trio & Èlia Bastida & Koldo Munné

• Joan Chamorro, double bass
• Josep Traver, guitar
• Arnau Julià, drums
• Èlia Bastida, tenor sax, violin, vocals
• Koldo Munné, alto sax, vocals

Brazilian Quintet

• Joan Chamorro, double bass
• Josep Traver, guitar
• Arnau Julià, drums
• Èlia Bastida, violin, tenor sax, vocals
• Koldo Munné, alto sax, vocals

Joan Chamorro Big Four

• Joan Chamorro, double bass
• Josep Traver, guitar
• Èlia Bastida, violin, tenor sax, vocals
• Koldo Munné, alto sax, vocals

Joan Chamorro trio & Edu Ferrer tribute to Frank Sinatra

• Edu Ferrer, vocals
• Joan Chamorro, double bass
• Marc Martín, piano
• Arnau Julía, drums

To the memory of Bo Sybrandt Hansen

I have come to know some of my friends through music. I am not a musician myself, but I find that different genres and musicians strongly appeal to my emotions. Joan Chamorro and his project the Sant Andreu Jazz Band are among those who do. I found the SAJB on YouTube in 2016, and wrote a short story for my music page, Musik.pm.

In the SAJB project, Joan Chamorro combines a very interesting jazz education project with performances on a high-quality level by the young musicians. The members of the band are of different ages, but they are all young and serious about their music. The band is irresistible.

So, I have continued to write about the project. As Joan Chamorro shares stories written about the SAJB on social media, SAJB fans can easily find them. One of Joan Chamorro’s and the SAJB’s followers was Bo Sybrandt Hansen from Denmark. He found one of my stories, and I believe it was The Sant Andreu Jazz Band formula. That story was based on an interview with Joan Chamorro and the two young musicians Èlia Bastida and Carla Motis. I conducted the interview in conjunction with a SAJB concert in Stockholm in October 2018. Bo commented on the story in a positive way, and of course I was happy about that. We began to communicate.

In the end of the interview, I asked Joan, Èlia and Carla where to see the band next time. They strongly advised me to come to Barcelona to see the band at the Palau de la Música next month. (November 28, 2018). So, I did together with my wife. At the concert (which was wonderful), we met Bo and another SAJB fan, Pertti Haikonen from Finland, for the first time.

On New Year’s Day, 2020, the American writer and SAJB fan Garry Berman published an interesting article on the SAJB. Bo and I found it and gave him well earned credit. Later, Bo and Garry approached me and asked if I wanted to take part in a discussion about how we could spread the word about Joan and the SAJB. We discussed different ways, and in the end decided that a Facebook group probably would be the best. The discussion was interesting, and I came to know Bo and Garry better. We started the Facebook group Friends of Sant Andreu Jazz Band in March 2020.

I was active in the discussion and the start-up of the group, but after a few weeks I had to return to my other commitments. However, we continued to be friends and from time to time we communicated – most often about the SAJB. Bo and Garry developed the group into a highly active forum with more than 8000 members, paying their tribute to Joan, the SAJB and its current and former members. The group is still growing.

In November 2021, Joan Chamorro and three senior members of the SAJB – Alba Armengou, Èlia Bastida and Alba Esteban – came to Sweden for a short tour. Bo came for one of the concerts, and my wife and I were lucky to have Bo as our guest. After the concert we had an interesting late-night discussion about the SAJB, different music experiences and life in general.

Later that year we met Bo again in Palau de la Música, Barcelona. During that year, the SAJB project celebrated its 15 years anniversary. They did so with a number of different concerts. On December 10, Joan had managed to gather almost all young musicians that had been part of the SAJB project for a marvellous concert. The Palau de la Música was full of enthusiastic SAJB fans, and the musicians as well as the audience radiated happiness, warmth, and joy.

In July 2022, my wife and I went to Aarhus for a concert with Diana Krall, and I told Bo about it. He was not interested in the concert, but he wanted to come and show us Aarhus, a city where he had lived several years. We had lunch together, and then he very generously spent the day with us as our guide.

However, we found that communication on Messenger and e-mail was not efficient enough, so we decided to meet and spend one full day on sharing and evaluating different ideas, including what kind of valuable contacts we had. Bo would arrive the day before and leave the day after our discussions. We were of course prepared to face the fact that we might conclude that this was not a realistic idea, but we did not want to leave the idea before we had had a serious discussion about it. And I believe we both wanted to meet again, regardless of why we would meet.

Bo was to come by ferry from Denmark on a Friday evening. That evening I waited for him by the ferry terminal in Gothenburg. There were not many passengers on the ferry that day, so it was easy to see that Bo was not among them. I tried to reach him on all the platforms that we used to communicate on, but there was no answer. So, after half an hour I went home, where my wife waited with the dinner that we had planned to have with Bo. We had our dinner without him, and from time to time I looked for messages from Bo on my mobile phone. There were not any.

The next day I was informed by a member of Bo´s family that Bo unexpectedly had passed away the day before.

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Of course, Bo had many friends, and he shared his love of the SAJB with many of them. In fact, Bo’s and Garry’s work to build and develop the Facebook group Friends of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band (FOSAJB) has brought many SAJB friends together on this common communication platform. We all share the same interest and love that Bo had, the interest and the love of the SAJB. With FOSAJB we can enjoy and develop what we love with the SAJB, and we can, old or young, develop friendship relations with other SAJB fans. The communication platform is there, and it is not difficult to find new friends, regardless of the fact that some of us are getting old.

Dear Bo, thank you for your friendship.

–

From the Anniversary concert December 10, 2021

Over the years, Joan and the band have attracted many well-known professional jazz musicians as collaborators. Moreover, Joan Chamorro and the band continuously generate spin-off projects, involving current and former members of SAJB and professional musicians. The band and the spin-off projects have recorded a very large number of albums, and hundreds of recordings of wonderful performances can be found on YouTube.

Many of the fans follow Joan and the SAJB, and the alumni of the band, through membership in the very active Facebook groups Friends of Sant Andreu Jazz Band (in English) or Amis du Sant Andreu Jazz Band (in French).

Like everyone else, Joan and the SAJB were hard hit by the pandemic, but they muddled through, and last year they were able to celebrate their 15-year anniversary, with a fantastic climax in the Palau de la Música on December 10, 2021 – a concert at which almost everyone who had been part of  the band during the 15 years performed.

Today, Joan Chamorro celebrates a personal anniversary – his 60^th birthday. We are many who want to congratulate Joan on his birthday, and to thank him for what he has created for us to enjoy in so many ways. For myself, I do so by sharing three earlier articles in which I have tried to understand and write a portrait of Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band project.

Congratulations and thank you, Joan!

Joan Chamorro

Why do we love the Sant Andreu Jazz Band?

Dear Joan

Our Saturday night dinners

We are at home. It is Saturday and dinner is prepared. With food, wine and music. With memories, plans and hopes. With ideas and emotions. My wife and I know that we will have enough to enjoy and discuss for the rest of the evening. We commence the meal by tasting the wine, and then we are on our way.

Like people in general we talk about everyday planning issues, family, friends, society, culture, politics, etc. Our associations of thoughts lead the conversation forward. However, music is an essential part of our dinner, not only to colour the atmosphere. Many songs recall memories of concerts and performances that we have attended. Such as Melody Gardot and Kurt Elling in Molde, Diana Krall and Keren Ann in Paris, Gin Wigmore in Munich, the Sant Andreu Jazz Band in Barcelona, Cécile McLorin Salvant in Oslo, Mariza and Carminho in Gothenburg etc. Many memories stem from experiences in the fado houses of Lisbon with performances by fadistas like Lina, Maria Ana Bobone, Joana Amendoeira, Pedro Moutinho, Rodrigo Costa Félix and many more. Music by those musicians that we have met on a personal basis brings special memories.

Sometimes our conversation leads us to have a look at a musician’s tour schedule. If we find an interesting concert at a time and in a place that is convenient to us, plans are sometimes made, and concert tickets might be bought before the meal is over.

But music also makes us travel in our minds to cultures and countries that we have not visited, and probably never will – Cap Verde, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and other countries that are hard to reach from our country in a climate-friendly way.

Some of the music we listen to comes from our CD collection. The rest is easy to access through streaming services. There, we can choose to listen to an album or a playlist with a collection of different musicians.

When we let the streaming service lead our way from a starting point that we have chosen ourselves, such as a playlist with favourite music, the streaming service adds more music for us to listen to – a mix of songs that we already know and songs that we have never heard before. Some of the new ones are fabulous, and we add them to our playlist. If it is a newfound artist, we can investigate that artist further another day. Therefore, a musical dinner can become a night of musical expansion.

Often the music addresses us in a way that calls for a response. Our responses might have the form of a question or a comment. “Who is this now again?” “That harmony was beautiful!” “This sounds like X!” “I must find out who that singer (or instrumentalist) is! “This band has brought us so much joy!” These responses interrupt the current subject of our discussion for a minute or two, and sometimes the interruptions put us on new conversational tracks. It is as if we are three individuals around the table – my wife, myself and the music. Creating atmosphere, yes, but the music is not like wallpaper. It is a living thing, communicating with us.

A fado experience

Now for something completely different. This is an excerpt from my article A fado experience from 2016. My wife and I had come to experience fado in the world capital of fado, Lisbon. But as we started our first visit to Portugal by spending a couple of days in Porto, it so happened that the first fado house we visited was there. This is the story.

It is the 25th of October and we go to Casa da Marinquinhas, a fado house that a Facebook friend who is herself a fadista has recommended.  It is not easy to find the place among the irregular small streets and alleys alongside central Porto. The houses are very old and there are not many people in the sparsely lit streets. If it had not been for the recommendation, we would probably have avoided that part of the city at night-time. But, once there, we are warmly welcomed and invited to our booked table.

After four hours we have had a tasty meal interspersed by at least six performances by different fadistas, male and female, and two guitarristas. The man who seems to run the place is strict in his design of the fado experience. Food is ordered and served in sequences to fit in between the performances. Before every performance the lights in the small restaurant go down, and only a couple of tiny spotlights light up a small spot in the centre of the room. There is no stage. The musicians are on the same level as us. It is totally quiet. No one continues to eat, and we are all focused on what is going to happen.

And then one of the most beautiful combinations of instruments – the Portuguese and the classical guitar – starts to colour the background of the fado song. Soft, but nevertheless energetic. They do so with a delicate fabric of tones in which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish who is contributing which thread. Still, the different sounds of the two guitars are very distinct.

After a short and beautiful guitar introduction, often with a bittersweet colour, the fadista starts to sing. And the song is no less beautiful. The fadista tells the emotional story (most often a sad one) with a strong expression, closed eyes, and he/she does not open them until a storm of applause releases the tension of the fadista and the audience. There is never a second of silence between the song and the applause. It is as if the concentration of the strong emotions that the fadista and the other musicians create is released when the last forceful tones of the guitars and the fadista are hit.

As the experienced visitor of fado houses now realizes, this is not a description of what goes on only in Casa da Marinquinhas, but with variations in every fado house. At its best the fado experience is created in a close relation between fadistas, guitarristas and fado house guests. Fadistas sometimes say that they need the community with the audience to create genuine and honest fado. Guests are sometimes informed that “you and your silence are important parts of the fado experience”.  This message has two parts. It means that the guests of fado houses are co-creators of the fado experience – but also that the guests cannot be co-creators if they disturb the fadistas, themselves or other guests by talking, eating, or just being focused on something else than the performance. Fado is serious business, and if you are not interested in participating on these terms you should probably do something else. It might sound a little bit too strict to some of you, but why not give it a try? You will be rewarded.

The puzzle

If I very much appreciate the strict separation of conversation and eating from the music performances in a fado house, why do I enjoy that my wife and I always listen to music while having our weekend dinners, with a lot of conversation? Could it be a matter of the presence or absence of fado music? No, there are frequent examples of fado music during our dinners, and my preference for separating conversation from music is not limited to fado houses. It is valid for any restaurant with music performance, and of course for performances in concert halls.

However, the conditions of our Saturday dinners point to several other possible explanations. We are only two people, and we both feel that this is a pleasurable way to be together. Being only us in the room, we do not disturb anyone else and no one else disturbs us. The music we listen to is recorded music. If we had invited musicians to perform in our home, we would of course not have disturbed the interaction between the musicians and us by talking or eating.

Our musical taste, and our experiences of music are about the same. We appreciate listening to our old favourites, and we appreciate widening our experiences of music. We know each other so well that the music does not demand a high level of split focus capability for us to be able to enjoy the music while talking. Whenever we feel that the music needs a higher degree of attention, we can within an instant give that level of attention.

I do not claim that the experience of music is the same during our dinners at home as it is at a fado house or in a concert hall. It is something else, but it has qualities that I cannot find in a fado house or at other kinds of live performances. So, I would not like to live without the kind of dinners with music that we have at least once every weekend – and I would not like to live without experiences like those in a fado house or a concert hall.

Musik.pm after hours

If you want to share some of our music experiences, here is a link to one of our play lists on Spotify. Just click the image below and enjoy!

Songs from this list will from time to time show up on the Facebook page and Twitter account of Musik.pm.

Dear Joan,

I am one of many who want to thank you deeply for creating the project of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band and all its related spin-off activities. You have created and developed this project such that it has become an important concern for many music lovers all around the world, including professional musicians. This is my tribute to what you have achieved.

How right you were to combine these two ambitions, to the benefit of both! The combination of developing musical qualities as well as social and human qualities has been very successful, and the combination has made many of us love your project in a way that goes beyond appreciation of the high-quality music itself.

The project of the Sant Andreu Jazz Band seems to me to form a sort of “ideal society” – a community where everyone gets the opportunity to develop with the help of the leader, fellow band members and external professionals.

Yes, quite a few professionals play together with you and the band from time to time. These collaborations show the attractiveness of your project, and they help to develop the band and its members.

I know how hard you and the students work in practising and rehearsing together. The results in terms of wonderful concerts, videos and albums are part of the educational side of the project. They also help to cover the band’s costs, which means that neither the young musicians, nor their parents, have to pay any fees. This of course means that the band has to be attractive enough for people to buy concert tickets and albums. You and the young musicians have been able to create this attractiveness.

This quality of your work really impresses me. Instead of playing safe and continuing with the band that you have once selected and developed, you let the older members get on in life, and you all the time find new young musicians to recruit. In that respect, it is like a school, but your model in many ways differs a lot from institutional schools. The way you mix ages in the band, creating a family-like culture, is a key aspect of the band.    

Leaving the big band of SAJB often does not mean leaving the SAJB environment totally. After leaving, the seniors often continue to collaborate in SAJB’s different spin-off projects. They can do so, and at the same time find new music friends, projects and genres. To be a SAJB alumnus offers many possibilities, not least because you have created many opportunities for the young musicians within SAJB. Many have been able to play more than one instrument within the band, and many have had the opportunity to develop their singing.

Over the years, I have more and more come to realise that you constantly develop your project. There is, of course, a core set of activities, songs, collaborations etc, but there is also always something new. You have a very open mind, a quality that I believe that you have passed on to your young musicians. This is an important legacy.

You have managed to carry on your project in these hard times of the pandemic, ending the anniversary year with a number of activities. You managed to create a new edition of your Jazzing Festival of Sant Andreu, you managed to produce some new “Joan Chamorro presenta” albums with release concerts, and you have been selected as the portrayed artist (Retrat d’Artista) of the Barcelona Jazz Festival 2021. Apart from the well-earned honour, this appointment includes five SAJB-related concerts within the festival.

So, we were there, and what can I say? How can I describe the outstanding mix of music, warmth, happiness and joy that we all experienced in Palau de la Música that night? I have after that concert no words to describe what I feel for you and everyone in the Sant Andreu Jazz Band project. Words fail me. It’s only love.

Best wishes
Bengt-Ove

PS

• I hope we all soon can enjoy this wonderful concert on video!  

• If anyone else reads this letter to Joan, and wants to explore the thoughts expressed above further, they can be found more developed in my articles below, ordered according to date of publication. In the end of each article you will find links to videos with wonderful music by SAJB and related projects.

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band Formula

Added reflections on the Sant Andreu Jazz Band Formula

Joan Chamorro

Why do we love the Sant Andreu Jazz Band?

The Sant Andreu Jazz Band in pandemic times

Photos

The cover image and all photos below are from the anniversary concert December 10, 2021.

All photos above by Lili Bonmati

All photos below by Peter ter Haar and Isabel van der Ven