For her still-in-the-works album, Ramana Vieira, a Vacaville resident and a convincing practitioner of fado, a sort of melancholy Portuguese folks music, stated the theme of the recording facilities on her current travels to Hawaii, Portugal and Madeira.
Extra particularly, she added throughout a phone interview, the 12-tune album — to be launched in early 2023 — issues the great thing about the jacaranda, a tree native to Brazil that produces clusters of aromatic purple blooms that she noticed on the Pacific Ocean chain of islands.
“The great thing about it has simply haunted me,” stated Vieira, who additionally has booked a present, dubbed “A Journey to the World of Portuguese Fado and Past,” at 7 p.m. Nov. 5 at Journey Downtown in Vacaville. Her backing ensemble is Jeff Furtado, guitar; David Parker, bass; and Earl Jackson, drums.
However like several musical artist working in any style, Vieira explores the contours, previous and current, recollections and extra contemporaneous issues, of her life within the new recording, with songs in each Portuguese and English, covers of fado classics and unique compositions.
She “dipped into my Catholic upbringing on “Mom Mary,” and track, stated Vieira, that casts an eye fixed on “the divine feminine.”
“It’s only a tribute to all of the moms of the world,” she stated of the track, including, “We have to salute the moms of the world” and noting her mom is called Mary.
Noting of of the album’s songs shall be carried out through the Nov. 5 present, Vieira stated the brand new recording additionally will characteristic a tribute to a up to date fado artist, Misia, masking “Paixones Diagonais” (Diagonal Passions and pronounced “Pie-shones Deog-go-nigh-ish”).
On a current journey to Portugal, Vieira visited the house — became a museum — that after belonged to Amalia Rodrigues, maybe probably the most well-known fado artist on this planet.
“I obtained to see her wardrobe, her awards, her front room — she clearly entertained individuals — a phenomenal guitarra (guitar),” she recalled. “She collected Japanese antiques. And her parrot continues to be alive. It’s within the kitchen, in a cage within the kitchen.”
She additionally noticed Rodrigues’ memoirs, her books, her efficiency costumes.
“Every little thing was so extravagant,” stated Vieira, including, “She was not very tall.”
In her dwell exhibits, comparable to one earlier this yr within the Sebastopol Middle for the Arts in Sebastopol, she sang a Rodrigues tune, so the go to to her idol’s residence was a part of a private journey and tribute to an idol.
“It was like going to Elvis’ Graceland,” she stated. “It was such a profound expertise being within the residence,” describing it as “a three-story San Francisco Victorian.”
Throughout the newest journey to Portugal, Vieira escorted her 87-year-old father, Abel, to his native Madeira, and Portuguese island within the japanese Atlantic and off the coast of Morocco.
“It was a phenomenal reunion,” she stated. “We had been capable of go to the village he was born in (Boa Ventura) and the home he was raised in.”
One evening on the island, she ate dinner at a restaurant the place, apart from meals, fado is on the menu.”
“The prepare dinner would come out and sing,” stated Vieira, who, in recent times, has carried out in Macau, New York Metropolis, and Hawaii. “The wait employees, a server, would get away in track. I used to be invited as much as sing,” and she or he sang a track by Rodrigues.
“I used to be terrified,” she recalled. “I used to be exhilarated, with a touch of ‘Oh, crap!’ I obtained a praise from the restaurant proprietor. I used to be requested to play with the genuine individuals. You hope you authentically match the depth and caliber of the musicians they been born into.”
Vieira, whose voice is freighted with heft and energy, believed that she “pulled it off. I bear in mind feeling relieved after I used to be achieved. It was my imaginative and prescient of fado. There was large, roaring applause.”
Throughout a earlier interview with The Reporter, Vieira known as fado, its title roughly translating as destiny or future, “a window into the soul” of Portuguese individuals, their roots music, likening it to American blues, or what tango is to Argentina, flamenco to Spain.
The enchantment of fado — pronounced “FAH-doh” — with mysterious origins traced to early Nineteenth-century Portugal and having fun with a rising fan base in the USA (even Madonna sang fado throughout her “Madame X” tour greater than two years in the past), is in its melodies, the hummable a part of every track, she stated.
The music is alluring, passionate, and plaintive, but in addition poetic and dramatic. They’re, greater than anything, love songs of tragedy and longing, or “saudade” in Portuguese, stated Vieira, a local of San Leandro and an alumnus of the American Conservatory Theater program in San Francisco.
References to fado in Portugal surfaced as early because the 1820s, the music sung by girls lamenting their misplaced males at sea, or of a hardscrabble rural or metropolis life, however its roots might have Moorish influences, too.
Whereas the style has its traditions, Vieira, within the earlier interview, stated she thought-about her fado stylings “up to date fado,” the place the outdated world meets the brand new, very very similar to the method taken by different well-known energetic fado vocalists. They embody Ana Moura and Mariza, all of them indebted to Rodrigues, typically known as “The Queen of Fado,” who died in Lisbon in 1999 at age 79. Whereas some males additionally sing fado, it’s best identified at the moment due to its feminine artists.
Vieira, who additionally performs piano throughout her dwell performances, has launched 4 albums: “Sem Ti” (With out You), “Despi A Alma” (roughly translated as Naked Soul), “Lagrimas De Rainha (Tears of the Queen), and “Fado Da Vida” (Future of Life). They’re proof that Vieira not solely pays homage to Rodrigues but in addition indicators that she will compose unique fado music. Notably, her unique composition, “Unido Para Amar,” was performed on the 2006 Olympics opening ceremony.
Pop, rock and jazz might be heard seeping into her sound, a few of it accessible on YouTube, and she or he counts amongst her influences U2, the Irish rock superstars, and Kate Bush, an English singer-songwriter. In the end, Vieira’s sound admittedly is one thing of a mix of U2, Bush and Rodrigues.
That fado is “theatrical and extremely expressive” was an emotional and technical hyperlink to her early days “as a theatrical individual,” she stated within the earlier interview.
Vieira has carried out in musicals at California State College Hayward and at Ohlone Group Faculty in Fremont. She can also be a educated dancer.
Following a Bay Space efficiency some years in the past, she was approached by a report producer who labored with reggae star Bob Marley. She ultimately acquired a suggestion from a San Francisco report label.
Like blues, fado is a sense, a sentiment, and greater than a set of notes. Its energy stems from the human spirit, stated Vieira.
IF YOU GORamana Vieira and EnsembleA Journey to the World of Portuguese Fado and BeyondWhen: 7 p.m. Nov. 5 (doorways open at 6)The place: Journey Downtown, 308 Foremost St., VacavilleTickets: $23 seniors, navy, college students; $28 generalevents.journeydowntownvenue.com
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