Portuguese fado music and American jazz saxophone: is there a connection? Oh yeah

Fado music reveals the heart and soul of Portugal

Fado is a style of music that originated in Portugal in the early 19th century. Influences possibly came from the Moors, Arabia and Africa, all of whom the Portuguese had contact with. The Moors were Muslims from North Africa who occupied Portugal and Spain between the 700s and 1500s. They were eventually driven out by the Crusaders, but they left great influences on food, cuisine, architecture, and music.

Many North Americans have never heard of fado, which is not surprising since it is not played on the local commercial radio station. Those I have met and have had the opportunity to listen to usually fall in love with him. Musically, it is very easy on the ears and follows a predictable musical pattern. I think it has similarities to Blues in America. Not so much in the 1, 1V, V harmonic chord progression that the blues is based on, but in the way the music itself came to be and what it means and represents to its people and country today. difficulties, the same things that a blues song is usually about. Sonically it sounds very different.

I hated this music when I was a kid! Sitting in the back seat of my parents’ car, forced to listen to it, not understanding the lyrics, and it sounded so strange next to the pop radio stations I listened to in my spare time. I avoided it when I could and basically forgot about it as I got older.

One day, in my early 20s and on and off on saxophone, I heard a recording of Portuguese jazz saxophonist Rao Kyao playing Fado music on his saxophone, no singing, just beautiful melodies played by a tenor. This put it in a whole new light for me. I guess I started listening to it differently as it was a saxophone speaking to me instead of an old Portuguese singer singing about things I couldn’t understand, although I could understand this… Listen to Rao Kyao

The typical instrumentation is 2 Portuguese guitars which in Portuguese is called a guitara and 2 regular nylon string acoustic guitars which the Portuguese call a viola.

Fado’s biggest star was Amalia Rodrigues, who died a few years ago but was active for most of the second half of the 20th century. She was internationally known and appreciated and brought Portugal’s fado to the world. Plays and movies have been written about her about her….

He also brought one of the great American tenor saxophonists into the studio with his group to play saxophone on a few tracks. Don Byas was a contemporary of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, the great saxophonists of the early swing jazz era in America around 1940. But Byas moved to Europe, living in France, Holland, and Denmark in the mid-1940s and staying there for the rest. of his life. Fortunately, while in Portugal for a brief moment, he was called in for a studio session with the great Amalia and thus history was made with one of the greatest tenor saxophonists in American jazz along with the greatest Portuguese fado singer.

If you’ve never listened to fado music, do yourself a favor and check it out!