Vocalist infuses Portugal's fado with world flavor

There is no real definition for fado, the languid, darkly passionate blues-like folk and popular music form Portugal has so generously given the rest of the world. But when Mariza, the Portuguese star of this genre, speaks generally about what she does as a musician, you can read between the lines and get a very good approximation of what fado means to her.

"Perfect music doesn't exist," she said. "But I want to be perfect. When I am onstage, I use everything, everything I have. I open my Pandora's box and I take out all of my feelings, because [fado] is a music that draws upon all the feelings of a human being - doubt, jealousy, longing, fate, destiny, joy, happiness, passion, love, lost love - everything that is part of life is included inside of this music."

Mariza dos Reis Nunes was born in 1973 in what was then Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique, a colony, or "overseas province," of Portugal in southeastern Africa. Her father was Portuguese, her mother a native of Mozambique. Her family moved to Lisbon in 1976, shortly after two related events - a coup in Portugal and the subsequent liberation of its African colonies. There, Mariza grew up in an area known for its fado clubs and bars, and she spent many nights in her own family's establishment, learning how to sing.

And now, despite her protestations, Mariza is seen, at least by many, as the heir apparent to Amália Rodrigues, the late, great Queen of Fado, despite the presence of other, young Portuguese fadistas such as Dulce Pontes, Katia Guerreiro, and Misia. But Mariza doesn't take the bait.

"Amália is Amália, and Mariza is Mariza," she said. "She doesn't need comparisons to anyone."

It is interesting, if not ironic, though, that a woman from the larger Portuguese-speaking world, the ultramar, is carrying the flag for a song style seen as the quintessential expression of Portuguese traditional culture. But Mariza, explaining that fado's origins were just as North African and West African as they were Iberian, said that her multicultural background was perfect to represent today's Portugal.

"Portugal is a land of many cultures. We go to African places to dance and then Brazilian restaurants to have dinner," she said. "We also have many Chinese people from Macao now in Portugal. We are in the back of Europe, and we have always looked outside of ourselves. It doesn't matter what your color or national origin is, in Portugal we don't care. You can have your own culture and heritage, but still be an integral part of Portugal."

At the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall on Sunday night, Mariza will be performing tunes from Terra, her new CD. Produced by Spain's Javier Limón and featuring appearances from Portuguese rocker Rui Veloso as well as Cuba's Chucho Valdés and Brazil's Ivan Lins, Terra is the latest in a continuing process of personal and professional evolution, said Mariza. If there is anything new in this disc, she said, it is simply the result of eight years of being on the road, nonstop, all over the world.

"On all my records, from the first one through this one, I have grown as a person, growing as a singer, because I study, try to understand different cultures and make friends with fantastic musicians. And I have grown as a woman, too."

"Beijo de Saudade" ("Sentimental Kisses") is the most emocionante (emotionally evocative) of Terra's cuts. A collaboration between Mariza and the Cape Verdean star Tito Paris, the song, a morna from Paris' cultural tradition, is both quintessentially Portuguese and full of the deep longing and out-looking world view of a nation where more people live abroad than on the home islands off the West African coast.

"I am Portuguese, but I am also African, and Tito is from [Cape Verde], but is probably one of the most Portuguese people I know, so we were able to combine both elements," said Mariza. The song's composer, B'Leza, wrote "Beijo de Saudade" as he was dying in Lisbon, she said. "It was an homage, a song of love to his homeland."

The last song on the record is "Smile," the old pop standard written by Charlie Chaplin. The song is the first Mariza has ever recorded in English. She says: "Language does not matter. It does not matter if you are Chinese, or American, or Russian, or Arabian. Music is music, and it has the power of touching people."

Still, she did not want to release a song in English - yet. "I don't sing well in English," she said, self-consciously. But one day last year, during a break in recording, as the musicians were joking and talking, Ivan Lins began playing "Smile" on the piano, and Mariza walked up behind him and sang along.

After she was done, Mariza noticed that nobody was laughing anymore. She really got scared. "I thought, 'What did I do wrong?' " she said. Then she saw Limón. With tears streaming down his face, he said, "That was beautiful." And unbeknownst to her, he had recorded the entire thing.

Music

Mariza

7:30 p.m. Sunday in Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Spruce and Broad Streets.

Tickets: $35 to $56.

Call 215-893-1999. www.kimmelcenter.org.