Mariza is rooted in the Fado tradition and one of the highlights for me was the traditional Fado song "Prima Vera" but she also covers a wide range of Portuguese songs including poems that have been set to music and some songs with African influences (she was born in Mozambique). She even provided what she called a gift to the audience near the end, singing one song in English, the Roy Orbison classic "Crying". It is not usually wise to cover songs that Roy Orbison has recorded for fear of exposing the limitations of your voice but Mariza showed her astonishing power and range in doing so. A very early track "Mi Fado Mio" (My Destiny) demonstrated the high levels of emotion in her singing and she kept an amazing level of intensity throughout.
The band were superb. There was a guitarist and a guy playing the Portuguese guitar and an acoustic "spanish style" bass guitar, a drummer and a pianist/trumpet player. The three guitarists were the mainstay with the others coming on from time to time. They really showed their stuff during an instrumental about half way through but they were great all of the gig. The Portuguese guitarist was playing fast and high most of the time and provided a lot of the "lead". The drummer had an amazing solo nearer the end just to show how good he was.
This was powerful stuff - all heightened by being centre of the front row with Mariza on the edge of the stage right next to us. During the encore she discarded all the technology for one track and got the two guitarists to play acoustically while she sang without the mike. That came across pretty well from two feet away but I am sure she also managed to hit the back of the hall as well.
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