Word: fado
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...talk to me about fado...
...Portugal, such an injuction in the middle of a love song is as standard as June & moon rhymes in the U.S. Fado (pronounced fah-doo), distantly related to kismet, means fate or destiny, and turns up in general conversation as often as "good luck" does...
Best of all, Portugal likes to listen to the fado songs of dark-eyed Amalia Rodrigues. In Lisbon, every taxi driver can point out her house; her appearance in one of the cafés, theaters or casinos is cause for celebration. In the dozen years she has been singing professionally, Europe and Brazil have also savored her fados, but it was not until this season that Amalia was introduced to the U.S. She began what is likely to be a long run at the Manhattan nightclub La Vie en Rose...
...Fado singing seems to have started as the bitter balladry of 18th century Portuguese convicts on their way to forced labor and exile in Portugal's African colonies. Amalia's fado is more sentimental. It differs, too, from the singing of other Portuguese fadistas, just as Bessie Smith's blues differ from Pearl Bailey's. Amalia, who is steeped in her country's Moorish musical tradition, alternates a passionate, reedy wail with a tone of warm caress. She thinks that Rosemary Clooney's current song, Half as Much, is the closest thing...