“I was moved tonight to hear these new people singing my fados. The seed is laid”. These were the words of fado singer Carlos do Carmo on Saturday, at the end of the show “The songs of Carlos do Carmo”, which he joined, on the stage of the recent baptized Carlos do Carmo Municipal Auditorium, names like Cristina Branco, Camané, Marcos Rodrigues and Paulo de Carvalho.
The event was attended by prominent personalities of Portuguese political and cultural life, including Prime Minister António Costa, with whom Carlos do Carmo worked for seven years at the Lisbon City Council.
Also present were the secretaries of State Miguel Freitas (For Forest and Rural Development) and José Apolinário (Pescas), as well as Fernando Serra, president of the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), PS deputies Fernando Anastácio and Luís Graça, and the executive body of the autarchy, among other individuals.
“It was with Carlos do Carmo that I discovered and came to love fado and it was with him that I discovered that fado goes beyond vile sadness”, said the prime minister in a small documentary sketch. “Carlos do Carmo is not only an excellent performer, Carlos do Carmo brought us new poets and poets, he bet on the renewal of fado”, said António Costa, recalling the work that the fado singer recorded with Bernardo Sassetti, in 2010.
This was a show punctuated by moments of great emotion, which revisited the memories of Carlos do Carmo's life and offered the audience fados such as “For dying a swallow”, “Lisbon girl and girl”, “Two tears of dew” or “Ballad for a capelist's doll” (a poem composed by José Carlos Ary dos Santos, aged 15).
Small documentary interventions throughout the show revealed stories shared between friends, the result of great complicity. “This is a tribute to fado, but a tribute that is completely deserved”, said, at the time, Camané, for whom “the repertoire of Carlos do Carmo is one of the most incredible things in music around the world”.
“I would have been 10, 12 years old”, recalled Cristina Branco, “and when I heard it for the first time, I immediately associated Carlos with fado… it's a voice with a great class”. “He is a great interpreter and great interpreters must be a reference”, said Marco Rodrigues.
Paulo de Carvalho recalled the night he met Carlos do Carmo, at a nightclub where he used to sing, and also the time when, already with two appearances in the Festival da Canção, he offered to accompany his team, as drummer, on the tours he already has. at the time, they were doing it for the United States.
The show ended with the fado singer giving voice to two fados: “Sombra”, from his new album of originals, based on a poem by Hélia Correia (Award Camões 2015 and Writer Galega Universal 2017) and “Estranha forma de vida” , a fado composed by Amália Rodrigues that was part of the initial repertoire of the fado singer's career and that was at the origin of the romance with his wife, Maria Judite de Sousa Leal.
In the afternoon, the artist and guests took part in the auditorium's baptism ceremony. At the time, Carlos do Carmo referred to this as “a very happy day” and recalled the moment when he was personally invited by the mayor Francisco Martins: “The way he addressed me in the dressing room was disconcerting (smiles)” , “and unexpected”; “It was a particularly beautiful moment”, he considered. “If I authorize? Absolutely, with great pleasure.” The fado singer also referred to feeling flattered with “the fact that this homage appears in life”.
Francisco Martins repeated the word “humility” several times to refer to the way in which Carlos do Carmo readily accepted the invitation that he addressed to him earlier this year.
For the mayor, “we never had a plan B”, although this was an approximation that took four years to bear fruit. “This is a tribute from the smallest municipality in the Algarve”, but “a small tribute to a great man”.
Francisco Martins reiterated the idea that the municipality bets on an eclectic and quality offer prioritized in two perspectives: culture and education, foundations of a society capable of thinking about the future.
“I don't believe Portugal will advance without these two fundamental pillars”, said the fado singer at the time. “Education is the foundation of everything. We have a people massacred by 50 years of dictatorship that does not dissolve in 34 years of freedom. These are things that come in like gas and are difficult to put out!”
During this moment of sharing, the fado singer assumed: “Singing was not in my horizons”, despite being the son of the great fado singer Lucília do Carmo. However, he added, "I managed to make a career, a life in a world that is not easy, in a small and poor country." “Rare artists are left to be discussed intergenerational!” he said, with hope in his eyes.
When asked to answer the question, "What music do you listen to with your eyes closed?" Carlos do Carmo did not hesitate: “The“shadow of your smile”, by Frank Sinatra. The fado singer made his debut last April 7 in New York, at the famous Town Hall, and has been referred to in the press as the “Sinatra of fado”.
A figure by Carlos do Carmo on the building's side façade now attests to the beauty of Ricardo Crista's work dedicated to the artist. “It was very beautiful!”, said António Costa upon arrival at that cultural space.
The artist, born in Setúbal, used a photograph of the honoree as a base and, starting from a 5mm (1,5mx3m) corten steel sheet, he drew and carved in a single continuous line. The work, reproduced in small replicas, was kindly offered to each of the fado singers and also to Marino Freitas (bass), Luís Guerreiro (Portuguese guitar) and Carlos Manuel Proença (classical guitar).
This moment was accompanied by a magnificent exhibition of objects and relevant testimonies from the path of this greatest name in Portuguese music and culture, organized by the Fado Museum. The Latino Grammy of Career that Carlos do Carmo received in 2014 (an unprecedented distinction for a Portuguese artist), a collection of about 20 very special discs, or manuscripts and repertoires from his personal collection were some of the curiosities observed in this exhibition.
Comments