The Fado Internet is filled with people working tirelessly to get out the word (and content) about fado music, community and culture (and every once in a while a few dollops of jealousy, envy and outright animosity). One of those on the strictly positive side is Joaquim Silva, a man with a large supply of high quality connections to the riches of fado’s deep history.
In thanks and in honor of Joaquim’s work, I want to draw attention to his series “Fadistas esquecidos…ou não” (forgotten fadistas…or not) that he has highlighted in recent weeks. Some of the videos are taken from the deep archives, and all have something strong to recommend them.
Joaquim is pure class. Each of the entries on his Facebook page gives the names of the singer, the musicians, the fado (plus its composer), the lyric (and its author) plus usually a couple of historical nuggets.
Some of these artists can be found on the series “Fados do fado” (reissued in reduced form a few years ago), “Fados da Alvorada” (written about elsewhere on this blog), as well as on the original recordings (often very difficult to find)
See how many of the singers and musicians you recognize.
César Morgado
Benvinda Cruz
Fernando Gomes
Adelina Ramos
Lino Manuel
Maria José Ramos
Natalino Duarte
Romy Barra
Maria Portugal
Manuel Domingos
Lídia Ribeiro
Ada de Castro
Eurico Pavia
Estela Alves
Dina do Carmo
Eduarda Maria
Moniz Trindade
Ivete Pessoa
Eulália Duarte
Julieta Brigue
Francisco Stoffel
Márcia Condessa
Lucilia Gomes
Julieta Estrela
Jorge Martinho
Raul Pereira
Natércia da Conceição
Odete Maria
Valdemar Vigário
Vicência Lima
Zé Freire
Deolinda Maria
Carlos Duarte
Carlos Barra
Cândida Ramos
Beatriz Ferreira
Ana Rosmaninho
José Manuel de Castro
Maria do Céu Crispim
Manuel Netto
Mariana Correia
Pedro Lisboa
Orlando Duarte
Leonor Santos
I hope you enjoy these fados–and thanks to Joaquim and to all the YouTube users who put the music out there
David Mendonça, a Portuguese-American with roots in the Azores, is a contributor to FadoNights.com. A Fado music aficionado, his articles also appear on his blogs Fado Today (English) and Fado Hoje (Portuguese). He lives in New York State.
