António Zambujo’s Fado at Skirball Center
António Zambujo gave an exquisite whisper of a concert on Saturday night at the Skirball Center at New York University. Mr. Zambujo is a fado singer from Portugal who has won the style’s major awards, including the Amália Rodrigues Foundation prize as best male fado singer. He upholds fado’s sense of longing and tragic dignity as he brings it into modern close-up.
Mr. Zambujo paid obeisance to fado’s history. His set included songs associated with fado’s two most indelible singers, Ms. Rodrigues and Alfredo Marceneiro. Yet he is discreetly pushing fado in directions of his own. He connects fado both to the regional music of southern Portugal, where he grew up, and to Brazilian pop that shares some of fado’s grace. He also makes subtle use of technology.
Mr. Zambujo is not a cafe belter like some younger fado singers. His tone is always intimate as he sings about solitude and lost love. The microphone is his ally. It picks up every nuance of his small yet utterly expressive voice: a high, clear, precise yet melting tenor that suggests both Mr. Marceneiro and, from across the Atlantic, the Brazilian songwriter Caetano Veloso.
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