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| Para Alem da Saudade | 
| List Price: $19.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 44 reviews)
Sales Rank: 34699
Category: Music
Artist: Ana Moura
Publisher: World Village
Studio: World Village
Manufacturer: World Village
Label: World Village
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 468072
UPC: 713746807221
EAN: 0713746807221
ASIN: B000VPNK4W
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Os Buzios | | • | E Viemos Nascidos do Mar | | • | A Voz que Conta a Nossa Historia | | • | Aguas do Sul | | • | O Fado da Procura | | • | Rosa Cor de Rosa | | • | Primiera Vez | | • | Nao Fui Eu | | • | Mapa do Coracao | | • | Aguarda-Te Ao Chegar | | • | Ate Ao Fim Do Fim | | • | Fado das Horas Incertas | | • | Vaga, No Azul Amplo Solta | | • | Vehlo Anjo | | • | A Sos com a Noite |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Ana Moura is universally acknowledged as one of the finest fado singers of the present generation. Her plaintive, smoky vocals has garnereda loyal European following, including members of The Rolling Stones. Whether starkly declaiming or swirling into filigreed crescendos of emotion, Ana's burnished alto personifies fado's darkly sensual credo of wisdom born of pain, grace, and futility, and secual passion perpetually on simmer, despite repeated and increasingly bitter betrayals.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Ultimately too unengaging for me. October 23, 2008
I have to confess, I was pretty excited when I saw this one-- a master of a world vocal genre I possess minimal familiarity with, but the truth is, "Para Alem da Saudade" was a bit too much blend in the background and a bit too little engaging. Ana Moura's voice is strong and emotive, but I found the music a bit too familiar, a bit too likely to blend in the backdrop.
I like my music to capture my attention, this record just didn't do that.
 Is there still 'saudade' in heaven? All this and then...the guitars! October 17, 2008
This is a powerful album which is deliciously light-footed at the same time! It has garnered a Best of 2007s Editors' Pick from "The Beat Magazine," among others. Ana Moura is the young fadista of the moment in Portugal, the artist leading the current generation of fado singers. Fado is the poetic, deeply expressive idiom which personifies the Portuguese psyche as it explores such universal themes as lost love, separation, and longing.
Fado literally means destiny, and the music expresses the exquisite longing -- saudade -- for all what fate makes unattainable. Emerging from the working classes at least as far back as the early 19th century Portugal, the music is most often associated with smoky bars and huskily mournfully voiced fadistas. Though often associated with the Portuguese sailors' longings for home from Northern African ports, the music feels far more European than Northern African.
But Ana Maura's fado on this wonderful album manages to capture the smoky sadness of the genre with a voice which is at once longingly husky and lightly spirited. Maura's contralto is not really a "thick" voice like some fadistas'; it is of a thinner, reedier timbre. The music has elements of the joy inherent in simple folk melodies, even while reflecting the saddest of harmonies. An extraordinary combination difficult to describe in words, the effect is aptly summed up in Publico's review as "an emotional work, skin-deep, one that makes you shiver."
There is a strong resonance with awe-inspiring, Cape Verdean music of Cesaria Evora, Cafe Atlanticothough again, Ana's voice is lighter. But both voices are "longing, so long," (this phrase being the title of a gorgeous, totally different Oregon chamber jazz piece from[[ASIN:B000003MTB Roots in the Sky].
All that said, what overwhelms me most on this album is the wonderful guitar and Portuguese guitar work of guitarist Jorge Fernando Velho Fado and Portuguese guitarist Custodio Castelo -- playing at once intricate, graceful and soulful; guitar music as beautiful as any I have heard. Period.
The idea of this album as mood or background music is an odd one. I confess, I myself have heard it while "otherwise occupied." And personally I encourage listening to all music anywhere and everywhere, foreground or background. But make no mistake: this music merits your full attention, in the foreground and without distraction. It will fascinate and thrill you down to your toes!
 Pretty good, but not my cup of tea May 16, 2008
This album contains fado music, an art form mostly found in Portugal. Fado music consists of intensely personal lyrics with minimal orchestration. I think this form is best seen in person because these songs, though good and performed well, just didn't excite me. Maybe it's just me, but this wasn't as good as I hoped.
WOW May 6, 2008
I had little idea what to expect when I choose this CD, being familiar only with Cesar Evoria in this style of singing. On first playing I was excited by the instrumentation but not thrilled with the vocals, they sounded a little "pop." I had a suspicion that there was something missing, and there was - my lack of sophistication. The more I listened the more I got, and this is an absolutely thrilling c.d.. Yes, the instrumentation is fantastic, but the voice is heavenly, filled with passion, and so assured you'll feel like Ana Moura is in the room with you. I don't understand Portuguese, but I do understand Ana Moura - style, technique, passion.
 Fado that won't reduce you to a whimpering fetus! March 31, 2008
...I was nervous about this one. I am no expert in Portuguese fado music, but I knew a guy who listened to it a lot at the office. And what I heard from his cubicle was really hand-wringing, melodramatic stuff. Not bad, but very pained and tortured -- the kind of music that, if I were forced to listen to it all day, would turn me into a simpering mound of self-pity. It would bring me to tears...it's sorrowful stuff.
So, when Moura's new one arrived at my door, I was nervous -- would this be more of that over-the-top, super-weepy stuff? Quite the contrary...while it is marked by that bittersweet sadness that underpins all fado (and really all good music), it is actually quite listenable in steady rotation. There is enough variety in the songs, and some great melodies to sing your teeth into. The instrumentation is tasteful but not slick, and Ana's singing is mournful but not ridiculously packed with pathos...
If you're looking for a good introduction to fado, a jumping-off point that won't make you jump off a bridge, this may be the album for you. A keeper, for sure...
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