Ulisses -- Cristina Branco
The news that
Cristina Branco will come to Hong Kong this October prompted me to pick up this, her latest studio CD. Amongst the current generation of Portuguese
fadistas, Branco is arguably one who has been truest to her roots; but nowadays, it seems that no
fadista of international stature can survive without some experimentation. In
Ulisses, Branco sings in several languages and dabbles in melancholic jazz moods, and the result is unappealing -- the second track, "Alfonsina y el mar" sung in Spanish, is as ignorable as a piano-bar's routine, but the pox mark of the album has to be her slow, flaccid rendition of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You".
Beautiful voice aside, Branco is perceptibly out of her elements when she is
not singing
fado: she ventilates loudly, and her dynamics is straitjacketed. Fortunately, the second half of the album is pure fado delight: here, her thoughtful voice charts and navigates the varying moods in each song, from the weighty "Oh! Como se me alonga de ano em ano" ("Oh! How it grows longer each year" -- the pronoun refers to a journey, of course) to the radiant "Liberte" sung in French, the songs shine and blossom like crystal flowers. The simple line-up of musicians (four different guitars and piano) is nevertheless capable of conjuring a variety of moods, and there is a surprise (uncredited?) in the last instrumental track.
Ulisses is not the unadulterated fado heaven that was
Murmurios, Branco's debut, but there is enough beauty to satisfy any fans of beautiful female voice.
The recording is available as SACD, and this is the version that I got.