Famous Fados on Portuguese Guitar

Famous Fados is the latest instalment in a series of discs showcasing Custódio Castelo’s talent as a solo artist (his Amália Classics was reviewed in #157). The other star of the show is the Portuguese guitar, the distinctive tear-shaped instrument with 12 strings strung in six courses of two strings. Castelo’s, made from an oak root, is by probably the most famous maker of our time, Oscar Cardoso.

Many of the tracks on the album are strongly associated with Amália Rodrigues, whose records inspired Castelo as a teenager to specialise in the Portuguese guitar. Part of the interest here is in Castelo’s ingenuity and imagination as an arranger, using the brightness and range of his own guitar to provide a singing voice alongside the acoustic guitars of Carlos Garcia and Maximo Ciúro. In ‘Casa Portuguesa’, for example, Castelo conjures up a variety of different voices from his instrument, interspersed with seamless ensemble playing. ‘É Ou Não É’, familiar from renditions by Amália, Mariza and others, takes on a different character in Castelo’s hands, achieving a smaller-scale charm that somehow takes the music out of the auditorium and back to the streets and cafés where it originated. The disc includes two bonus tracks, both from his previous album, Amália Classics.