Rhythm & Fado

Any musician should be wise enough to let his or her biography inform their music, and this is particularly true for someone like João Caetano. Having been born in Macau, he was brought up between two very different cultures. When he left Macau, a former Portuguese territory, he relocated to London, where he joined jazz and funk bands Incognito and Citrus Sun as a percussionist. All of this, with various degrees of subtlety, can be heard on Rhythm & Fado.

When Caetano manages to make some sense of all these references, he really gets it right. If we listen closely to ‘Mudei de Vida’ or ‘Aí Se Eu Pudesse Nascer Amanhã’, for instance, it's all there: Portuguese popular music (as an heir to key songwriters like José Mário Branco and Fausto), with clever arrangements and (if necessary) a low-key exotic feel. The problem with Rhythm & Fado is that its first half is dedicated mostly to fado themes (‘Senhora da Nazaré) that have little to add with their smooth jazz ambiences, nods to Madredeus (‘Beijo de Vampiro’) or efforts to tune into 70s Portuguese balladry (‘Quero Ficar’). Caetano is not wrong by a long shot. But he is still a tad out of focus.