Madeira Feast

On the first weekend of August (Friday and Saturday), I performed at the Madeira Museum's Cafe, one of the many attractions of New Bedford's famous Madeira Feast in Massachusetts, the world's largest Portuguese festival. The event is held outdoors with free admission and live Fado and Folklore.

Both nights were great! Friday night, Sr. Viriato Ferreira and Sr. Jose Silva and I performed 10 Fados we had never previously rehearsed for the first time along with many of the Fados on my album. It felt refreshing to add some new Fados to my repetoir and the audience seemed to have enjoyed it as well.

I got to meet a lot of great people like a young man named Matthew who gave me an LP of the late Fernanda Maria from 1952. He found the record at a local Salvation Army and found out I was performing on Friday night and offered it to me because he wanted to give it to "someone who would appreciate it." He was even kind enough to make a copy of the LP onto a CD! Thank you so much Matthew! I really do appreciate it... I heard it the whole drive home! I really enjoyed the record which was recorded in the early 1950s and includes many Fados that she made famous such as "Lisboa A Noite," "Ribatejo," and "Lisboa Antiga." However, this album was one of the over 50 albums she released, but it was enough to spark my interest on this particular Fadista.

I'm also grateful for the support of everyone else who came out including Ricardo Farias (who stopped by for a little both nights), Jimmy "Jam" Ferreira of Lusobeat.com, and fellow Fadistas Jeremias Macedo, Jose Carlos Azevedo, and Tania Da Silva who were kind enough to treat the audience with two Fados each!

The event was a great success and I owe it all to Sra. Olga Marques for her invitation.