Rão Kyao - Fado Bailado (1983)

When I was on mu trip to Lisbon, walking at the evening with family and friends through Alfama district, from one of the small restaurants I heard for the first time Fado, unique folk music straight from this beautiful country. Then it hit me, I should go and search for some fado musicians and write about it. On my way back I made my choice: Rão Kyao and his Fado Bailando became my next album to listen.

There is not so much (at least not in English) information about this artist. What I could find about about him this he travelled far and tried to connect Portuguese folk music with eastern sound of Asia (like India). He also had a lot of influences from Jazz music. Usually I’m going through most songs individually, this record I will treat differently. It has this unchained soul this swiftly goes from one track to another. And in this way I should treat this piece from Rão Kyao, as a seamless flowing music. What caught me at the start is a saxophone. Rão quickly mastered this instrument and showing his incredible skills from the first second of Fado Bailando. You could be surprise how smoothly this instrument goes with delicate and charming classic guitars that creates a beautiful background for the songs. You can hear all the jazz influences I mentioned earlier, but enormous talent of today’s post hero let saxophone become a one with the rest. I never thought mix of these two styles: fado and jazz can go so well together. But it just shows how many surprises I have on my way. Saxophone is a beautiful voice of this album. After a couple of times you understand that no voice on earth would give so many emotions and notes as done this instrument on this album. It speaks to me undoubtedly, gives me all the thrills and let me interpret meaning of every tune on my own terms. It leads me but doesn’t keep me in steel frames. Tempo of whole album is slow but I feel it is perfect for the emotions this Rão wants to show. Fado is often melancholic, lets the audience drift in they thoughts and dreams and Fado Bailando goes with this rule. It works fantastic in moments when you want to relax and just swim into the evening with a smile and Sangria in your glass. There is no rhythmic section but you can understand why. All the spectrum is filled with guitars, (occasionally) keys and saxophone, there is no need for another instrument. All these beautiful songs are told without pulsing rhythm, this kind of music is just great on it’s own small group of sounds.

Conclusion: Short (35 minutes) but memorable Fado Bailado gave me a great introduction to Fado music. If you have never heard it, it’s time to discover national music of Portugal. Rão Kyao on top of this gives you unique point of view on this music style and also introduce you to a whole new world of genre fusion. Time to get away from that all to well known popular music and discover some unique tunes as Fado Bailando is a great representation of it!