saudade

I've been listening to music from all over the world since I was a small child. I'm not sure when or how I first encountered sounds from other cultures. Most likely, my dad's koto LPs had something to do with the formation of my tastes, along with my mom's fondness for American jazz and João Gilberto.

There's something about solo instrument performances (what I heard on my dad's records) - simplicty, sincerity. That's equally true of João Gilberto's work - just acoutic guitar and voice. (Or, as they say in Brazil, voz e violão.)

Over the past seven years, I've found myself digging deeper and deeper into Brazilian music. There's a combination of lyricism and rhythm there that I find very appealing, but there's something more - and it touches my heart. Part of this appeal is what Brazilians call saudade, a word that doesn't translate well into English. We usually say things like "longing," "pining," "yearning" - saudade is all of these things, but it's more - and that's the part that can't be translated.

Perhaps the best way to understand it is to hear it. So, Clara Nunes, singing Que seja bem feliz, by Cartola. (It's from her 1975 album, Claridade.) And tell me if I'm wrong about voz e violão - and saudade, too - after you've listened...