From the first time I put this on, I thought of Jimmy Rushing and as I sit through a fourth listen I come up with a couple reasons. First, when she sings, you have no doubt what she's singing, her voice is powerful and you can apply the same word to her enunciation (check out Los Piconeros). Jimmy Rushing gets characterized as a "blues shouter" for similar qualities in his singing. But I always thought that was an inaccurate description because Jimmy Rushing had in reality a very classy voice.
And that's the second reason Sonia Taveres brings him to mind. Her singing on this disc is just classy, near operatic in places (Demora, Ai Mouraria and Nada P'ra Frazer, for instance), a quality in the best fado tradition of Amalia Rodrigues, which Jimmy Rushing had in a bluesy and jazzy sense as well.
The set offers lively tunes, too, like Tirana Mito. I think of Licao de Fado as being mysterious. She's a Canadian and I ordered the CD from her Web site. Sonia mailed it herself and then sent me a nice e-mail to let me know it was on the way. Like I said, classy.
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