If there's any justice in this world, Maria Mendes will one day need no introduction. The GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Award nominee released her fourth album Saudade, Colour of Love (her first live record and first for Challenge) on October 7, 2022, to instant acclaim.

The album's title hinges on saudade, a word from Mendes's native Portugal that expresses such a specific blend of nostalgic longing, absence, and fear of permanent loss that it's one of the most oft-cited untranslatable words. Thinking of her friends, family, homeland, and paused live performance career during the pandemic, the Netherlands-based expat felt a saudade that billions also experienced, but had a harder time putting into words.

Wander Lisbon of an evening, and you can hear the refrain of hopeful venue operators all around: "Fado!" This classic Portuguese genre was another object of pandemic heartache for Mendes. On this album, recorded for a live audience, she fuses Fado and jazz in dialogue with lush orchestral sound, furnished by keyboardist/leader John Beasley and Metropole Orkest. The result: the full spectrum of moods encompassed by the word "saudade," including love. ArkivJazz caught up with Mendes to learn more.

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ArkivJazz: Thank you so much for talking with us, Maria! You explain the spirit of Fado so beautifully in your notes on the album, as well as the meaning of the word saudade. Your last recording to blend Fado with jazz came out in 2019; how have your feelings about this music and the emotions associated with it changed since then, after we've all been through so much loss and longing?

Maria Mendes: This new album is the exact response to what I’ve felt during the pandemic. My longing for my family and my homeland, missing out people and the frustration of how my nephew has grown and my parents have aged without me around…the loss of time and people… It was tough. But it was that same isolation that gave me the time to wrap up all these amplified emotions I’ve felt and make something out of it musically. 2021 was the point of decision to make this album.

AJ: This is your first recording for Challenge and your first live album, but you revisit several songs from your Edison Prize-winning record Close to Me, which featured John Beasley and Metropole Orkest as well. What led you to extend this collaboration and continue exploring these songs?

MM: The collaboration on Close To Me was very fruitful. All the musicians on this project are exceptional. Because this music feels so authentic and spiritual and when played is extremely energetic, it was clear to me that we would need to play it live, ALL together. The Metropole felt the same and we both urged for a live tour playing the songs of Close To Me, scheduled to happen in 2020. Through the pandemic this tour kept being postponed. Alongside that frustration, this same music started to get revitalized by this odd situation. I started to urge on writing new material and looking into other music possibilities for this same project, as I gained more and more the feeling that once we hit the stage, this music would need to excel in celebrating live music and its irreplaceable energy.

So, once it was possible to fly Beasley to the Netherlands in late 2021, we worked on the new songs. Later he wrapped up all the orchestrations. Saudade, Colour of Love is the result of everyone’s efforts and wishes to get this music boosted into something surprising, passionate, and energetically strong.

AJ: Many of the Fado classics that you have recorded were popularized by the “Queen of Fado,” singer Amália Rodrigues. What is your relationship with this legendary figure and her legacy?

MM: Amália is legendary and sacred to many. To me she is a source of inspiration for the Fado tradicional. As on my work I am never aiming to follow someone steps, neither to recreate a-look-a-like versions, her music and singing served me the purpose to find my own voice as an arranger. On my own singing, I serve nothing but my own purpose on expressing myself fully, bringing the depths of my emotions through my phrasing on the words I sing and through my scat.

AJ: You write that “music is an unlimited language that can defy stylistic boundaries.” Who are some figures who have inspired you to listen widely and resist being confined by genre?

MM: Hermeto Pascoal, Stefano Bollani, Jacky Terrason, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Sting, and David Linx.

AJ: Toward the end of the album, we hear a pair of songs you wrote – including one, “Meu Pobre Capitão,” that's recorded here for the first time. Have you been writing many more songs since these?

MM: Yes, I have plenty of sketches, which are not yet finalized music pieces. As I nurture a lot the element of surprise on a music composition, and the lyrics I urge to write rhyme and are written poetically, the process for finalizing songs tends to be organic and not rushed.

AJ: We hear warm applause and cheers from the audiences on this album. Who was in those audiences, and what were some moments of connection with them that stand out in your memory?

MM: I am so grateful that the community who appreciates my music is made of extraordinary open hearted people. The cheering is a constant on my shows, as well a standing ovation. As well the words of appreciation for my team and music, after the shows, with some sharing they have shared a tear in one or two songs. These are real people that seek for feeling music as an art form and not as much as for the purpose of entertaining.

I have few beautiful memories on and off stage. A very recent one that made me cry: a Portuguese fan, who after the show hugged me and cried, expressed that the music of Saudade, Colour of Love, put into music her feelings of being an expat, that this music took her back to Portugal, back to the times she spent with her grandfather listening and learning about fado.

AJ: You have such incredible range, stylistically as well as technically; critics, award juries, and the listening public have clearly noticed! What next for Maria Mendes?

MM: Thank you. I am grateful for the instrument I have. I nurture my voice, body and mind everyday with respect and dedication for the art I chose to create for myself, daily. I am fuelled by these inspiring words from two extraordinary people: Einstein said: "Curiosity has its own reason for existing” and Quincy Jones shared with me few years ago: "Luck is the result of really hard work and being prepared for the opportunity that presents itself to you”. So, in terms of music creation, I have no idea what is next for me. But I am trusting that what will be coming my way will be the right thing.

One thing is for sure, alongside the international tour with local orchestras on this new album, planned for these coming 2 years, I’m planning to read a lot of poetry and books written by women. And I might take some classes on polyphonic singing, as I’ve been curious about it for these recent years.

AJ: Obrigado and dank u wel once more, Maria, and best of luck out there!

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