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Sara Tavares played at the Berklee Performance Center Saturday night under the auspices of World Music/Crash Arts closing out the world music section of their Fall Season. This was our second trip in a week to the BPC where an enthralled audience sang along in Portuguese. (The previous trip was for Milton Nascimento from Brazil.) Tavares is of Cape Verdean descent but was born and raised in Lisbon. On stage, Her ukulele/electric guitar player and percussionist to stage right hailed from Cape Verde. The drummer and bass player to stage left were from Portugal. Sara Tavares, naturally, stood between them. The implicit metaphor did begin to break down when we learned that she found her bass player in a small Lisbon club singing Cape Verdean songs.

The program reports that the “young singer and guitarist has drawn widespread praise for her worldly songs spiced with Angolan and Portuguese slang, Cape Verdean Crioulo and English, and layered with Afro-beat, reggae, jazz and infectious Cape Verdean rhythms. ” Rhythmically, many of her tunes were built on complex exchanges between the drummer and percussionist. At times, the two had such intense concentration on their faces that when they broke into a straight chorus, the relief was palpable. Even at the most intense however, Sara Tavares danced easily through it all. She sang, played guitar and danced around, making it look easy. Ahead of the beat, behind the beat, right on top of the beat, rhythmically, she was effortlessly just where she wanted to be. Live, the band have a punchier sound than they produce on the album, Balance, which we rushed home to buy after the show. The playful side of Tavares does come through even more strongly in the studio. I’m looking forward to her next trip through Boston. I’ll be there rocking out and smiling.

We saw Mariza at the Berklee Performance Center this evening. Fado lives! Mariza can bring one to tears without understanding a word of the Portuguese in which she sings. The emotion and power of her voice are that powerful.  We were in the fourth row and it felt at times like we were sitting in her living room while she was playing.

Her band wasn’t bad either. The guitarists were out of this world, switching from restrained power to free-playing pyrotechnics. The drummer could play 16th notes on the bass drum while also playing the high hat. She joked before introducing him at the end of the show that she didn’t like him because he stole all the applause. While he indeed received great applause from an appreciative audience, there was no doubt we were there to see Mariza.

Mariza was perhaps the most stunning performer in Fados, the movie, which was full of both spectacular musicians and great dancing. If you haven’t seen it, you should:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1056422/

A little bit of high autumn color here in Coolidge Corner before the day’s wind storm blows too many leaves off of the trees.

The first snow of the season here in Brookline. There are big flakes falling which are hard to make out in this blurred cell phone photo.

What do the insides of a cat look like? We found out on Saturday when we took our cat, Demetrius, to the vet while we were in the Berkshires. It now appears that he has an infection. Looking for blockages and various inflammatory problems, the vet x-rayed him.

Demetrius is back at his regular vet in Brookline today on IV fluids and antibiotics. He’s packed a bag and is staying overnight but the vet just called and says that Demetrius is doing better.