Plushmusic’s latest find: Lula Pena

Plushmusic Festival director Hayden Chisholm has just walked in, fresh from a rehearsal with the fado singer Lula Pena, who’s performing at the Loft tonight.

Lula Pena was born in Lisbon and taught herself guitar while listening to pop, rock, soul and jazz as well as traditional Portuguese music. At the age of 22 she moved to Barcelona, playing in many of the city’s jazz clubs. Her first album Phados, released by the Belgian label Carbon 7 in 1998, has her unique versions of Brazilian and Portuguese songs by the likes of Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and fados made famous by her mentor, Amália Rodrigues.

Lula Pena takes traditional Fado as her starting point, then adds layers through the use of unexpected instruments - vibraphone, udu drum, bongos, qanun, alaúde, bendir…

Tonight’s set kicks off with Hayden on clarinet. And given the number of musicians among tonight’s audience, who knows what exotic combinations will emerge.