José Moças, from Alentejo, collector and head of the Tradisom label, guarantees that he has in his possession the “first known recording of fado”, made in November 1900 in Porto.
“It’s a 78-rotation grafonola record and is part of a set of more than 80 recordings of which 67 have been discovered to date,” he says. “I have four of these records, two of which are fado: Fado Hilaryo, performed by Duarte Silva, and Oh Julia, by José Brito.” The record was made by William Sinkler Darby, a British sound engineer who visited Porto in 1900. “The English had a long-standing connection with Porto, because of the wine, and perhaps that explains why he went there. It was a trip to continental Europe to promote the device that made recordings, then the engineer went to Madrid. He worked for Berliner, which later became EMI.”
Adelino Duvallo