The Alentejo José Moças, collector and responsible for the Tradisom label, guarantees to have in his possession the "first known fado recording", made in November 1900 in Porto. "It is a 78-record 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 those records, two of which are fado: the Fado Hilaryo, interpreted by Duarte Silva, and Oh Julia, by José Brito." The record was made by William Sinkler Darby, a British sound engineer who passed through Porto in 1900. "The British connection to Porto was old, because of the wine, and maybe that explains why he went there. It was a trip to continental Europe to publicize the apparatus that made recordings, then the engineer went on to Madrid. He was working for Berliner, which later became EMI."
Adelino Duvall