2004 - CAETANO VELOSO and DAVID BYRNE

 

Diario Página 12 - Argentina

14/04/2004

Binary Stars

Sensually syncopative Brazilian and American alter egos do their part for global warming

By Carol Cooper Tuesday, Apr 20 2004

At 1 p.m. on April 16, over 2,000 New York public high school kids had an experience parallel to David Byrne's upon his initial exposure to Brazilian music. They came to hear Caetano Veloso and two contemporary Afro-Brazilian bands at Carnegie Hall, culminating a six-month enrichment program sponsored by the Weill Institute which taught the history, politics, and culture of Brazil through its pop music. Fact is, without the sustained attention Byrne and other "first-world" pop stars began giving nonwhite and non-Western musics in the early '80s, that cross-cultural encounter might never have happened. The next night, when Byrne and Veloso performed together to demonstrate the many fruits of their 15-year friendship, the sold-out crowd glimpsed a kind of commercial parity among international pop musics that coming generations will hopefully take for granted.

Side by side, trading leads on "(Nothing but) Flowers", the quirky Brazilian and the quirky American mirrored one another as if they'd been separated at birth. By this point, they'd already moved through most of their respective solo sets using one sideman each (Veloso's cellist and Byrne's percussionist) to accompany voice and acoustic guitar; Veloso's renditions of "Não Enche" ("Don't Piss Me Off") and "Coraçao Vagabundo" had given way to a mini-suite of bittersweet odes to New York. A jaunty "(I'll Take) Manhattan" flowed into "Manhatã," whose ominous tom-tom pattern introduced the first duet of the night—Byrne's similarly allegorical "The Revolution." Later they traded leads in Portuguese during "Um Canto de Afoxé Para o Bloco de Ilê," but predictably enough Byrne's solo versions of "And She Was," "Life During Wartime," and "Heaven" (to which Veloso added soft, ethereal harmonies) got bigger reactions. This particular double bill didn't allow either man to do justice to his brand-new Nonesuch album, although Caetano managed to fit in his Talking Heads and Rodgers & Hart covers despite the burden of audience expectations, and Byrne did his post-post-feminist anthem "She Only Sleeps."

Both David Byrne's Grown Backwards and Caetano Veloso's A Foreign Sound are marvelously sophisticated, extremely political albums that approach form and content with the same stylistic rigor but almost opposing emphasis. It's not just that Veloso chooses to interpret a broad selection of American pop standards while all but three of the tracks on Byrne's record are his own contemporary compositions. Veloso's enthusiastic nostalgia for show tunes and urbane ditties reflecting the hybridized sensibility of the nation's 20th century reminds America of her whip-smart youth. Ultimately all his best intentions are summed up by the allusions to memory and redemption in "Come as You Are" and "Something Good." Conversely, the two songs most responsible for the sound and structure of Grown Backwards are Italian and French opera pieces by Verdi and Bizet that re-program how we hear vocals and strings throughout the entire album. Presumably, with these pristine artifacts from a pre-atomic era, Byrne hopes to press some sort of reset button on the human psyche.

Although both men adore the sensuality of syncopation, Veloso treats rhythm as a defining category rather than a playful enhancement. The street percussion he adds to "The Carioca" grants Flying Down to Rio's Hollywood production number authentic Afro-Brazilian roots; he makes "Cry Me a River" a bossa nova, and gives Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" a samba-reggae backbeat. Moreover, Veloso remains the truer romantic, projecting less alienation and more passion in love songs. Byrne still distances himself from his protagonists, burlesquing their angst rather than claiming it as his own. This is less true of woman-on-top scenarios like "She Only Sleeps," but the nascent fascist of "Empire," the illegal immigrant of "Glass, Concrete, Stone," and the frustrated alpha male of "Civilization" are sung as though observed rather than embodied. What he loses in intimacy by this strategy, he gains in ironic punch, his perennial strong suit when it comes to conveying mood and meaning. But with pop motifs as seductively motile as the Brazilian variety, he'll always get more bang for his creative buck by opting for tropical heat over Yankee cool.

2012 – CAETANO VELOSO and DAVID BYRNE

Álbum “Caetano Veloso and David Byrne - Live at Carnegie Hall”

Recorded April 17, 2004, at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

Nonesuch Records CD 513702. [EE. UU.]

1. DESDE QUE O SAMBA É SAMBA (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

2. VOCÊ É LINDA (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

3. SAMPA (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

4. O LEÃOZINHO (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

5. CORAÇÃO VAGABUNDO (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

6. MANHATÃ (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

7. THE REVOLUTION (David Byrne) Caetano Veloso y David Byrne

8. EVERYONE’S IN LOVE WITH YOU (David Byrne) David Byrne

9. AND SHE WAS (David Byrne) David Byrne

10. SHE ONLY SLEEPS (David Byrne) David Byrne

11. LIFE DURING WARTIME (David Byrne/Jerry Harrison/Chris Frantz/Tina Weymouth) David Byrne

12. GOD’S CHILD (David Byrne) David Byrne

13. ROAD TO NOWHERE (David Byrne) David Byrne

14. DREAMWORLD: MARCO DE CANAVESES (David Byrne/Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso y David Byrne

15. UM CANTO DE AFOXÉ PARA O BLOCO DO ILÊ (Caetano Veloso/Moreno Veloso) Caetano Veloso y David Byrne

16. (NOTHING BUT) FLOWERS (David Byrne/Jerry Harrison/Tina Weymouth/Yves N’Jock/Chris Frantz) Caetano Veloso y David Byrne

17. TERRA (Caetano Veloso) Caetano Veloso

18. HEAVEN (David Byrne) Caetano Veloso y David Byrne

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

SCRIPT de la transmisión por radio: Fred Child/John Schaefer (17/04/2004)

"This is Creators at Carnegie from NPR (National Public Radio), with the velvet voice of Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso.

Coming up, he's on stage, singing songs about love, the Brazilian countryside. and revolution with a surprise musical guest. the founder of the band, Talking Heads.

David Byrne. My Friend. A great Man

Caetano Veloso and David Byrne. a collaboration between two friends.

On Creators at Carnegie from NPR.

Caetano Veloso. on stage at Isaac Stern Auditorium.sings a song about the pull of the land where you come from.

More from Caetano Veloso's concert at Carnegie Hall in just a moment.

This is Creators at Carnegie. I'm Fred Child.

And I'm John Schaefer.

With a concert by Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso.

With his sultry, burnished voice, Caetano Veloso has been at the top of Brazilian pop music charts for more than three decades.

He is positively radiant on stage. It is not only his gorgeous music that has

catapulted Caetano Veloso into the hearts of millions of Brazilians. He is also a man with a point of view. In the late 1960s, he was part of a counter culture movement in Brazil that created a new style of music called "Tropicalismo."

The radical mix of traditional Brazilian music, politics, jazz and the electric guitars of american Rock'n'roll upset Brazil's military dictatorship--and Veloso was accused of "anti-government activity." He was sent to jail, and forced into exile in London for several years.

Now, at age 61, when he looks back at his career, what seems most important to Caetano Veloso is his activism through music.

At Carnegie Hall, Caetano Veloso walks on stage with just a guitar.and begins a set that includes some of his biggest hits. He wrote this one as part of the Tropicalia movement in the late 1960s--it's called "Since Samba is Samba."

One of Caetano Veloso's most beloved songs, Voce e Linda.it means. "You are Beautiful."

The next song is called SAMPA--which is the nickname for the city of San Paolo. Caetano Veloso wrote this song when the city of San Paolo wasn't as nice as it is now.in the song, the women aren't that pretty and the downtown is seedy.but that doesn't seem to matter to his fans in San Paolo--or Carnegie Hall.

Caetano Veloso is a graceful and generous performer on stage at Carnegie Hall. A good way into this next song.he forgets some of the words.then, with a big smile on his face he throws his hands up in the air.explains what happened, the audience encourages him to continue and then.he starts over!

The song is called "Don't Bother me!"

Caetano Veloso.on stage at Carnegie Hall.

In a moment.Caetano Veloso will sing about a revolution.

This is Creators at Carnegie.

We're back with Creators at Carnegie.

Caetano Veloso is getting ready to invite a friend to join him on stage.David Byrne--the imaginative American Rocker and founder of the group "Talking Heads." They met in the 80s, when David Byrne went on a pilgrimmage to Brazil.to soak up samba rhythms for a new CD project.

At first, they may seem an unlikely pair--but as the New York Times pointed out: "they are both songwriters with surreal imaginations, a fondness for the exotic, a sense of humor and a way of placing grand ambitions in colloquial terms."

Caetano Veloso lures David Byrne onto the stage with one of Byrne's own songs: The Revolution.

here I am very happy. tonight I present to you my favorite american artist.

For many reasons. first of all, he is the most chic of all rockers. And then he heard

Brazilian music like no one else abroad.like no other American musician or critic or whatever..David Byrne.my friend. Great Man.

Caetano Veloso walks off stage. leaving just David Byrne on stage with his drummer Mauro Refosco.

David Byrne, inviting his friend.Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso back on stage

with him at Carnegie Hall. They get ready to sing TOGETHER now.Byrne's song---"Nothing but Flowers."--it's one of Caetano Veloso's favorite American songs.David Byrne finds THAT incredibly strange.

The audience at Carnegie Hall, begging for encores from David Byrne and Caetano Veloso.

Thank you for accepting the invitation."

- - - - - - - - -

© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Caetano Veloso and David Byrne at Carnegie Hall, NYC, April 17, 2004

A Brazilian Singer Reveals Some American Roots

The New York Times, April 19, 2004
By JON PARELES

Caetano Veloso always brings a concept to his concerts, and this week Carnegie Hall gave him a chance to think bigger, booking a five-night Perspectives series, including two Carnegie concerts of his own on Friday and Saturday nights, adding David Byrne on Saturday. It wasn't enough nights for Mr. Veloso's many facets.

Three acts he chose for Zankel Hall pointed up his socially conscious side, represented by AfroReggae; his seductive, samba-rooted side, with the singer Mart'nalia; and his mystical Afro-Bahian side, with the singer Virginia Rodrigues. An avant-garde poet from São Paulo, Augusto de Campos, was originally booked for yesterday but canceled, citing of health problems.

For Mr. Veloso's Carnegie Hall show on Friday night, the subjects were language and his affection for songs from the United States. Since the 1960's, when Mr. Veloso and a handful of fellow songwriters revolutionized Brazilian pop, everyone has been able to hear his gift for melody, his tender voice and his daring, felicitous combinations of styles.

But listeners who don't speak Portuguese rely on translations to glimpse the poetic ways his lyrics juggle romance and history, events and myths, philosophy and wit.

His worldwide impact has been limited because Portuguese is, as Mr. Veloso said onstage Friday, "a ghetto language," compared with the reach of English or Spanish.

Mr. Veloso has just released an album of North American songs in English, "A Foreign Sound" (Nonesuch), and his concert on Friday teased at the cultural interplay of Brazil and the United States. He started with a Noel Rosa song, "Não Tem Traducao": "There's No Translation." Then he sang his own "Baby," noting how English slang was infiltrating Brazil, and kept its Brazilian lilt to segue into Paul Anka's "Diana," from which his song quoted "baby, baby, I love you."

Later he sang a new song, "Diferentemente" ("Differently"), an easygoing samba that mentioned "Osama" and "Condoleezza" and had the English line "When you look at me I don't know who I am." The notion of outsiders' imagining one another
kept popping up. Mr. Veloso juxtaposed the map-hopping Rodgers and Hart song "Manhattan" with his own "Manhatã," envisioning the island when Indians owned it.

He followed his "O Estrangeiro" ("The Foreigner") with "The Carioca," a Brazilian fantasy from the Fred Astaire movie "Flying Down to Rio."

The homages, twists and paradoxes were implicit, and Mr. Veloso's elegantly understated band provided him with everything from nonchalant bossa nova to a wah-wah guitar imitating Brazilian drums. But for much of the concert Mr. Veloso simply sang Tin Pan Alley ballads recast with Brazilian rhythms.

Sentimentality he would never accept in his own songs didn't bother him in English, and for too much of the concert he became another visiting crooner, singing to the audience in a language it happily understood. For that role he was overqualified.

Having paid his tribute, he devoted Saturday's concert to camaraderie, splitting and sharing the two-hour set with Mr. Byrne, "my favorite American artist." Side by side, they were both songwriters with surreal imaginations, a fondness for the exotic and the syncretic, a sense of humor and a way of placing grand ambitions in colloquial terms.

Mr. Veloso performed with his cellist, Jacques Morelenbaum, and Mauro Refosco on percussion; Mr. Byrne played duos with Mr. Refosco. Once again Mr. Veloso followed "Manhattan" with "Manhatã"; he also sang a Byrne song, "The Revolution," and soon after Mr. Byrne revealed that it had been built on the rhythm of Manhatã." But most of Mr. Veloso's set returned to his own songs, lightly plucked and gorgeously sung in Portuguese: songs about love, beauty, aesthetics and Brazilian places and traditions.

Directly after Mr. Veloso, Mr. Byrne seemed gawky; unlike Mr. Veloso, he strained to hit high notes, and his guitar playing is rooted in the stolid rock beat. But with Mr. Refosco conjuring an entire band, Mr. Byrne's songs revealed their own charms: wry romantic situations like "She Only Sleeps" and "Everyone's in Love With You," tales of transcendence like "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere," and "Life During Wartime," more chilling now than it was in 1979.

Different as they were, it was clear that Mr. Veloso and Mr. Byrne understand each other, and they both enjoyed a final juxtaposition: Mr. Veloso's "Terra," followed by Mr. Byrne's "Heaven."