1986 - CAETANO VELOSO

Álbum grabado en Nueva York en 1985.

"Este fue lanzado en 1986 en los Estados Unidos, todo acústico. Tiene un repertorio parecido al de Totalmente Demais sin los defectos, porque fue grabado en un estudio maravilloso de Nueva York."  (C.V.)

Foto : Joel Meyerowitz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POP/JAZZ

CAETANO VELOSO PERFORMS NEW SOUNDS FROM BRAZIL

By ROBERT PALMER

Published: May 22, 1987

 

Caetano Veloso, a Brazilian singer-songwriter, will perform in a solo concert tonight at Town Hall.

CAETANO VELOSO, who has been one of Brazil's most influential and durable singer-songwriters since the late 60's, says he was skeptical when associates suggested a solo concert in New York City. ''Alone? With just my guitar? In New York? I didn't feel technically or professionally prepared to do something like that,'' he recalled earlier this week. ''I was planning to bring the percussionists who played on my American album, and when they couldn't come, I decided I was going to stay home.''

But Mr. Veloso didn't stay home after all. Friends and associates talked him into coming, and he will be performing tonight at Town Hall, all by himself. Tickets, at $15 and $20, are available at the Town Hall box office, 123 West 43d Street (840-2824), through Teletron and Ticketron, but they have been going fast. The success of Mr. Veloso's ''American album'' is largely to blame.

''Caetano Veloso,'' released by Nonesuch Records, appealed to a broad spectrum of pop, jazz and classical listeners and turned up on a number of critics' 10 Best lists at the end of last year. It is primarily a solo record, with some low-keyed percussion added to Mr. Veloso's voice and guitar on a few songs. Except for two intriguingly offbeat items - Cole Porter's ''Get Out of Town,'' and a medley including Michael Jackson's ''Billie Jean'' and a snippet of the Beatles' ''Eleanor Rigby'' - the lyrics are in Portuguese. Nonesuch is primarily a classical label, and the album was conceived more as a song recital than a pop record. Its success surprised just about everybody, including Mr. Veloso. His listeners shouted for more.

''In Brazil, I perform with my band,'' Mr. Veloso explained. ''I used to step out in the middle of the show and sing a few songs by myself, as if I was at home. But I always felt that that part was very personal, even for Brazil. Maybe too personal.'' When he gave his first New York concerts, at the Public Theater in 1983, Mr. Veloso brought his band, which mixes jazz and rock flavorings with Brazilian rhythms. He tried singing a few songs by himself, but he was evidently nervous. ''You must be getting tired of all these long songs in Portuguese,'' he suggested to the audience at one point. His listeners responded by shouting for more, and Nonesuch Records' Bob Hurvitz was so impressed by the performances that he suggested a solo album. ''It was recorded in two nights,'' Mr. Veloso recalled, ''just by chance, as a different kind of project, a change of pace. Now they want me to do another one.''

Mr. Veloso's approach to music-making only seems casual. He first came to prominence in the late 60's as a leading exponent of tropicalia, a new Brazilian pop style that combined the surging Afro-Brazilian rhythms of Bahia, in northern Brazil, with rock and soul influences and topical lyrics. The Brazilian bossa nova of the early 60's had been cool, jazzy, sophisticated. Tropicalia was hot - so hot that its most popular singer-songwriters, Mr. Veloso and Gilberto Gil, were jailed in 1969 by Brazil's military Government. After 57 days in jail, they were allowed to leave the country; Mr. Veloso lived in exile in London until 1972, when the political climate had eased and he was able to return home.

''In those days, the Brazilian singers all wore dark suits and ties when they performed,'' Mr. Veloso remembered. ''And then we came out of Bahia with long hair, wearing whatever we liked, playing loud music with electric guitars. And everyone seemed to hate us. The leftist students thought we were selling out to imperialism by playing rock, and the Government thought our songs were subversive and put us in jail. We caused a big scandal, but we had a lot of fun.''

Ties with the Bossa Nova

Mr. Veloso and the other tropicalia artists always went out of their way to maintain ties with the artists of the bossa nova period. ''Bossa nova was the most beautiful period of modern Brazilian music,'' he said. ''We worshipped Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and always sang their songs for each other. We were interested in rock-and-roll as well. But bossa nova was very jazz-influenced in its time. And our music, like bossa nova, gradually absorbed and moved beyond its international influences, and became more and more Brazilian. In our country, the relationship between pop music and the people has always run deep. The result is that new Brazilian music, no matter how imitative it may be in the beginning, tends to become more and more original, more Brazilian. Right now we have a lot of new rock groups that look and sound more English than Brazilian, but some of them are already developing interesting songs and attitudes of their own.''

Similar processes have been at work in Mr. Veloso's music for 20 years now. He has absorbed bossa nova, tropicalia, rock, pop and funk and emerged sounding both original and indelibly Brazilian. His fluent, liquid singing, with its impeccable intonation and subtly springy phrasing, communicates no matter what language he is singing in. Success in the United States isn't likely to change things much. ''I never even considered trying to break into the American market,'' he said. ''It's too big, too heavy. And I don't like to stay away from Brazil for very long. That closeness between the people and the music they produce is a very powerful thing. Living in Brazil can be difficult, complicated, confused. But I wouldn't live anywhere else.''

 

1986

CAETANO VELOSO

Recorded September 1985, at Vanguard Studios, NYC

Elektra / Nonesuch Digital LP 979.127-1 / CD 979.127-2

Philips LP 846.916-1 / CD 846.916-2 [1990, Brasil]

Lado A

1. TRILHOS URBANOS (Caetano Veloso)

2. O HOMEM VELHO (Caetano Veloso)

3. LUZ DO SOL (Caetano Veloso)

4. CÁ JÁ (Caetano Veloso)

5. Medley: DINDI (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira) / EU SEI QUE VOU TE AMAR (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinícius de Moraes)

6. Medley: NEGA MALUCA (Fernando Lobo/Ewaldo Ruy) / BILLIE JEAN (Michael Jackson) / ELEANOR RIGBY (Lennon/McCartney)

7. O LEÃOZINHO (Caetano Veloso)

Lado B

1. CORAÇÃO VAGABUNDO (Caetano Veloso)

2. PULSAR (Caetano Veloso/Augusto de Campos)

3. GET OUT OF TOWN (Cole Porter)

4. SAUDOSISMO (Caetano Veloso)

5. ODARA (Caetano Veloso)

6. TERRA (Caetano Veloso)

Acústico, el show para promover el álbum en Brasil se estrenó en el Canecão de Rio de Janeiro el 8 de octubre de 1990; luego en el Olympia en San Pablo y volvió en 1991 a Imperator en Rio de Janeiro.

 

 

JORNAL DO BRASIL - 28/9/1990

1990

8, 9, 10, 15, 16 y 17 de octubre

Show “Acústico”

Canecão (Rio de Janeiro)

Acompañado por Toni Costa, Marcelo Costa y Marçal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOLHA DE S.PAULO
10 de outubro de 1990

  

1990

21 y 22 de octubre

Show *

Memorial da América Latina (San Pablo)

* Individual por cuestiones de agenda de los músicos.

1990

23 y 24 de octubre

5, 6 y 7 de noviembre

Show “Acústico”

Olympia (San Pablo)

Acompañado por Toni Costa, Marcelo Costa y Marçal.

17/12/1990 - Jornal do Brasil

 

1991

1991

30 y 31 de mayo

1 y 2 de junio

Show “Acústico”

Imperator (Rio de Janeiro)

Acompañado por Toni Costa, Marcelo Costa y Marçal.



Sala de espectáculos de Rio de Janeiro que cerró en 1995