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Since his first release in 1967, Caetano Veloso has remained a consistent hit-maker in his enormous, culturally diverse home country, Brazil. His musical breadth rivals that of Frank Zappa, and as a poet, Veloso is adored for his lyrics by Brazilians the way Americans love Allen Ginsburg, another passionate and witty observer of modern life. At the same time, Veloso is mainstream--a bossa nova man who went psychedelic and came back. While other pop icons of the `60s and `70s have passed into obscurity, or the great beyond, Veloso--gracefully aged but still hip--continues to produce new music and tour.
Veloso, 55, was born in Bahia, Brazil's most African province. By the time he moved to the Bahian capital Salvador as a boy, Veloso was set on a career in the arts. His sister, singer Maria Bethânia, got a break in 1965 when she was invited to Rio to perform in a musical. He tagged along and soon began recording hits. His first album, recorded with singer Gal Costa, was all bossa nova, a nod to Veloso's musical hero Joao Gilberto. "I owe Joao Gilberto everything I am today," Veloso once said in an interview. "Even if I were something else and not a musician, I would say that I owe him everything." After a flurry of early singles and television appearances, moving from acoustic to electric, and his wedding--described as Brazil's "first hippie wedding"--Veloso made a historic 1968 concert in San Paolo with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Tom Zé. The concert launched the tropicalia movement, a heady blend of Brazilian roots culture, rock n' roll psychedelia and radicalism.
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For their efforts, Veloso and Gil both earned periods of exile in London while Brazil endured repressive military rule. But by 1972, Veloso was back, recording and performing in Brazil. He produced 21 albums between his return to San Paolo and the end of the 1980s.
Before he won a Grammy Award in 2000 for his expansive album Livro , American listeners were most apt to know Veloso's work through two richly textured pop albums--Estrangeiro (1989) and Circulado (1991)--both produced by Ambitious Lovers veteran Arto Lindsay. Lindsay is a New Yorker who grew up in Brazil and who has now become one of that country's most coveted pop producers. Estrangeiro teamed Veloso with Brazilian percussion giants Nana Vasconcelos and Carlinhos Brown as well as cutting-edge American session players like guitarists Mark Ribot and Bill Frisell. The result was transcendent, multi dimensional pop. But despite critical raves, it did not spread Caetano Fever to these shores.
During the mid-90s, Veloso has made two decidedly more conservative records of what he calls Fina Estampa, a collection of classic Latin American tangos, boleros, rumbas, and bossas. Brazilians speaks Portuguese, but here, Veloso sings mostly in Spanish in what one Brazilian writer called "a quest for pan-American unity through song." True to that ideal, the original Fina Estampa release became Veloso's first to go platinum in a foreign country. That country: Argentina. Veloso himself says that the idea for Fina Estampa came from the formative years he spent listening to the radio in the 40s and 50s. The second album, Fina Estampa en Vivo , is a live recording with Caetano's small group, backed by a brass band and a symphony orchestra. The recording swells and swings its way through a number of the Latin American classics, but also includes some surprises, such as "Haiti," the slinky, rap-tinged hit from Tropicalia 2, a 1994 duo record by Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
Always at the center, Veloso's smart satin voice telegraphs assurance and sensuality, but it's important to remember that for Brazilians, he's much more than a singing star. He's a intellectual, a voice of conscience through whom Brazilians have been mediating their lives for three decades. This may be part of the reason that Veloso has played in the US so much less than his party hardy peer, Gil. The success of Livro, a brilliant blend of bossa nova and Brazilian percussion, led to extensive touring for Veloso, including in the U.S It also led to an acclaimed live album, Prenda Minha.
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