Caetano Veloso S and D

Recently found a nice used copy of Circulado, which I hadnt heard before. Article inspired me to put it on and spent all weekend listening to it, great stuff.

That was a good profile, there was a lot I didn't know (such as the fact that he started dating his long-time wife and manager when she was 13 o_O).

"A terceira margem do rio" is a great song from Circulado, what a lovely melody and chord progression (and vocal).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F0lVCkynWY

His album last year, y'all

Listen to it.

"A terceira margem do rio" is a great song from Circulado, what a lovely melody and chord progression (and vocal).
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, February 14, 2022 9:33 PM (forty-nine minutes ago)

It's one of the greatest short stories ever from Brazil, if you ever have a chance to read it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Bank_of_the_River_(short_story). Guimarães Rosa is the greatest.

love the butch morris cornet & arto guitar on circulado

Todays dollar bin Caetano CD find was Omaggio A Federico E Giulietta, a live Fellini tribute from the 90s I had no prior knowledge of. Currently kicking my ass on this warm summer night.

Half a dozen times in the liner essay he laments having vocal troubles on the night of the recording. Maybe I have a tin ear idk, but he still sounds pretty fucking good to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgnI1q48Rc

It's during a phase I think Caetano is really reconnecting with standards as a whole, songs from his childhood radio memories.

A really great one from the same era is Fina Estampa https://www.discogs.com/release/2199404-Caetano-Veloso-Fina-Estampa

These would all be played in the radio when he was young. He discuss this a bit in his bio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tbLX8pyNq4

^ Almost a hit from this record

Have been trawling through his early albums, the ones available on Tidal anyway, and wow Araçá Azul throws you for a curve! Should be mentioned more in discussions of artists making crazy experimental albums at the height of their success.

Lots of good discussion in the early stages of this thread re: Brasil and Japan. One thing that attracts me about both the tropicalistas and the YMO crew is how they accept anglo-american influences as a fact of life but manage to integrate them in a way that still reflects their nationalities instead of seeming in thrall to them. Hardly anyone managed that in Portugal I think - even the greatest music we've produced is either in opposition to these influences or trying to imitate them. Maybe António Variações came closest to offering a synthesis...

and also in both examples it's not a simple case of "Brazilian or Japanese music with Anglo-American influences", more like a next step that incorporates those influences and also other international ones, at its best seeming to offer an aesthetic if not political way out of being the children of Marx and coca-cola

I think it all stems from this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_Antrop%C3%B3fago
It's such a big influence on everything artistic Brazil has done since, it's almost like a North Star in a way.

Araçá is awesome - Dominique Leone rightly called it almost a Faust record. Drumming on that record is <3 all time

That Manifesto link is interesting. Thanks

fpsa, are you brazilian / have you lived in brazil?

agree that Araçá Azul is great. my original pressing is one of my prized possessions -- one of a handful acquired at tropicalia in furs in NYC

gonna throw that on now, thanks thread

prob discussed earlier but his autobiography is great, recommended

yep, I'm brazilian! I'm from Pernambuco, northeast

but I'm living in NYC for the last 6 years.

Verdade tropical is all time. the prison chapter is just heartbreaking. but a lot of what makes it great is also in the chapters about his youth and formation, and his love of joão gilberto. it's such a great microcosmos on what his vision (and everybody else near him, to be honest) was like

agreed, and iirc it discusses that same manifesto?

yes, it does. the manisfesto is a huge thing here – it all relates to an idea of what constitutes modernism for Brazil, a few decades out of being under Portugal and being a nation, and facing industrialization and what constituted our identity.

macunaíma, the novel, is a clear manifestation of these ideas early on – it's pretty clear the connection here to Tropicália
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/books/mario-de-andrade-macunaima-apprentice-tourist.html There's also the movie from 69, recently restored https://mubi.com/films/macunaima https://www.bam.org/film/2023/macunaima

--

1973 was a great year for weirder, bold albums in general - here's a cool collection of them: https://musica.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2013/07/03/experimentalismo-censura-e-partes-intimas-artistas-revelam-segredos-de-5-capas-classicas-da-mpb.htm

joão donato - quem é quem. rip, just died today, a rã is brazil in less than 3 minutes. bossa nova heavyweight/pianist extraordinaire goes funky and moody. a lot of counterpoints, syncopation but so tight and breezy.
milton nascimento - milagre dos peixes. if you love rock bottom, r. wyatt, and the most floating/wordless stuff beach boys done such as surf's up or cabinessence, go for this asap.
gal costa - índia (<3 relance)
araçá azul
tom zé - todos os olhos (best(? sad really) song ever about torture and hopelessness, the title track here)
walter franco - ou não (nww list record, warped mpb/rock record)
paulinho da viola – nervos de aço (samba-canção from the greatest)
luiz melodia - "pérola negra" swinging/moody popsoulrock record, Rio de Janeiro at 3am, boozy melancholy vibe. amazing
joão gilberto - s/t (the white album)
tim maia - st (tim in front of a forest) party record all time
Novos Baianos - Novos Baianos F.C.
the satwa record (hometown shoutout!)

see also: Marconi Notaro!

true

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=336724227486111 <- caetano doing some of his araça tour on br tv (this program was Elizeth Cardoso's program. She was the first to record bossa nova https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQZrsKhSm-w)

Thanks for all the context fpsa. I'd heard about antropofagia within the tropicalia context but didn't know where the concept came from originally.

All I've heard about the movie Caetano Veloso directed is it's nigh on unwatchable, anyone caught it?

Hardly anyone managed that in Portugal I think

ummmm, have you heard quarteto 1111's "ode to the beatles" ?!

(just kidding)

lol I have but am surprised you have as well! I guess Quarteto 1111 might come across the radars of psych diggers? Certainly frontman José Cid never stops mentioning his prog album showing up on some Japanese best of list

Araçá Azul -- wow! Talk about a record with a sound that doesn't match the cover art.

haha yeah

does anybody know what the lyrics are to "Gilberto Misterioso"?

when i sing it to myself i normally go

gil hing gil hee gil ha jeenyo

lol I have but am surprised you have as well! I guess Quarteto 1111 might come across the radars of psych diggers? Certainly frontman José Cid never stops mentioning his prog album showing up on some Japanese best of list

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 3:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i can't really remember how i came across them but yeah it was probably on one of many "worldwide psych" benders. "os monstros sagrados" is a great track!

Sol ré /// It's a play on musical notes (G is Sol, and Sol is also Sun in pt-br) and Ré (D and also backwards)
Sol-ol /// Just aliteration on Sun again here

Gil engendra /// You prob know this is Gilberto Gil, but the rest is just a ref to a poem from Sousandrade, a wacky/weird modern poet – engendra means engender, to produce, spawn something. So, Gil produces...
Em Gil rouxinol /// ... In(inside?) Gil nightingale
Gil engendra
Em Gil rouxinol

Great song. Reminds me of Red Crayola in a way, but Caetano goes all the way on these micro/minimal songs with full wordplay on other poetry/folksongs. Transa has something kinda similar to this as well.

you can also go deep here! http://lendocancao.blogspot.com/2019/09/gil-engendra-em-gil-rouxinol-gilberto.html

My cats went batshit for that song. Not a real rouxinol, guys!

right, okay, it's coming back to me (?)

i'm guessing gilberto gil must've been nicknamed "rouxinol" at some point

https://i.discogs.com/r9cCGopnifM_TeraxlczLibNIlbXaVi7z3q5vLk_x7U/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:586/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU2NDc1/OTgtMTM5ODg4NDU0/MS02NTg3LmpwZWc.jpeg

ok blogspot post leads to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt1yv-c8a54

<3

Seeing video clips of his current US tour and wishing I had been back in town to have seen him last night in dc area gig at Strathmore. They’re now saying this is his last US tour. Oh well, at least I have seen him a few times before .

When I saw that he was touring, I was bummed that he wasn't coming to Chicago. Or maybe he is and I somehow missed it?

the show is great, saw him at BAM. HOWEVER!!! Historical revisionism now makes brazillians sing along to "You don't know me" but when he plays fucking Cajuina almost no one does!!! I mean, I love Transa – but people, for the love of god, there are other Caetano records lol.

i like both of those songs but it's much easier for me to sing the songs that are in a language i know how to speak ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

although i will cop to yogurting quite a bit to caetano's music, lol

I don’t think you missed a Chicago gig Josh, looks like it was just an east coast and west coast Veloso tour

budo jeru, I have no qualms with english-speaking fans - but BAM was packed with Brazilians tho!!! And my larger point is – Transa became in the last 25 years something of a OK Computer for regular listeners, and becomes really boring to see people hyping it to the extreme while completely disregarding the rest of a huge catalog. And Cajuína is a hit! From a even bigger successful record, Cinema Transcendental (a hit about suicide and the loss of a son, but still, such a pretty song)

(the listeners who disregard everything but Transa in the post above are again, BRA listeners. most US/Europe/Japan fans love Caetano all around mostly)

it's a pet peeve of mine, sorry. it happens with other artists as well – people who only love Tábua de Esmeralda but not all Jorge Ben, or people who love Racional Vol1 but don't listen to Tim Maia. It's similar to someone saying they love Dub but can't listen to Reggae - gtfo!!!

right. i mean, i have basically never heard anyone talk about Transa so i don't even know what it would be like to have your experience. i have heard Cinema Transcendental many times and, while i like it, respectfully i don't think it comes close to Transa. but that's a bit like saying this or that painting doesn't come close to the Sistine Chapel or something (sorry if i'm inadvertently adding to the hype)

haha no worries. I love Transa, it's one of a kind, but it's just 1 part of Caetano

Cinema Transcendental punches above the weight for me in several songs – Cajuina, the title track, Lua de São Jorge. I heard this songs in the radio, it's not that fair, I do love them a lot. It's a poppier/breezier side to Caetano for sure. I associate it with a general type of light MPB tracks for the early 80s that, in a larger sense, became what people associate with MPB as a 'genre' for a long time

btw, he was touring recently a show playing Transa in full again – so there's some hope he does that show here as well (but with a diff band – you almost need a hardcore/grind drummer for a track like Neolithic Man! true freak folk <3)