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Inspiration From Brazil And Beyond

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By CURTIS ROSS The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 23, 2007

It might be hard to pick up on the anger flowing through Caetano Veloso's latest album unless you speak Portuguese or consult the helpful translations on the lyric sheet.

Veloso's pure, sweet tenor could make Eminem's most vitriolic lines sound like Robert Browning. But one chorus repeats "I hate you" several times and another tune chastises someone for being "too much the rat with me."

Veloso's latest album, 2006's "Ce" (released in the U.S. in January) is one of his most rock-oriented. Responding to questions via e-mail, Veloso acknowledges that rock best suited the angry, bitter lyrics.

He doesn't elaborate on the source of the anger, although the lyrics, and his recent divorce, suggest a broken romance.

Veloso's comments suggest that his musical direction on "Ce" was more instinctual than deliberate.

"I didn't listen much to anything," he writes. "I just departed from general ideas that came from my casual observation of what is going on.

"But I must say that listening to the Pixies' BBC album with Pedro Sá guitarist on "Ce" and in Veloso's current touring band was a turning point," he writes. "I could talk to you about TV On The Radio, Wilco, or Radiohead. But I wouldn't remember tracks titles or anything. Just one concert seen in Rio, one session of listening with noisy friends, that kind of stuff.

"But rock has been an issue for me since 1967," he writes. "You just listen to my records."

Rock was an issue for the Brazilian authorities in the '60s, but not in a positive way. Veloso, along with artists such as Gilberto Gil and the band Os Mutantes, were leaders of the Tropicalia movement, which merged modern and traditional Brazilian music with rock, African music and other influences.

The music, coupled with socially and politically conscious lyrics, drew the ire of Brazil's military government, and Gil and Veloso both were jailed and then sent into exile for several years.

Despite his own experiences, Veloso doesn't believe it's an artist's duty to protest.

"I don't like the idea of expecting correct political opinions from artists. But the 'shut up and sing' attitude is even worse," he writes, referring to the response some American performers have received for speaking out against the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Those tribulations didn't dim Veloso's desire to search out new sounds. He's drawn particular inspiration from American music, from the standards to hip hop and punk rock.

"When I saw 'Beat Street' in Rio, in the early '80s, I fell in love with rap," Veloso writes. "My song 'Língua,' a samba-rap, is from that period. 'Haiti,' from the early '90s, is a rap, a good one. I am proud of it. It's very mine, very Brazilian, but still it's a real rap."

He showed his love of American music on his 2004 album "A Foreign Sound," which featured interpretations of songs by Cole Porter, Nirvana and Talking Heads, among others. The album was "mostly autobiographical," Veloso writes, "songs that were important to me in different periods of my life."

He chose "songs that ... showed the presence of Anglo-American song in Brazil while I was growing up and getting old," he writes. "That is the deepest link between Cole Porter and Nirvana."

ON TOUR

Caetano Veloso

WHEN: 8 p.m. today

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa; (813) 229-7827

COST: $29.50-$65

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