Caetano Veloso

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Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso at Umbria Jazz (Perugia, Italy)
Caetano Veloso at Umbria Jazz (Perugia, Italy)
Background information
Birth name Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso
Born August 7, 1942 (age 64)
Origin Flag of Brazil Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, Brazil
Genre(s) MPB, Tropicália, Pop
Occupation(s) solo singer-songwriter, musical artist, performer, writer
Years active 1967—Present
Website CaetanoVeloso.com.br

Caetano Veloso (born 7 August 1942) is one of the most popular and influential Brazilian composers and singers.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Veloso was born in Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, the fifth of the seven children born to José Telles Veloso ("Seu Zezinho") and Claudionor Vianna Telles Veloso ("Dona Canô"). He chose the name for his baby sister (Veloso's parents's sixth child), named after a famous song of the time (18 June 1946) by Nelson Gonçalves, Maria Bethânia. His sister preceded him to fame as a singer in the mid-1960s.

He began his career singing bossa nova and he has cited his greatest musical influences from his early period as João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi. (João Gilberto would say later about Caetano's contribution that it added an intellectual dimension to Brazilian popular music[citation needed].) With such musical collaborators Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Chico Buarque, and Os Mutantes, and a strong influence of the later work of The Beatles, Veloso developed tropicalismo, which fused Brazilian pop with rock and roll and avant garde music resulting in a more international, psychedelic, and socially aware sound. Veloso's politically active stance, unapologetically leftist, earned him the enmity of Brazil's military dictatorship which ruled until 1985; his songs were frequently censored, and some were banned. Veloso was also alienated from the socialist left in Brazil because of his acceptance and integration of non-nationalist influences (like rock and roll) in his music. Veloso and Gilberto Gil spent several months in jail for "anti-government activity" in 1968 and eventually exiled themselves to London. Caetano Veloso's work upon his return in 1972 was often characterized by frequent appropriations not only of international styles, but of half-forgotten Brazilian folkloric styles and rhythms as well. In particular, his celebration of the Afro-Brazilian culture of Bahia can be seen as the precursor of such Afro-centric groups as Timbalada.

In the 1980s, Veloso's popularity outside Brazil grew, especially in Israel, Portugal, France and Africa. In the United States, his records produced by Arto Lindsay helped gain him a larger audience. By 2004, he was one of the most respected and prolific international pop stars, with more than fifty recordings available, including songs in soundtracks of movies such as Michelangelo Antonioni's "Eros", Pedro Almodovar's Hable con Ella (Talk to Her), and Frida. In 2002 Veloso published an account of his early years and the Tropicalia movement, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil. In his albums he has included surprising personal versions of well-known Latin-American songs, among them some by Venezuelan folk songwriter Simón Díaz.

His first all-English CD was A Foreign Sound (2004), which covers Nirvana's "Come as You Are" and compositions from the Great American Songbook. Five of the six songs on his third eponymous album, released in 1971, were also in English.

His most recent album, Cê, was released in the US by Nonesuch Records in January 2007.

[edit] Charity

On 18 july 2005 Caetano Veloso held a concert at the Villa dei Quintili (along the Via Appia Antica in Rome)in favor of the association "Regina Viarum" headed by Venezuelan-born philanstropist and socialite Marisela Federici Rivas Y Cardona whose aim is to provide funds for the restoration of archeological sites on the Via Appia Antica in Rome.

[edit] Marriages

Veloso's first marriage in 1969 was with a dancing student named Andréa Gadelha, known as Dedé, who was the sister of Gilberto Gil's ex-wife Sandra Gadelha. With Dedé, he had his first son Moreno born in 1972. In 1982, Veloso started a relationship with Paula Lavigne. According to Lavigne, she lost her virginity with Veloso when she was 13 years old.[1] Veloso's marriage with Gadelha ended in 1983 and he married Lavigne in 1986 when she was 17. The couple had two sons Zeca (b. 1992) and Tom (b. 1997). Veloso and Lavigne divorced in 2004.[2]


[edit] Discography

  • 1967 - Domingo (with Gal Costa) Philips
  • 1968 - Caetano Veloso Philips
  • 1968 - Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis (with Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Nara Leão, and Gal Costa) Philips
  • 1968 - Ao Vivo (with Os Mutantes) Philips [live]
  • 1968 - "Veloso, Gil e Bethania" RCA Victor
  • 1969 - Caetano Veloso Philips
  • 1971 - Caetano Veloso
  • 1972 - Transa Philips
  • 1972 - Barra 69 ao vivo na Bahia (with Gilberto Gil) Philips [live]
  • 1972 - Caetano e Chico - Juntos ao Vivo (with Chico Buarque) Phonogram [live]
  • 1973 - Araçá Azul Phonogram/Philips
  • 1974 - Temporada de Verão - ao vivo na Bahia (with Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa) Phonogram [live]
  • 1975 - Jóia Philips
  • 1975 - Qualquer Coisa Philips
  • 1976 - Doces Bárbaros (with Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethânia) Philips
  • 1977 - Bicho Philips
  • 1977 - Muitos Carnavais Phonogram/Philips
  • 1978 - Muito (dentro da estrela azulada) Philips
  • 1978 - Maria Bethânia e Caetano Veloso ao Vivo Phonogram
  • 1979 - Cinema Transcendental Polygram/Philips
  • 1981 - Outras Palavras Philips
  • 1981 - Brasil (with João Gilberto, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethânia) WEA
  • 1982 - Cores, Nomes Philips
  • 1983 - Uns Philips
  • 1984 - Velô Philips
  • 1986 - Totalmente Demais Polygram/Philips [live]
  • 1986 - Caetano Veloso Nonesuch
  • 1987 - Caetano Philips
  • 1989 - Estrangeiro Philips
  • 1991 - Circuladô Polygram
  • 1992 - Circuladô Vivo Polygram [live]
  • 1993 - Tropicália 2 (with Gilberto Gil) Polygram/Philips
  • 1994 - Fina Estampa Polygram
  • 1994 - Fina Estampa ao Vivo Polygram [live]
  • 1995 - O Quatrilho Natasha/Blue Jackel (film soundtrack)
  • 1996 - Tieta do Agreste Natasha/Blue Jackel (film soundtrack)
  • 1997 - Livro Polygram
  • 1999 - Prenda Minha Polygram [live]
  • 1999 - Omaggio a Federico e Giulietta Universal Music [live]
  • 1999 - Orfeu Natasha (film soundtrack)
  • 2000 - Noites do Norte Universal Music
  • 2001 - Noites do Norte ao vivo Universal Music [live]
  • 2002 - Eu não peço desculpas (with Jorge Mautner) Universal Music
  • 2002 - Todo Caetano (40 CD boxed set) Universal Music
  • 2004 - A Foreign Sound Universal Music
  • 2005 - Onqotô Independent
  • 2006 - Cê Universal Music

[edit] Books

  • 2002 - Tropical Truth: A Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil Knopf

[edit] External links

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