Latest Release
- NOV 12, 2024
- 1 Song
- Queer (Original Score) · 2024
- Fina Estampa · 1994
- The Best of Caetano Veloso · 2003
- Tropicália 2 · 1993
- Domingo · 1967
- Gal Costa · 1969
- Transa (2012 Remaster) · 1972
- Gal Costa · 1969
- Caetanear · 1985
- Prenda Minha (Live) · 1998
Essential Albums
- Recorded in 2006, when he was in his mid-60s and still on an extended creative streak, Ce is one of Caetano Veloso’s most intimate efforts. Abandoning the lush orchestration of prior albums, the iconic singer/songwriter and Tropicália pioneer concentrates on the joys of a restrained rock ’n’ roll quartet, from the funky grooves of “Homem” to the art-pop guitar of “Deusa Urbana” and the abstract poetry of “Minhas Lagrimas.” It’s a beautiful record of sparsely arranged yet stirring Brazilian tunes.
- Caetano Veloso recorded Transa in 1972, near the end of a period of political exile in London. Although the sound of ’70s guitar rock dominates the album, Veloso’s weave of traditional Brazilian music—heard in percussive berimbau playing and pattering samba rhythms—give songs like “Neolithic Man” and “Mora Na Filosofia” a nostalgic potency. Although Veloso’s political messages are subdued throughout the album, the gently undermining “It’s a Long Way” later became an understated anthem of political subversion. Still, it’s the hazy melancholic imagery and laid-back acoustic sway of “Triste Bahia” (a song based on a text by lyrical 17th century poet Gregório de Matos) that possesses the most powerful emotional resonance.
- Caetano Veloso’s 1968 self-titled debut wasn’t actually his first album: A year earlier, the Brazilian singer-songwriter had released the bossa nova-laced Domingo with vocalist Gal Costa (which included the deliriously beautiful “Coração Vagabundo”). What a difference a year makes. Veloso’s solo debut is another beast entirely—a swaggering primal yawp that floats, bare-chested, through Brazilian beaches and the sertão, past a brutal colonial history and a gum-cracking pop-culture present, pulling psychedelic rock, samba, and much more into its orbit. And Veloso fully flaunted his artistic license while managing to stay—for the moment—under the radar of the military dictatorship, which had taken over in a U.S.-backed coup in 1964. It’s a magnificent trick: Veloso’s oblique lyrics often poke military censors in the eye, whether with the effervescent bohemian ramble of “Alegria, Alegria” (“I go… why not?”) or the infectious fluff of “Soy Loco Por Ti America,” which in fact champions a leftist vision for the South American continent. The opening track, “Tropicália,” manages to out-weird The Beatles, with its squealing cacophony of jungle sounds and hip-swiveling bravado. (That track, incidentally, furnished the tropicalismo musical movement with its name.) The youth ate it all up, and it didn’t take long for the dictatorship to sense a threat: Veloso and his co-conspirator, Gilberto Gil, were both thrown in prison without charges by year’s end, and then forced into exile for the next four years. The song wasn’t silenced, but it was displaced. But Veloso—who reportedly has always found this album uneven—can’t repress its magnetic pull: It remains as thrilling and revolutionary now as it ever was.
- 2024
- 2021
- 2021
Artist Playlists
- From artistic revolutionary to beloved elder statesman.
- The songwriter's light touch has influenced performers far beyond Brazil.
- Letieres Leite & Orkestra Rumpilezz
About Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso is the shape-shifting spirit of Brazilian popular music, a singer-songwriter who, despite (or perhaps because of) his allergy to convention, has found himself at the center of Brazilian culture for over half a century. Born Caetano Emanuel Vianna Telles Veloso in Santa Amaro da Purificação in Bahia, Brazil, in 1942, Veloso grew up steeped in the Afro-Brazilian traditions of his home state. But it was his introduction to bossa nova as a teenager that propelled him into the music world, following his sister, the singer Maria Bethânia, to Rio de Janeiro. He made friends with musical co-conspirators Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa, and, buoyed by the global youth culture of the late 1960s, Veloso and Gil birthed tropicalismo, the playful, experimental psychedelic rock that seduced Brazilians while simultaneously threatening the country’s military dictatorship—which led to Veloso’s arrest and ultimate exile. Living in London, Veloso struggled with depression, but it couldn’t dampen his restless creativity. Through that exile and his return, Veloso has always created: The precise delicacy of his singing and songwriting has remained constant, even as he’s experimented with genres from traditional folk to post-punk, following his muse with little regard to fads—shaping fashion rather than being ruled by it. Influential fans like David Byrne and Beck helped raise his profile internationally, and as a new generation discovered his work, he continued to release vital music well into the 21st century.
- BORN
- August 7, 1942
- GENRE
- MPB