Caetano Veloso turns 80 this Sunday, August 7th.
After more than 60 years of career, the singer will celebrate his birthday with a show, in which he will share the stage with his children and his sister, Maria Bethânia. The “Especial Caetano Veloso 80 anos” will take place at Cidade das Artes, in Rio de Janeiro.
And to celebrate eight decades of one of the icons of Brazilian music and culture, the country’s main publishers are releasing five books on the singer’s work, which goes far beyond his concerts.
“Caetano is an intellectual, an avant-garde artist and a thinker about Brazil,” he tells CNN the journalist and music curator Alexandre Matias.
“It is reductive to say that Caetano is an important figure only for Brazilian music”, he says.
Among the new titles is “Launch Worlds in the World” by Guilherme Wisnik, which, according to the author himself, addresses Caetano Veloso’s relationship with Brazil.
“As he says in the song ‘Americanos’, Brazil fluctuates between delight and disgrace, between the monstrous and the sublime,” the author told CNN . According to him, Caetano oscillates between pointing out the absurdities and valuing the power of our country.
This characteristic of his work is also strongly present in Tropicalismo, a cultural movement of the second half of the 1960s, of which the musician was a part. “It’s a generation that is constantly thinking about Brazil and wanting to make the country think about itself”, says Matias.
The journalist points out that such an important name in Brazilian music could spend his 80th birthday just receiving tributes. “But he keeps questioning the country he lives in and looking to work with new musicians, with new genres, with new ways of recording,” he explained.
“Caetano remained consistent with the spirit of Tropicalismo, which is to tense the present time. He has a very strong need to be up to date, hence his connection with younger musicians”, adds Wisnik.
During his career, Caetano Veloso was not limited to music production. Your book “Tropical Truth” , first published in 1997 by Companhia das Letras, mixes personal memories of adolescence with the difficulties faced during the period of military dictatorship in Brazil and exile in London. The musician focuses on his own trajectory and the trajectory of the country in autobiography.
“It is a very important book for anyone who wants to understand Caetano and better understand the reflections proposed in his songs”, concludes Matias.
Check out below, five books released to celebrate Caetano Veloso’s 80th birthday:
“Launching Worlds in the World: Caetano Veloso and Brazil”, by Guilherme Wisnik (Editora Fósforo, 2022)
The book is a reprint of the essay on Caetano Veloso published in the series “Folha Explains”, in 2005, revised and updated by Wisnik.
The author shows how Caetano’s works are inseparable from the historical moments in which they were produced and from the Brazilian reality. And it analyzes the trajectory of the musician, who continues to actively participate in the country’s political and social debates and transform them into art, even at the age of 80.
“Letters”, by Caetano Veloso with organization by Eucanaã Ferraz (Editora Companhia das Letras, 2022)
“Letras” organizes the verses of all the songs composed by Caetano Veloso, starting with his most recent production – the album “Meu Coco”, from 2021 – to his first compositions.
It is possible to follow the transformation of the artist’s work, over 60 years, through the reading of his songs as if they were poems.
“Other Words: Seis Vezes Caetano”, by Tom Cardoso (Editora Record, 2022)
In “Outras Palavras”, the author Tom Cardoso seeks to portray the multiple faces of Caetano. The book has six thematic chapters – the man from Santo Amaro, the polemicist, the leader, the avant-garde, the lover and the politician –, which have interviews and various testimonies to show the reader who Caetano Veloso is and what his different forms are.
“Side C: the musical trajectory of Caetano Veloso until the reinvention with bandaCê”, by Luiz Felipe Carneiro and Tito Guedes (Editora Máquina de Livros, 2022)
“Lado C” explores Caetano’s constant reinvention and his trajectory with bandaCê, the trio of musicians that accompanied him from 2006 to 2015.
At age 64, Caetano teamed up with instrumentalists 30 years younger than him, and the partnership yielded three albums, in addition to tours around Brazil and the world, resulting in one of the most productive moments of his career. The authors show how the musician started the project and what his relationship with artists of different generations is like, including his children.
“I live very alive – 15 short stories inspired by the songs of Caetano Veloso”, by various authors organized by Mateus Baldi (Editor: José Olympio, 2022)
This collection of short stories brings together fifteen contemporary authors to celebrate the life of Caetano Veloso. Each author chose a song as the theme and inspiration for a tale, in order to bring the characters to life or expand the narratives created by the musician in his work.
Source: CNN Brasil
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