| Died: August 7, 1942 Primary Instrument: Guitar
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso, known as Caetano Veloso, is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian composer and singer, called “One of the greatest songwriters of the century”, whose voice “carries an abiding tenderness” and is sometimes considered the Bob Dylan of Brazil.
Veloso was born in Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, the fifth of the seven children born to José Teles Veloso (”Seu Zeca”) (1901-1983) and Claudionor Viana Teles Veloso (”Dona Can�'”) (1907-). 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 Latin pop with a bossa nova edge, 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.) With such musical collaborators Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, 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. Along with many other artists Caetano was living each verse of Geraldo Vandre�'s political hymn: Yet they make of a flower their strongest refrain, And believe flowers to defeat guns.
Caetano Veloso's work upon his return in 1972 was often characterized by frequent merger 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, Greece, Portugal, France and Africa. In the United States, his records, such as O estrangeiro, 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 Almodóvar's Hable con Ella (Talk to Her), and Frida, for which he performed at the 75th Academy Awards but did not win. In 2002 Veloso published an account of his early years and the Tropicália 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 D�-az.
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 January 2007 album, Cê was released by Nonesuch Records' in the US. It won two Latin Grammys, one for best singer-songwriter (the cantautor in the Spanish terminology of the Latin Grammys), and one for Best Portuguese Song, “Não me arrependo”. With a total of five Latin Grammys, Veloso has received more than any other Brazilian performer.
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 Philips
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
2007 - Cê ao vivo Universal Music
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