Star of Brazil

Caetano Veloso, finally in Boston

by Banning Eyre

When you consider the great Brazilian artists who have performed in Boston in the last 10 years, it is hard to believe that Caetano Veloso is not among them. Since his first release, in 1967, Veloso has been a consistent hitmaker in his enormous, culturally diverse country. His musical breadth rivals that of Frank Zappa; as a poet, he's adored for his lyrics by Brazilians the way Americans love Allen Ginsberg, another passionate and witty observer of modern life. But Veloso is mainstream, a bossa nova man who went psychedelic and came back. Whereas other pop icons of the '60s and '70s have passed into obscurity, or the great beyond, Veloso -- gracefully aged at 55 but still hip -- continues to produce new music and tour. And at long last, his itinerary includes Boston: he and his five-piece group will appear at Jordan Hall this Sunday and Monday.

Veloso was born in Bahia, Brazil's most African province. By the time he moved to the Bahian capital of Salvador, as a boy, he was set on a career in the arts. His sister, singer Maria Bethânia, got a break in 1965 when she was invited to Rio to perform in a musical. He tagged along and soon began recording hits. His first album, done with singer Gal Costa, was all bossa nova, a nod to his musical hero, João Gilberto. "I owe João Gilberto everything I am today," Veloso once told an interviewer. "Even if I were something else and not a musician, I would say that I owe him everything." After a flurry of early singles and television appearances, the move from acoustic to electric, and his wedding -- described as Brazil's "first hippie wedding" -- Veloso played a historic 1968 concert in São Paulo with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé. The concert launched the tropicalismo movement, a heady blend of Brazilian roots culture, rock-and-roll psychedelia, and radicalism.

For their efforts, Veloso and Gil both earned periods of exile in London while Brazil endured repressive military rule. But by 1972 Veloso was back, recording and performing in Brazil. Between the time of his return to São Paulo and the end of the 1980s he produced 21 albums.

Since Veloso has played so rarely in the US, American listeners are most apt to know his work through two rich-textured pop albums -- Estrangeiro (1989) and Circuladô (1991; both Elektra/Nonesuch) -- produced by Ambitious Lovers veteran Arto Lindsay. Lindsay is a New Yorker who grew up in Brazil and has now become one of that country's most coveted pop producers. Estrangeiro teamed Veloso with Brazilian percussion giants Naná Vasconcelos and Carlinhos Brown as well as cutting-edge American session players like guitarists Mark Ribot and Bill Frisell. The result was transcendent, multi-dimensional pop. But despite critical raves, it did not spread Caetano Fever to these shores.

More recently, Veloso has made two decidedly more conservative records of what he calls Fina Estampa, a collection of classic Latin American tangos, boleros, rhumbas, and bossas. Brazilians speak Portuguese, but here, Veloso sings mostly in Spanish in what one Brazilian writer has called "a quest for pan-American unity through song." True to that ideal, the original Fina Estampa release became Veloso's first to go platinum in a foreign country -- namely, Argentina. Veloso himself says that the idea for Fina Estampa came from the formative years he spent listening to the radio in the '40s and '50s. The second album, Fina Estampa en Vivo (Mercury), is a live recording with Caetano's small group -- the one he'll bring here -- backed by a brass band and a symphony orchestra. The recording swells and swings its way through a number of the Latin American classics, but it also includes some surprises, such as "Haiti," the slinky, rap-tinged hit from Tropicalia 2 (Elektra/Nonesuch), a 1994 duo record by Veloso and Gilberto Gil.

Always at the center, Veloso's smart satin voice telegraphs assurance and sensuality, but it's important to remember that in Brazil he's much more than a singing star. He's an intellectual, a voice of conscience through whom Brazilians have been mediating their lives for three decades. This may explain why Veloso has played in the US so much less than the party-hardy Gil. With demand high in Latin America and Europe, few US promoters have been willing to spring for his fee. All the more reason the Jordan Hall shows mark a rare opportunity.

Caetano Veloso and group will play Jordan Hall this Sunday and Monday, June 22 and 23. Call 262-2289. The television documentary Caetano in Bahia will air on WGBH/Channel 2 this Saturday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m.