As part of its new feature, Source-Outing, Spinner.com asked Caetano Veloso to name five artists and albums that would give readers a better understanding of his own music. Writer Steve Hochman, in his introduction, writes: "In nearly 40 years he's covered so much ground but with so distinct an approach at all stages that trying to characterize any particular phase or album as anything different from any other just seems pointless and wrongheaded. Some have termed his most recent release, Cê, a 'rock' album. But, really, it's simply a Caetano Veloso album, just as Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain isn't a classical-fusion album, it's Davis. Or Rubber Soul isn't a folk-rock album, it's a Beatles album."
As part of its new feature, Source-Outing, Spinner.com asked Caetano Veloso to name five artists and albums that would give readers a better understanding of his own music. Writer Steve Hochman, in his introduction to Caetano's list, writes:
Some artists make music so distinct and unto itself that it's easy to overlook, or at least forget, that these artists—such as Miles Davis and the Beatles, for example—were in fact heavily influenced by others. Caetano Veloso is one of those artists, as well. In nearly 40 years he's covered so much ground but with so distinct an approach at all stages that trying to characterize any particular phase or album as anything different from any other just seems pointless and wrongheaded. Some have termed his most recent release, Cê, a "rock" album. But, really, it's simply a Caetano Veloso album, just as Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain isn't a classical-fusion album, it's Davis. Or Rubber Soul isn't a folk-rock album, it's a Beatles album.
As for Caetano's own thoughts on the albums that have impacted him, here are his top five: João Gilberto's Chega de Saudade; Jorge Ben's Ben ("the most beautiful and vital songs ever written and recorded"); John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band ("concise, direct, naked"); Bahian folk legend Dorival Caymmi's Caymmi e Seu Violão (an "exquisite mix of impressionistic harmonies and primitive feeling ... a whole world of music"); and Ray Charles's Dedicated to You. But Caetano, ever the generous artist, couldn't be kept to five and extended the list to include Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Arto Lindsay, Thelonious Monk, and fadista Amália Rodrigues, among others.
For more of Caetano's thoughts on these artists, visit spinner.com.
