Caetano Veloso spoke with Newsday about his new album, the rock-infused, Cê, and his long history with the genre, going back to the early days of Tropicália. "I never intended to solve the contradiction between traditional and contemporary music," he says. "Real contemporary music can use tradition in so many ways: to reaffirm aspects of it while refusing others, to create a total contrast to it, to choose the role of its savior. Or, as we Tropicálistas did, sway through all of the above."
Caetano Veloso recently spoke with Newsday about his latest Nonesuch release, the rock-infused, Cê, and his long history with the genre, going back to the early days of Tropicália. Adding their own personal rock histories to the mix are Pedro Sá, the 35-year-old guitarist who co-produced the record with Caetano's son Moreno, and the other young musicians joining him on tour.
"The [new musicians] have heard most everything that has been important for me in the '60s: João Gilberto, Jorge Ben, Motown, Beatles, Hendrix, jazz," Veloso told Newsday's Ed Morales. "The fact that they are young is great also because things like Nirvana or Radiohead appeared when they were beginning their lives."
While it maybe be tempting to look at Caetano's long and prolific career as a bridge of sorts between those eras, he doesn't lay claim to the role:
I never intended to solve the contradiction between traditional and contemporary music ... Someone said that as far as mass culture goes, in the 20th century you were either American or provincial. Recognizing that as a given, and playing with the tensions that result from it, was the motivation of Tropicálismo. But real contemporary music can use tradition in so many ways: to reaffirm aspects of it while refusing others, to create a total contrast to it, to choose the role of its savior. Or, as we Tropicálistas did, sway through all of the above.
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