Chicago
Theatre - Thursday, November
14, 2002
Ever
since I went to Rio de Janeiro
in the mid-80s, my love for
Brazilian music became even
more extreme and actually when
I returned here and could not
find very much of it in Chicago,
it was then that I turned to
salsa. So naturally, with Caetano
Veloso coming to the Chicago
Theatre, I had to see what he
was up to these days. And he
is up to a lot. Veloso was born
in the Bahia region of Brazil
in 1942 and was one of the original
musical and political icons
of the 60's "Tropicalismo" movement
along with the likes of Gilberto
Gil, Gal Costa and his sister,
Maria Bethania. "Tropicalismo"
was a musical and literary movement
which Veloso helped found that
did not please the military
junta which had taken over Brazil
in 1964. Consequently, both
Veloso and Gil spent some time
in prison and later in exile,
mostly in London.
Veloso
seems to be all over the map,
musically and physically. At
times it appears that Veloso
tries to be too many things
to too many people. With all
of his talent, there is something
anachronistic about a 60 year
old man doing hip-hop - even
with the lilting softness of
Portuguese. Thank God he segues
into a quasi-melody now and
then within that format. The
bass was painfully loud and
drowned out much of the music,
not to mention that the bass
notes were not in the least
bit discernable. Those around
me echoed the same opinion.
It was even affecting the beat
of my heart as the bass went
right through it!
By
contrast, when Veloso goes into
his familiar, soothing ballads
accompanied only by his own
guitar and an enchanting cello
player, he is at the top of
his form, exhibiting clearly
with a mix of samba and bossa
nova why he deserves the Grammy
he won in 1999 (for Livro).
Actually, he really needs no
band - he is fantastic alone
with his guitar, which was welcome
relief after the booming bass.
He has an amazing vocal range,
all the more spectacular given
his age, as his voice is as
crystal clear as ever. He also
looks like a young boy on stage,
slim, waving his arms around
as he is wont to do. At the
other end of the "more tranquil"
spectrum, he performed several
American classics, including
"Stardust", which did not compare
with his own material. (Did
I already tell you he was all
over the map - let me repeat
myself!)
The
real incongruity came, nonetheless,
when all eight of his band members
returned to the stage and Veloso
launched, in English, into what
can only be described as a vain
attempt as a "punk rocker" or
at the very least a Kurt Cobain
or Joey Ramone. Actually he
kept singing about "rock n'
raul" (as it is spelled in his
discography). Now if you had
the history of a Mick Jagger
behind you this would fly a
little better...
I
must admit, the light show was
fantastic, even if more like
a rock show. Given that we are
speaking of all Brazilians on
stage here, the show stopper
was the percussion section -
as to be expected from the country
of Brazil - phenomenal is a
gross under description! Veloso
summed things up quite accurately
when in addressing the audience
mostly in Portuguese, he broke
into a short lapse of English
"for the three or four of you
who do not speak Portuguese"!
Actually, Portuguese really
takes center stage as one of
the languages most perfectly
suited for music, in particular,
the softer dialect from Brazil.
The
audience embraced whatever he
did with open arms - clearly
this man deserves all the respect
he is given in any case. There
were howls of recognition at
all of his more well-known songs,
and believe me, they ARE well
known. (In any case, the person
behind me sang every word to
most of the songs - although
I thought I had come to hear
Veloso!) Of course, Veloso did
the required encore, stretching
it into three songs. It is amazing
to me that after a four decade
career, his Chicago debut did
not come until 1999 at Ravinia.
We hope to see him more often
than that! Well done, Chicago
Theatre!
_____________________________________________________
Send
your comments to Shirley here
