A Profile of Caetano Veloso, Brazil’s most celebrated musician, whose liquid tenor is one of the most distinctive voices in music.
The music started again, and Veloso shimmied in a boyish trance. His feet scissored off the ground to the beat. One of the guitarists picked up the melody of a song from Veloso’s new album. Its title was “Sem Samba Não Dá,” or “Without Samba It Just Won’t Do.” The strumming grew soft as Veloso cut in, singing in a velvety voice barely louder than a whisper. The group leaned in as if he were about to share a secret.
In Salvador, then in Rio and São Paulo—wherever there were gigs—the Bahians were a unit: Veloso, Gil, Bethânia, Costa, and a girl with short hair named Dedé Gadelha, who was Veloso’s girlfriend and, later, his first wife. Bethânia found success first, receiving an invitation to perform in a musical show in Rio called “Opinião.” Veloso joined her in a somewhat ambiguous capacity—part chaperon, part writer and manager, and part aspiring singer.
Veloso began singing “Alegria, Alegria,” a sunny anthem about a young searcher “walking against the wind” and venturing into a world of “bombs and Brigitte Bardot.” A gust of boos buffeted the stage. Veloso swayed slightly, looking unsure what to do with his hands. His smile never dimmed. Gradually, he reached his arms out to the audience, and, as he did, the heckling petered out and gave way to rapturous applause.
After several weeks, Veloso noticed a young guard looking at him in his cell and fighting back tears. When they made eye contact, the soldier shook his head apologetically. A sergeant appeared with two other men and ordered Veloso to get dressed. Once the four of them were outside, the soldiers drew their weapons. The sergeant told him to walk ahead of them, and not to look back. The cobblestone streets around the military complex were deserted.
Later that year, he was in the midst of recording a new album, called “Transa,” when his phone rang. It was João Gilberto, calling from a studio in São Paulo. “Caetano, come sing with me and Gal,” he said. He and Gal Costa were recording a television special. Veloso told him it was impossible. Gilberto said, “Don’t worry, everyone will smile at you. No one will stop you at the airport.” Gilberto was admired for many things, but not for his political or practical acuity.
During the week I spent with him in Rio, Veloso was listening to a Brazilian country singer named Marília Mendonça, a group of Carioca rappers and hip-hop d.j.s, and Silk Sonic, the R. & B. duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. Late at night, usually around three or four in the morning, he watched music videos on a channel called “Multi-Show,” modelled on MTV.
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