CAETANO VELOSO | CE (NONESUCH)
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At first I wondered why Veloso had bothered to tap into this vein at such a late date. But by the end of my first listen through Ce I’d forgotten all about that in my astonishment at his vocal performance. He sings just like he does on the sophisticated, self-consciously adult albums he’s been making since the late 80s, where the music is rooted in samba and bossa nova and borrows freely from all over the world. His playful, elliptical lyrics still strive for the gravity of poetry, and his singing is still pure and direct, without the swaggering, shouting, or chest beating another vocalist might’ve used to complement the aggressive arrangements. And the juxtaposition is magic.
Not only does Veloso make no effort to sound like one of the kids, he at times seems to be drawing attention to his age. On “Homem” (written, like everything here, in Portuguese), he sings, “I am a man / Loose skin over muscle / I am a man / Thick hair in my nose,” then insists that the only thing he’s jealous of in women is the capacity for multiple orgasms. Rather than avert his eyes from the decline of his body and occupy himself with the abstract and philosophical, he seems almost stubbornly committed to the corporeal–on song after song he celebrates the passions, sexual and otherwise, and repeatedly invokes blood, mucus, semen, and the other fluids that are part of life’s messy beauty.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Fernanda Negrini.
