Caetano Veloso

Caetano Veloso enjoying international spotlight

From World Beat's Brooke Alexander

March 20, 2000
Web posted at: 5:35 p.m. EST (2235 GMT)

(CNN) -- One of Salvador's most famous sons is Caetano Veloso, who has been an essential influence in Brazilian music for over 30 years.

He is one of the founders of tropicalismo, a sound that draws on the best of Brazilian music with pop rock influences from overseas. He's also mixed his complex and sometimes polemic lyrics with bossa nova, blues and many other styles.

Veloso says he was influenced by music that crossed borders and took him to international destinations.

"I grew up in this musical environment," Veloso says. "Of course, the musical environment in the 20th century also means radio, records, movies -- and, from the '60s on, television. So I've listened to lots of things, from American to Cuban to Argentinean."

Born in 1942 in the Bahia region of Brazil, Veloso gained fame in the 1960s with tropicalismo and bossa nova hits. Combined with Dylanesque lyrics, the songs proved so influential that Brazil's dictatorship government threw him in jail for two years for "anti-government activity."

	AUDIO
"Nao Enche" [210k MPEG-3] or [190k WAV] "Sozinho" [210k MPEG-3] or [290k WAV] (Courtesy WEA/Atlantic/Nonesuch)

"At that time, we were supposed to be mixing -- as most of our colleagues were doing -- sophisticated harmonies and tricky rhythms with left-wing ideas in the lyrics, which was charming," he says. "Some songs in that style are fantastic, but it was a little self-satisfied.

"We felt the political situation in Brazil was a lot more violent than that," he says. "We were under a military dictatorship."

Now, Veloso is promoting his latest release after enjoying the recent Carnival celebrations in Brazil.

"Not only for musicians, but for everybody, Carnival represents a very important part of our lives," he says, "And as for musicians, it has always meant inspiration."