One of the Greatest Songwriters of the Century - tomorrow night in Pasadena

[mousepod]

Tomorrow night, Heather and I will be attending the Caetano Veloso show at the Pasadena Civic Center.

For those of you unfamiliar with Caetano - check out this annotated discography at slipcue.com.

We've seen him on every tour for more than a decade, and each show is wildly different from the last. At 65 years old, and with more than 40 albums to his credit, Caetano still never shies away from reinvention. His last tour centered around an all-English covers album (from Cole Porter to Kurt Cobain) - this one is decidedly more rock 'n' roll.

Here's a review of his latest album (from slipcue):

Caetano Veloso "Ce" (Nonesuch, 2007)
Brazilian master songsmith Caetano Veloso has a long history promoting up-and-coming rock artists... He was one himself, long ago, jamming with Os Mutantes back in the heady hippie days of the late 1960s; not long after that he tapped teenaged guitarist Pepeu Gomes to back him and Gilberto Gil in their fabled "Barra 69" concert, before going into European exile for a couple of years. In the late '70s Caetano's band included Vinicius Cantuaria, formerly of the prog band O Terco, and in the early '80s he dipped into the shallow wellsprings of "new wave" pop, with mixed results. Now, hitting his mid-sixties, Veloso returns to rock music's explosive, joyous release, using it as the backdrop for a remarkably bitter album, Ce, much of which is inspired by a recent rancorous divorce. His son, Moreno Veloso, co-produced the album, along with Caetano's new protege, Pedro Sa, whose guitar work defines most of this record's sonic palatte. Sa and his youthful cohorts provide a forceful if somewhat brittle backing for Caetano's giddy yowlps... I wouldn't say they are the strongest, subtlest or most innovative rock stylists, but they hold their own with their various electrified contemporaries abroad. There are echos of Wire, Gang Of Four, Talking Heads, and in a modern sphere, Tortoise, Giant Sand and the newer "math rock" crowd... all good reference points to hit upon. Mostly, even though he's clearly sharing the spotlight with the young'uns, this record is really about Caetano... He may be expressing some pretty raw emotions, but more importantly he sounds like he's having fun, dipping into the greasy kid's stuff again, tapping into the live-wire dynamics of old-fashioned rock and giving a shout into the night. Definitely worth checking out.

And some youtube action from the current tour here and here.

Anyone want to join us?