Tom Zé

Tom Zé
Tom Zé
	Tom Zé in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Antônio José Santana Martins
Born	11 October 1936 (age 88); Irará, Bahia, Brazil
Origin	São Paulo, Brazil
Genres	MPB; samba; folk; world music; experimental; tropicália;
Occupations	Multi-instrumentalist; singer-songwriter; composer;
Years active	1960s–present
Labels	Trama Records; Luaka Bop;
Website	http://www.tomze.com.br/

Antônio José Santana Martins (born 11 October 1936), known professionally as Tom Zé (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈtõ ˈzɛ]), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who was influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. After the peak of the Tropicália period, Zé went into relative obscurity: it was only in the 1990s, when musician and Luaka Bop label head David Byrne discovered Zé's 1975 album Estudando o Samba and then released reissues of his work, that Zé returned to performing and releasing new material.

Early life and career

Tom Zé grew up in the small town of Irará, Bahia in the dry sertão region of the country's Northeast. He would later claim that his hometown was "pre-Gutenbergian", as information was primarily transferred through oral communication. As a child, he was influenced by Brazilian musicians such as Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro.^[1] Zé became interested in music by listening to the radio, and moved to the state capital of Salvador to pursue a degree. He later relocated to São Paulo and began his career in popular music there.

Career

Much of his early work involved his wry impressions of the massive metropolitan area, coming as he did, from a small town in the relatively poor northeast.

Influential in the Tropicália movement, Zé contributed, along with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, and Nara Leão, to the watershed Tropicália album/manifesto Tropicália: ou Panis et Circenses (1968). He also participated in a series of concerts with the musicians. After the Brazilian military government of the 1960s began to crack down on the musicians of Tropicália, Zé moved out of the public eye and began to experiment with novel instruments and composition styles.^[2] While the other major figures of Tropicália would go on to great commercial and critical success in later decades, Zé slipped into obscurity in the 1970s and 1980s.

Re-emergence

In the early 1990s, Zé's work experienced a revival when American musician David Byrne discovered one of his albums, Estudando o Samba (1975), on a visit to Rio de Janeiro. Zé was the first artist signed to the Luaka Bop label and has so far released a compilation and two albums, all of which received positive reviews from critics in the United States.^[1]

In 2011, he collaborated with Javelin on the song "Ogodô, Ano 2000" for the Red Hot Organization's most recent charitable album Red Hot+Rio 2. The album is a follow-up to the 1996 Red Hot + Rio. Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS, HIV and related health and social issues.

Style

Remaining true to the experimental and Dada impulses of Tropicália, Zé has been noted for both his unorthodox approach to melody and instrumentation, employing various objects as instruments such as the typewriter.^[3] He has collaborated with many of the concrete poets of São Paulo, including Augusto de Campos, and employed concrete techniques in his lyrics. Musically, his work appropriates samba, Bossa Nova, Brazilian folk music, forró, and American rock and roll, among others. He has been praised by avant-garde composers for his use of dissonance, polytonality, and unusual time signatures. Because of the experimental nature of many of his compositions, Zé has been compared with American musicians such as Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.^[4]

One of his last efforts, though, has been a return to Bossa Nova, his Estudando a Bossa – Nordeste Plaza. Says Zé: "That music has inhabited my psyche for 50 to 60 years. Familiar and profound, yet somehow extraterrestrial in my mind. It had to come out, to be dealt with."^[5]

Discography

1968: Grande Liquidação
1970: Tom Zé (album)
1972: Se o Caso É Chorar
1973: Todos os Olhos
1976: Estudando o Samba
1978: Correio da Estação do Brás
1984: Nave Maria
1990: Brazil Classics, Vol. 4: The Best of Tom Zé - Massive Hits (Compilation)
1992: Brazil Classics, Vol. 5: The Hips of Tradition
1997: Parabelo (with Zé Miguel Wisnik)
1998: Com Defeito de Fabricação
1999: Postmodern Platos
1999: 20 Preferidas (Compilation)
2000: Série Dois Momentos (vols. 1, 2, and 15) (Compilation)
2000: Jogos de Armar
2002: Santagustin (with Gilberto Assis)
2003: Imprensa Cantada
2005: Estudando o Pagode – Na Opereta Segregamulher e Amor
2006: Danç-Êh-Sá
2008: Danç-Êh-Sá Ao Vivo (live)
2008: Estudando a Bossa – Nordeste Plaza
2009: O Pirulito Da Ciência – Tom Zé & Banda Ao Vivo
2010: Studies of Tom Zé: Explaining Things So I Can Confuse You
2012: Tropicália Lixo Lógico
2014: Vira Lata na Via Láctea
2016: Canções Eróticas de Ninar
2017: Sem Você Não A
2022: Língua Brasileira

References

^ ^a ^b Neder, Alvaro. "Biography". Allmusic. All Media Guide. Retrieved 15 March 2008.
^ Stark, Jeff (26 May 1999). "The politics of plagiarism". Salon.com. Retrieved 15 March 2008.
^ Bahaina, Anna Maria (September 1992). "Tom Zé". Europe Jazz Network. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2008.
^ Kelly, Jennifer (10 March 2006). "An Encounter with Tropicalia's Trickster: The Tom Zé Interview". PopMatters. Retrieved 15 March 2008.
^ Williams, Kelvin Leander (2011). "ArtistInterviews: Tom Zé A Brazilian pop iconoclast".

External links

Official site (in Portuguese)
Tom Zé on the Luaka Bop label website
Tom Zé discography on Slipcue.com
Tom Zé interview on ArtistInterviews.eu
Biography on allmusic.com

[amg-1] Neder, Alvaro. "Biography". Allmusic. All Media Guide. Retrieved 15 March 2008.

[2] Stark, Jeff (26 May 1999). "The politics of plagiarism". Salon.com. Retrieved 15 March 2008.

[3] Bahaina, Anna Maria (September 1992). "Tom Zé". Europe Jazz Network. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2008.

[4] Kelly, Jennifer (10 March 2006). "An Encounter with Tropicalia's Trickster: The Tom Zé Interview". PopMatters. Retrieved 15 March 2008.

[5] Williams, Kelvin Leander (2011). "ArtistInterviews: Tom Zé A Brazilian pop iconoclast".

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