Tom Zé
Tom Zé (born October 11, 1936 in Irará , Bahia as Antônio José Santana Martins ) is a Brazilian composer , singer , arranger and multi-instrumentalist .
biography
Zé grew up in the small town of Irará, Bahia in Sertão , northeast Brazil . After graduating from the University of Music in Salvador da Bahia , Zé moved to São Paulo , where he started his musician career. In his early work, he processed his impressions of the big city from the point of view of a simple citizen from the poor northeast of the country.
Influenced by the Tropicalismo movement, Zé worked on the album Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis (1968) alongside Caetano Veloso , Gilberto Gil , Gal Costa , Os Mutantes , and Nara Leão . While the other artists later had great commercial success, Zé largely withdrew in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1968 Zé took first place in the 4th Festival of Popular Brazilian Music ( Música Popular Brasileira ) with the song São, São Paulo .
With his music, he always stayed true to the experimental and Dada impulses of the Tropicália movement, which he himself had introduced, especially through his unorthodox instrumentation, in which he also included vacuum cleaners and typewriters. Musically he makes use of samba , bossa nova , Brazilian folk music, forró , and American rock and roll . His work is valued by many avant-garde composers for its dissonance , polytonality, and unusual time signatures.
In the early 1990s, Zé's work experienced a renaissance through the musician David Byrne when he discovered Zé's 1975 album Estudando o Samba on a trip to Rio de Janeiro . Byrne then published a compilation of Zé's work and two other albums on his music label Luaka Bop. A guitar riff from Zé's song Jimmy, Renda-se was used by R&B singer Amerie for her song Take Control .
In the 1990s, Zé also composed music for the ballet of the Brazilian dance and ballet company Grupo Corpo .
Zé is a founding member of the Academy of the Arts in Cologne, which opened in October 2012 .
Quotes
"I don't make art, I make spoken and sung journalism."
Discography
Studio albums
| title | Release date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Grande Liquidação | 1968 | Sony Brazil |
| Tom Zé (album) | 1970 | Continental |
| Se o Caso É Chorar | 1972 | |
| Todos os Olhos | 1973 | |
| Estudando o Samba | 1975 | |
| Correio da Estação do Brás | 1978 | |
| Nave Maria | 1984 | |
| Brazil Classics, Vol. 5: The Hips of Tradition | 1992 | Luaka Bop |
| Com Defeito de Fabricação | 1998 | Luaka Bop |
| Postmodern Plato | 1999 | Trama Records |
| Jogos de Armar | 2000 | Trama Records |
| Imprensa Cantada | 2003 | Trama Records |
| Estudando o pagoda | 2005 |
 Trama Records Luaka Bop
 |
| Danç-Êh-Sá | 2006 | Tratore |
| Pirulito da Ciência | 2010 | Biscoito Fino |
| Explaining Things So I Can Confuse You | 2010 | Luaka Bop |
| Tropicália Lixo Lógico | 2012 | Independent / Natura Musical |
Collections
| title | Release date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil Classics, Vol. 4: The Best of Tom Zé - Massive Hits | 1990 | Luaka Bop |
| Tom Zé | 1994 | Warner |
| 20 Preferidas | 1999 | RGE |
| Série Dois Mementos, Vol. 1 | 2000 | Wea International |
| Série Dois Mementos, Vol. 2 | 2000 | Wea International |
| Série Dois Mementos, Vol. 15 | 2000 | Wea International |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Homepage Akademie der Künste der Welt Cologne ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 30, 2012
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5360230
Web links
- Official website (Portuguese)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zé, Tom |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Martins, Antônio José Santana (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Brazilian songwriter and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 11, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Irará , Bahia |