Caetano Veloso

and

David Byrne
Live at Carnegie Hall

When I got the invitation to curate a program for Carnegie Halls Perspectives series, I brought from Brazil the band Afroreggae, the then-new female samba genius Mart'nlia, and the unique Virginia Rodrigues. The one American artist I was sure I wanted to invite was David Byrne. I met David in the 1980s, at a lm festival in Rio, when he and I were presenting our rst feature lms; we met as lmmakers. But music was our business, and David impressed me by showing a very lively ear to whatever was on Brazilian radio. From our rst conversation I noticed David was the rst rock musician who could really feel the essence of Brazilian music. He was open to enjoying the savvy within the nave, and vice versa, to understand what Brazilians can make with their repertoire of styles drawn from Global music. Global, as everybody knows, means basically American: whatever the world can make of the trends that started in the USA. David was capable of grasping not just the ways a given people can mix their own traditions with an AmericanGlobal idiom, but the reinventions that a provincial perspective can generate even when departing from the mere desire to imitate. He could see creation beyond the exotic and beyond the rejection of the exotic. I immediately saw this fresh curiosity would lead him to things that are dear to me even the difcult aspects of the work done by my closest colleagues in the 1960s. He opened the worlds ears to Tom Zs boldest developments of our experimental drive. And, before that, he gave the world a glimpse of the environ-

ment where such things could be conceived, releasing through his label a sample of Brazilian oddities. This was the man whose work I had loved since I rst heard Talking Heads. Back then, even his brusque stage moves inspired my writing. Seeing Stop Making Sense in the movie house was a deeply aesthetic experience. Seeing the subsequent concerts he did under his own name conrmed his exquisite taste. For years I have been sure that David is the most chic of all rockers. His liner notes for the Stop Making Sense live album read like Gertrude Stein (I told him so when we met, and he laughed). David is younger than I am, but he is American, and so I knew about his work well before he knew about mine. So, when I had to go on stage with him, I was not nervous, but I was very shy. Youve got to be Brazilian (or something of the like) to know how awesome (I mean AWEsome) it is to sing side by side with David Byrne. Caetano Veloso 2012

In Mr. Carnegies Hall For a number of years, Carnegie Hall has been doing a series program called Perspectives in which an artist is chosen to be Carnegie Halls in-residence performer. When chosen, the artist can invite along other musicians to join them as guests. It is an extraordinary series, as the artist chosen is encouraged to pull from all sorts of genres that inspire and interest them. Kronos Quartet did an adventurous program, but it was Caetano Veloso who was the rst nonclassical artist to be invited to curate one of these programs. I remember, as part of his program, Virginia Rodrigues did a show at Zankel Hall, and Caetano asked me to join him for a concert in Stern Auditorium the big hall. Wed actually done a concert together previously, during the San Sebastian Film Festival. Despite being in a velodrome (which might have seemed appropriate, for me at least), it worked. The combination of the two of us seemed to be very unexpected (and pleasantly surprising) for the audience though it was not for us. Wed been in touch for a while and had even written a song together. He had recently recorded one of my songs and I had performed one of his on a tour of mine. So, we knew one anothers work fairly well. The idea of doing a concert together seemed obvious to us. Id been a Caetano fan since the late 80s, when Id fallen headlong down the

rabbit hole of Brazilian music. If I had to name some musicians (composer is the word that is used in Brazil) to whom I would look to as a guide to what is possible those musicians who have managed to sustain a creative and interesting life in music Caetano would be among the top few. I wont try and describe what Caetano does because his work is incredibly varied and not easy to compare with anyone in North America or Europe. If youre unfamiliar with his work you might want to try more than one record, as they can be very different from one another. The concert we did was very stripped down and acoustic. Although at other times I have brought a full band into Carnegie Hall, the acoustics in there really favor small acoustic ensembles (you almost dont need microphones), so thats what we went with. Jaques Morelenbaum augmented us on cello and Mauro Refosco on percussion the arrangements stayed pretty sparse and minimal in order to better emphasize the songs themselves. I was incredibly nervous, and I remember having ubbed on a chord or two (some of those remain on this recording, Im afraid)but of course it was Caetano, and Carnegie Hall, so I was also incredibly thrilled and attered. DB Western Chelsea 2012

Produced by Caetano Veloso and David Byrne Recorded April 17, 2004, at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY Recorded and Mixed by Tom Lazarus Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME Design by John Gall Photography by Chris Lee Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

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