Tom Zé |
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Thu. May 20.1999 8:28 PM EDT |
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Tropicalia Veteran Tom Zé Tours With Post-Rockers TortoiseAt opening show, they made music with hammers, hand saws, metal pipes. by Correspondent Sheril Stanford |
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Tom Zé helped invent tropicalia music. (Eric Johnson) |
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- For their tour as Brazilian tropicalia pioneer Tom
Zé's backing band, members of the instrumental post-rock group Tortoise
brought along the usual guitars, bass and xylophone. They're also toting hammers and
Zé and Tortoise opened their six-date mini-tour -- Zé's first-ever North American outing -- Tuesday at the Middle East nightclub here with a performance where everything from Zé's voice to his body to an empty bottle was part of the show. In the 1960s, Zé helped develop tropicalia, a modernist melange of pop, jazz, psychedelia and traditional Brazilian music that lately has been cited as an influence by such acts as Beck, Stereolab and the Beastie Boys. The music often is combined with political sentiments and a generous dash of humor. Zé's distinctive version of tropicalia is augmented by found sounds such as power drills and floor sanders, slamming doors, children's voices, toothbrushes and teeth on balloons. He released Com Defeito de Fabricacao (Fabrication Defect) late last year as well as a collection of that album's tracks remixed by popsters Sean Lennon, the High Llamas, Tortoise mastermind John McEntire and others. Both discs are on Luaka Bop, the world-music label founded by former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. Tuesday's show drew a capacity crowd. Zé was backed on the small, subtly lit stage by McEntire on drums, Doug McCombs on bass, John Herndon on xylophone and Jeff Parker on electric guitar, miscellaneous string and percussion instruments and vocals. Zé confided in broken English that he had rehearsed with Tortoise for only a week before the show, but the band followed Zé's every twist and turn, many of which appeared to be improvised. Though he sang conventional lyrics, too, Zé just as often used his voice to simply make sounds, repeating single syllables, letting out yips and yelps, lamenting in the voice of an old woman. He speaks little English and performs in Portuguese, his native language. But at the Middle East he did so with enough expression and physicality to leap cultural barriers with ease. Portuguese-speaking show-goers may have had a more complete experience than their English-speaking counterparts, as they could better comprehend Zé's between-song banter, which frequently elicited laughs and whoops. But Zé played to the linguistically challenged as well; through his facial expressions and body language, he easily conveyed, for instance, that "Politicar" (RealAudio excerpt) concerned oppression and abuse of power. Later, Zé gave the audience a lesson in what he called "plagicombination" -- inverting a classic tune, in this case the coda from the Beatles' "Hey Jude," and changing its tempo so that it becomes unidentifiable. " 'Hey Jude' inside out, you see?" he said, disclosing his theft. Zé's considerable energy belied his age (reports vary from 62 to 73). Small and wiry, dressed in black jeans and a simple, blue open-necked shirt, Zé entertained with his whole body. Eyes closed, he would reach toward the heavens or stroke his face in a loving or lamenting gesture as the spirit moved him. Moments later he might leap to touch the ceiling, do a high-stepping march or fall to the floor in a faux faint. Zé made use of all manner of found sound, with empty bottles and newspapers making contributions. During one song, Zé took a swig from a bottle of water and engaged in rhythmic gargling as a counterpoint to McCombs' bass and Parker's guitar. For a finale, Zé and the band donned hard hats, goggles, raincoats and rubber gloves and proceeded to make sweet music by conking each other on the head with hammers, using hand saws on metal and banging on metal pipes. Zé and Herndon, as dueling welders, ground out sound and showered the stage with sparks. The tour continues Friday (May 21) in Chicago, and then moves to Minneapolis on Saturday, San Francisco on Tuesday and Los Angeles on Thursday. |
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