Tom Zé
Tom Zé ( born October 11, 1936 in irara, Bahia as Antônio José Santana Martins ) is a Brazilian composer, singer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist.
Biography
Zé grew up in the small town irara, Bahia in the northeastern Brazilian Sertão. After a university degree at the Academy of Music in Salvador da Bahia Zé moved to São Paulo, where he began his musical career. In his early works he recorded his city impressions from the perspective of a simple citizen of the poor north- east of the country.
Influenced by the Tropicalia movement worked Zé, Caetano Veloso addition, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, Nara Leão and, with on the album " Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis " (1968). While the other great artists later had great commercial success, Zé went into the 70s and 80s back as far as possible.
In 1968, Zé also took first place in the 4th Festival of Popular Brazilian Music ( Música Popular Brasileira ) with the song " São, São Paulo ".
He remained with his music always experimental and Dada impulses of Tropicália movement loyal, which he himself had introduced, in particular by his unorthodox instrumentation ( such as vacuum cleaners and typewriter ). Musically, he served, among other things at the Samba, Bossa Nova, Brazilian folk music, forró, and the American rock and roll. His work is appreciated by many avant-garde composers because of its dissonance, polytonality, and unusual time signatures.
In the early 1990s ZES experienced work by the musician David Byrne a renaissance when he discovered his album " Estudando o Samba" from 1975 on a trip to Rio de Janeiro. Byrne then published on his music label Luaka Bop a compilation of ZES work and two more albums. A guitar riff from ZES song " Jimmy, Renda - se " was used by R & B singer Amerie for the 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 opened in October 2012, the World Academy of Arts in Cologne.
Quotes
" I do not make art, I make spoken and sung journalism. "