photo provided by Sherri Rase
zii e zie CD cover
...........................................................................................

The most recent release on Nonesuch Records by Caetano Veloso is "zii e zie," Italian for "uncles and aunts," and it's replete with advice of a sort. Labeled as transrock, this is Veloso's 41st release. At 67, he is qualified both to give advice, and to recognize that he is not too old to get useful advice from others.

The songs on the album run the gamut from a very frank consideration of a young woman's beauty ("A Cor Amarela") and erotic memories of a recent lost night ("Por Quem?"), to the body politic ("A Base de Guantánamo").

As the subject matter ranges so, too, do the influences. Flavored variously with samba, reggae, rock and more, there is at times a thrumming heartbeat in the guitar that is echoed in the vocals and later reappears in the drum line. A rock drum played by someone whose influence for Latin rhythms is imbibed with the water and who comes to a different kind of drive brings something very different to the finished product.

There is energy in every line, even when Veloso croons. Singing of the desire for different types of women ("Menina da Ria"), it's a young man's light contemplation, or one our associations would make us consider as such. Yet, in just a few moments he contemplates how he could have permitted himself to behave like someone whose heart had never been hurt, and how he cannot blame the young, young woman who broke his heart when he should have known better ("Ingenuidade"). Though he ends up in tears, he took the risk. That is what life is about.

This is the perfect CD to listen to in these upcoming Indian Summer days, caipirinha in hand, reflecting on the remains of a beautiful season, a beautiful man or woman, a beautiful life.

Visit Nonesuch.com for more information about this album, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and your other favorite purveyors of fine music.