The first time I saw Tom Ze live was in a concert in my university, during my college days. The event included offensive exchanges with the public, object thrown at the stage and an early end of the concert – it left on me an image of a bitter artist, struggling to cope with fact that he was left out of the popularity that the “Tropicalista” movement has achieved and the ostracism (as per his words) he had experienced in his home country, yet didn’t undermine my admiration for his genial work.
I continued to listen and appreciate him during the years, ever discovering new albums (new to me, to make it clear) that blew my mind. So when I came across this new box that was released in the US in 2010 I purchased in a heart beat (Tom Ze: Understanding thinks so I can confuse you).
As the box arrived I was marveled with the quality of the records and the beauty of the box, that included the three studies that Tom Ze had done (Samba, Pagode and Bossa Nova), a single with a couple of songs and also a CD with a conversation of Tom Ze, David Byrne (the American producer that brought Tom Ze for the US in the 80s) and some others.
The records were not new to me, but if they are to you definitely listen to them. Tom Ze provides a beautiful tour of the music style I each of the records, showcasing the musicality and techniques present in them and the lyrics are a marvelous (and often ironic) critique of the inception and evolution of the genres. They are also permeated by the experimentations that Tom Ze lived for.
But the box also brought something new to me; listening to the hour-long conversation I discovered another side of Tom Ze. As it happens when we are confronted with evidence that discredit our beliefs, I started to dig deeper to try to understand better him.
After watching countless videos of interviews and performances that were available in the internet my impression on Tom Ze changed substantially. He was not a brilliant but bitter musician that seized every opportunity he had to get back to a public that has so long overlooked him.
He is a very intelligent person (not just a brilliant musician) that struggles to cope with both the fact that he has made more success abroad than at Brazil. The difference is that he verbalize this constant struggle, as oppose to most of us, who internalize our struggles and externalize our rationalization of them.
He is not afraid to be seen as incoherent and confuse; he rather provide you an insight to his thought process and let you make your judgment. The result is a narrative that in the same paragraph is utterly arrogant, but finishes with a sentence that is a textbook example of humbleness.
If you want to get a glimpse of this, watch his interview at Roda Vida (you can easily find in youtube). One of my favorite part of it is this piece, especially starting at 3:41, when he recounts the time he was arrested - Tom Ze's interview at Roda Viva. His description of the struggle with the left in Brazil at that time is also amazing, starting at 5:38.
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