Essential Tom Zé LPs available on CD
The Dois Momentos series fits the LPs Se o Caso é Chorar, Todos os Olhos, Estudando o Samba and Correio da Estação do Brás in two CDs
Silvio Essinger
08/11/2000
It took a while, but Tom Zé re-conquered Brazil. The most experimental among the tropicalists, who has switched from ugly duckling to American darling (thanks to the help of David Byrne) only regained notoriety in his own country last year, when the disc Com Defeito de Fabricação (1998, Luaka Bop) was released with the adequate promotion and proper critics awards. As a much expected side effect, Tom Zé’s discography is returning to the stores on CD format.
A few weeks after Sony’s re-printing of his debut album (Tom Zé, originally on Rozemblit, 1968) four fundamental LPs hit the stores, condensed in two CDs as part of the collection Dois Momentos (Two Moments), organized by Titãs’ drummer and producer, Charles Gavin: Se o Caso é Chorar (1972) and Todos os Olhos (‘73) are in volume 14; Estudando o Samba (75, the one that Byrne bought inadvertently and fell in love with) and Correio da Estação do Brás (78) are in volume 15.
Re-masterized (and occasionally remixed) directly from the master tapes, which were rotting in the recording company’s warehouse, the discs come out now in elaborate editions, with reproductions of the original covers, credits and unreleased pictures that represent the core of Tom Zé’s discography – basically, the body of work abridged by his godfather Byrne in the compilation The Best of Tom Zé, from 1990. At that time, Zé was considering returning to his hometown (Irará, countryside of Bahia) to work at a gas station. On the verge of putting out one more album, now on Trama (who released Com Defeito in Brazil), there is now only one pearl missing in Zé’s CD collection: the LP Nave Maria (RGE, 1984)
The album Tom Zé (with a version of Qualquer Bobagem, which he wrote with the Mutantes), made in 1970, was released on the same label and put out on CD in 1994, quickly becoming a collector’s item. Tracks from these two RGE discs can be found in the compilation 20 Preferidas (1997), which is another hard-to-find piece. A question to be answered by recording company Som Livre (owner of the late RGE catalogue): isn’t it about time that these LPs were re-printed?
A few weeks after Sony’s re-printing of his debut album (Tom Zé, originally on Rozemblit, 1968) four fundamental LPs hit the stores, condensed in two CDs as part of the collection Dois Momentos (Two Moments), organized by Titãs’ drummer and producer, Charles Gavin: Se o Caso é Chorar (1972) and Todos os Olhos (‘73) are in volume 14; Estudando o Samba (75, the one that Byrne bought inadvertently and fell in love with) and Correio da Estação do Brás (78) are in volume 15.
Re-masterized (and occasionally remixed) directly from the master tapes, which were rotting in the recording company’s warehouse, the discs come out now in elaborate editions, with reproductions of the original covers, credits and unreleased pictures that represent the core of Tom Zé’s discography – basically, the body of work abridged by his godfather Byrne in the compilation The Best of Tom Zé, from 1990. At that time, Zé was considering returning to his hometown (Irará, countryside of Bahia) to work at a gas station. On the verge of putting out one more album, now on Trama (who released Com Defeito in Brazil), there is now only one pearl missing in Zé’s CD collection: the LP Nave Maria (RGE, 1984)
The album Tom Zé (with a version of Qualquer Bobagem, which he wrote with the Mutantes), made in 1970, was released on the same label and put out on CD in 1994, quickly becoming a collector’s item. Tracks from these two RGE discs can be found in the compilation 20 Preferidas (1997), which is another hard-to-find piece. A question to be answered by recording company Som Livre (owner of the late RGE catalogue): isn’t it about time that these LPs were re-printed?