Live at Carnegie Hall

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

In 2004, Caetano Veloso curated a week of special concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and invited his longtime friend and collaborator David Byrne to join him for the show captured here. Each performs an acoustic set of his own songs and also perform together. The Seattle Times calls the concert "an absolute jewel." The Observer gives the album four stars, calling it "an entrancing showcase of their respective talents ... and even on disc a sense of joy and spontaneity is palpable." The Herald says it "leaves the listener grinning from ear to ear."

Description

In the spring of 2004, Caetano Veloso curated a week of special concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall as one of its prestigious Perspectives artists. As part of the series, he invited his longtime friend and collaborator David Byrne to join him for an evening in Isaac Stern Auditorium. The concert was recorded for broadcast on NPR and now will be released by Nonesuch as Caetano Veloso and David Byrne: Live at Carnegie Hall on March 13, 2012. The singer/guitarists each performed an acoustic set of their own songs, joined by cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and percussionist Mauro Refosco, and also performed together.

“When I got the invitation to curate a program for Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives … the one American artist I was sure I wanted to invite was David Byrne,” Veloso recounts. “I met David in the 1980s … [He] impressed me by showing a very lively ear to whatever was on Brazilian radio. From our first conversation I noticed David was the first rock musician who could really feel the essence of Brazilian music … When I had to go on stage with him, I was not nervous, but I was very shy. You’ve got to be Brazilian (or something of the like) to know how awesome (I mean AWEsome) it is to sing side by side with David Byrne.”

Byrne says of his admiration for Veloso, “I’d been a Caetano fan since the late ‘80s, when I’d fallen headlong down the rabbit hole of Brazilian music. If I had to name some musicians to whom I would look as a guide to what is possible—those musicians who have managed to sustain a creative and interesting life in music—Caetano would be among the top few.” Of the 2004 concert, he continues, “I was incredibly nervous, and I remember having flubbed on a chord or two (some of those remain on this recording, I’m afraid) … but of course it was Caetano, and Carnegie Hall, so I was also incredibly thrilled and flattered.”

Caetano Veloso is among the most influential and beloved artists to emerge from Brazil, where he began his musical career in the 1960s. He has nearly 40 recordings to his credit, including 13 on Nonesuch—the most recent of which is 2010’s zii e zie. Absorbing musical and aesthetic ideas from sources as diverse as The Beatles, concrete poetry, the French Dadaists, and the Brazilian modernist poets of the 1920s, Veloso—together with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, his sister Maria Bethania, and a number of other poets and intellectuals—founded a movement, called Tropicalismo, that permanently altered the course of his country’s popular music.

David Byrne, known as the force behind the enormously popular Talking Heads (1976–88), complements his two-plus decade solo career with work as a photographer, designer, film director, and author. Byrne’s Nonesuch releases include Grown Backwards (2004), reissues of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (2006) and The Knee Plays (2007), and Here Lies Love (2010), a song cycle he wrote with Fatboy Slim about the life of former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her childhood servant, Estrella Cumpas. Byrne’s most recent book, Bicycle Diaries (Viking, 2009), chronicles his observations and insights—what he is seeing, whom he is meeting, what he is thinking about—as he pedals through and engages with some of the world’s major cities.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Caetano Veloso and David Byrne
Recorded April 17, 2004, at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
Recorded and Mixed by Tom Lazarus
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME

Tracks 1-6, 17 written by Caetano Veloso; 7-10, 12, 13, 18 by David Byrne; 11 by David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth; 14 by Caetano Veloso and David Byrne; 15 by Caetano Veloso & Moreno Veloso; 16 by David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, Yves N’Jock & Chris Frantz

Design by John Gall
Photography by Chris Lee

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

513702

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
FormatRestrictions

This album is available from Nonesuch Records in the world outside of Latin America.

Album Status
Artist Name
Caetano Veloso
David Byrne
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Caetano Veloso, vocals, guitar
David Byrne, vocals, guitar
Jaques Morelenbaum, cello
Mauro Refosco, percussion

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597988079BUN
Label
MP3
Price
10.00
UPC
075597988048
Label
FLAC
Price
11.00
UPC
075597944792
  • 513702

News & Reviews

  • "When I interviewed David Byrne in November, I enjoyed it so much that when the interview was over, I asked if he'd consider returning before Christmas to play some of his favorite Christmas recordings," Terry Gross, host of NPR's Fresh Air, says on today's show. "I am very grateful that he said yes ... I consider David Byrne's return to our show a great Christmas gift for all of us." Byrne offers a Christmas playlist with his own seasonally appropriate song and others by Gaby Moreno, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, James Brown, Prince, Paul Simon, The Staples Singers, Neko Case, and more. You can hear their conversation and the playlist here.

  • David Byrne is on NPR’s Fresh Air to talk with host Terry Gross about Talking Heads—whose 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense is in theaters now—and his own evolution, from early musical influences to overcoming setbacks, leading him to wonder what allows people to persevere. "Why is it that people don't give up? That's a real puzzle to me," he says. "I just thought, 'No, I love this. I'm going to keep doing it myself … because I enjoy it.’ So I kept going.” You can hear it here.

Buy Now

  • About This Album

    In the spring of 2004, Caetano Veloso curated a week of special concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall as one of its prestigious Perspectives artists. As part of the series, he invited his longtime friend and collaborator David Byrne to join him for an evening in Isaac Stern Auditorium. The concert was recorded for broadcast on NPR and now will be released by Nonesuch as Caetano Veloso and David Byrne: Live at Carnegie Hall on March 13, 2012. The singer/guitarists each performed an acoustic set of their own songs, joined by cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and percussionist Mauro Refosco, and also performed together.

    “When I got the invitation to curate a program for Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives … the one American artist I was sure I wanted to invite was David Byrne,” Veloso recounts. “I met David in the 1980s … [He] impressed me by showing a very lively ear to whatever was on Brazilian radio. From our first conversation I noticed David was the first rock musician who could really feel the essence of Brazilian music … When I had to go on stage with him, I was not nervous, but I was very shy. You’ve got to be Brazilian (or something of the like) to know how awesome (I mean AWEsome) it is to sing side by side with David Byrne.”

    Byrne says of his admiration for Veloso, “I’d been a Caetano fan since the late ‘80s, when I’d fallen headlong down the rabbit hole of Brazilian music. If I had to name some musicians to whom I would look as a guide to what is possible—those musicians who have managed to sustain a creative and interesting life in music—Caetano would be among the top few.” Of the 2004 concert, he continues, “I was incredibly nervous, and I remember having flubbed on a chord or two (some of those remain on this recording, I’m afraid) … but of course it was Caetano, and Carnegie Hall, so I was also incredibly thrilled and flattered.”

    Caetano Veloso is among the most influential and beloved artists to emerge from Brazil, where he began his musical career in the 1960s. He has nearly 40 recordings to his credit, including 13 on Nonesuch—the most recent of which is 2010’s zii e zie. Absorbing musical and aesthetic ideas from sources as diverse as The Beatles, concrete poetry, the French Dadaists, and the Brazilian modernist poets of the 1920s, Veloso—together with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, his sister Maria Bethania, and a number of other poets and intellectuals—founded a movement, called Tropicalismo, that permanently altered the course of his country’s popular music.

    David Byrne, known as the force behind the enormously popular Talking Heads (1976–88), complements his two-plus decade solo career with work as a photographer, designer, film director, and author. Byrne’s Nonesuch releases include Grown Backwards (2004), reissues of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (2006) and The Knee Plays (2007), and Here Lies Love (2010), a song cycle he wrote with Fatboy Slim about the life of former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her childhood servant, Estrella Cumpas. Byrne’s most recent book, Bicycle Diaries (Viking, 2009), chronicles his observations and insights—what he is seeing, whom he is meeting, what he is thinking about—as he pedals through and engages with some of the world’s major cities.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Caetano Veloso, vocals, guitar
    David Byrne, vocals, guitar
    Jaques Morelenbaum, cello
    Mauro Refosco, percussion

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Caetano Veloso and David Byrne
    Recorded April 17, 2004, at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY
    Recorded and Mixed by Tom Lazarus
    Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME

    Tracks 1-6, 17 written by Caetano Veloso; 7-10, 12, 13, 18 by David Byrne; 11 by David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth; 14 by Caetano Veloso and David Byrne; 15 by Caetano Veloso & Moreno Veloso; 16 by David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, Yves N’Jock & Chris Frantz

    Design by John Gall
    Photography by Chris Lee

    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

More From David Byrne, Fatboy Slim

  • Format Availability

    This album is available from Nonesuch Records in the world outside of Latin America.