Tom Zé

Tom Zé is a Brazilian songwriter and experimental composer who was influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. After the military government began to crack down on Tropicália, Zé moved out of the public eye and began to experiment with novel instruments and composition styles, thus remaining true to the experimental and Dada impulses of Tropicália. He has been noted for both his unorthodox approach to melody and instrumentation, employing various objects as instruments, but remained rather obscure.

In the early 1990s David Byrne rediscovered one of his albums, Estudando o Samba (1975), on a visit to Rio de Janeiro, Zé then was the first artist signed to Byrne's new Luaka Bop label.

Photo: Eric Johnson