Stray Dog in the Milky Way: The Experimental Brazilian Sound of Tom Zé

Brazilian musician Tom Zé (b. 1936) is one of the most inventive artists of the past century. His transformative music and poetic lyricism received critical acclaim in Brazil’s Tropicália, a countercultural movement that blended Brazilian music with global pop, psychedelia, and political critique. As many in the movement ascended to the mainstream, Tom Zé’s commitment to experimentalism kept him in outer orbit, drifting at the fringes of the Brazilian musical universe. That was until his im...