It is not often that the Bob Dylan of Brazil comes to town. But people say the Bahian pop singer Caetano Veloso is exactly that (even if he'd just as soon be known as the John Cage or the Ray Charles of Brazil), and this fall he'll be very much in evidence with a new, live two-CD set, a concert at the Beacon, and the publication of his cultural manifesto–slash–autobiography, Tropical Truth, which details the rise of tropicalismo, the distinctly Brazilian tao of seductive art and ruthless resistance. Renaissance man as revolutionary, historian, and poet -- there aren't many like Caetano, who just hit 60 and still sings some of the world's fiercest love songs. With Caetano, whose deceptively lilting tunes tell of prayers taken "down to zero" and "coral snakes" that are not really coral, you never know whether to curl up beside him or duck.

Tropical Truth
(Knopf; October)
Live in Bahia
(Nonesuch; October 22)
Caetano Veloso appears at the Beacon Theater November 22.

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Mark Jacobson
• From the Sep 8, 2002 issue of New York