Talking Head Byrne Discusses Latin Twist

Latin music--qu'est-ce que c'est? That was the question on the minds of 300 people yesterday as they listened to musician David Byrne explain his recent foray into Afro-Brazilian rhythm.

Byrne, the lead singer of the Talking Heads, said his dissatisfaction with the disco music of the 1970s led him to the investigation of "tropicalismo" that culminated in Rei Momo, his new solo album and the compilation albums Beleza Tropical and O Samba.

"I found that at the Latin Clubs I went to, the music was much better to dance to. It was live and I had a much better time."

Byrne said that when he first heard the music, he was intrigued by its powerful rhythm and singing. "I was being moved, I didn't know exactly what it was."

He said he familiarized himself with the sounds of Latin America by listening to records "for years and years--enough that I had a passing familiarity with the different styles."

In fact, when Byrne first started composing for Rei Momo, he would bring music he recorded on his fourtrack to Milton Cardona, a Puerto Rican musician living in New York.

"What kind of rhythm would be appropriate for this song?" Byrne said he would ask Cardona. "He'd immediately know, or he'd scratch his head and suggest appropriate musicians."

But Byrne said his new albums are not a total departure from his previous work because rock, pop and rhythm and blues have exposed people to a "healthy dose" of African tradition--which has a great influence on Latin American music.

"I know on the surface it looks like I'm hopping around like I'm on a cruise ship," said Byrne. "But it feels to me I'm always dealing with the same thing--different aspects of the same thing."

During the one-and-a-half hour question and answer session, one student asked if U.S. artists are seekinginspiration in exotic music because American rockand roll has become a cliche, pointing to PaulSimon's Graceland and Peter Gabriel's musicfor the Last Temptation of Christ.

"I don't think [rock] has the kind of charge orpower it once had. It's a commodity, it's aproduct, it's big business," he said.

Byrne added that rock music has lost much ofits radicalism, saying, "The most subversive stuffis like Ozzy Osborne, which offends parents andJesse Helms."

But despite his feeling that rock music haslost its power, Byrne said he had not turned to"tropicalismo" for political reasons. "I wouldhope that I could weasel out of the position ofcultural emissary...I'm just doing it because Ilove it, it's music I like."

Byrne will end his stay in Boston with aperformance tonight at the Orpheum Theatre