Estudando o Pagode

The title of Tom Zé's 2005 release, Estudando o Pagode, literally means "studying pagode" (the subgenre of samba). This album is a three-act operetta about women and their relationship to men. Zé refers to the album as being masculist in that "it calls man's attention to the huge disadvantage he has created in his present relationship with women." As is common in Zé's music, this album incorporates novel sounds such as a braying donkey and those created from an instrument made out of ficus (fig) leaves.