(born Antônio José Santana Martins, 1936 in Bahia, Brazil), Tom Zé (a faithful informalization of his given names, literally meaning Tony Joe) is a Brazilian songwriter and (experimental) composer who was influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. After the military government of the began to crack down 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.