Gil, Gilberto

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GILBERTO GIL

Born: Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira; Salvador, Brazil, 29 June 1942

Genre: World, Tropicalia

Best-selling album since 1990: Tropicalista 2 (1993)

Hit songs since 1990: "Madalena"

Gilberto Gil regards himself as "the second guy" of Brazilian superstars, behind Caetano Veloso, his longtime friend and collaborator. But Gil's renown as a creative, accessible, and pan-stylistic musician is as appreciated as anyone's worldwide. Besides an acclaimed international recording and performing career, Gil's social concerns have led him into politics, and at the end of 2002 he was named Brazil's minister of culture by president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

As a child in the remote interior of the state of Bahia, Gil was interested in the improvised musical jousts of street singers and marketplace guitarists. He returned with his family to the city of Salvador when he was eight years old; he heard trio electrico (heavy percussion and electric guitars) and button-accordion star Luiz Gonzago, and he was inspired to pick up the accordion. As a teenager he played forros—dance parties—in Os Desafina Dos ("the out-of-tune ones"), and enrolled in business administration at the Federal University, where he first met Veloso.

Enthralled by bossa nova singer and guitarist Joao Gilberto, Gil bought a guitar, taught himself to sing and play, and earned a living composing television ads until 1964, when he appeared in a Brazilian song review directed by Veloso (which included other singers, such as Veloso's sister Maria Bethania, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé). Relocating to Sao Paulo, Brazil's most African-influenced city, Gil had a hit with singer Elis Regina's rendition of his song "Louvacao" (1965). First recording under his own name in 1966, Gil became known as a protest singer and founding member of the artistic circle that established tropicalia, an esthetic and social movement adapting attitudes of British and American youth culture.

Tropicalia was, naturally, unpopular with the military junta that assumed governmental powers through a coup in 1968; Gil and Veloso suffered censorship, several months of imprisonment, and voluntary exile in London from early 1969 through 1972. Though Gil's songs continued to be issued in Brazil (his first hit single was "Aquele Abraco," 1969), he worked in England with rock artists Pink Floyd, Yes, the Incredible String Band, and Rod Stewart, among others, and recorded an album in English.

Back in Brazil, Gil fired up his career with Expresso 2222 (1972) and subsequent albums, including Os Doces Bararos ("The Sweet Barbarians"; 1976), named after his band with Brazilian music stars Veloso, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethania. His most notable fusion of rhythms from Africa and the Caribbean with those of Brazil was Refavela, which was released in 1977; that year Gil signed an international recording deal with Warner/Elektra/Asylum, leading to United States and European tours.

In 1980 Gil's rendition of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry," sung with Jimmy Cliff, was a number one hit in Brazil, selling a reported 700,000 copies. He followed up a triumph at the Montreux Jazz Festival with Cliff in 1982, and recorded Raca Humana (1984) with Bob Marley's band, the Wailers. In 1985, Gil celebrated his twentieth career anniversary with Brazilian musicians Jorge Benjor, Chico Buarque, Roberto Carlos, Caetano Veloso, Costa, and Bethania in a Sao Paulo concert titled "Gil 20 Anos Luz."

Spot Light: Gil Named Brazil's Minister of Culture

Gilberto Gil's political consciousness and advocacy of the rights and needs of Brazil's impoverished minority populations have been central throughout his career. "Politics is a martial art, and I'm more cut out to be a diplomat than a politician," Gil said, but he already experienced that martial art as an elected council member in his native city, Salvador. In populist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration, Gil manages a $120 million annual budget, much of it preordained for departmental costs. His goals include enlisting artists across disciplines in an antihunger campaign, and promoting Brazilian culture worldwide, including its colonial architectural heritage, its burgeoning film industry, and the flora and fauna of its rain forests. Lula's appointment of two blacks—Gil and Benedita da Silva (social assistance minister)—to cabinet-level governmental positions makes an immediate statement in a country that boasts of being racially integrated, yet has only had one previous black minister, the soccer star Pelé. Gil predicts that his responsibilities will necessitate the suspension of "at least 80 percent of my professional career." His absence from the stage and recording studio might displease devotees, but Gil intends to perform on weekends and holidays, and is following his 28-CD career retrospective release, Palco (2002), with a studio album.

Even before his late-sixties-early-seventies sojourn in Europe, Gil had been a spokesperson for the budding black consciousness movement in Brazil, as well as other humanitarian and ecological issues. After the release of Gilberto Gil en Concerto (1987), he moved to Salvador to become president of Fundacao Gregorio de Matos, a cultural and preservationist agency; in 1988 he was elected to the city council, where he served until 1992. Then, to kick off the release of Parabolic (1992), Gil performed for free to some 80,000 listeners on Rio de Janiero's Copacabana beach. The track "Madalena" became an important Carnival anthem, and he toured Europe, the United States, and Japan.

On Tropicalista 2 (1993), Gil regroups with Veloso to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of tropicalia and thirtieth year of their friendship. Their collaboration is successful; their duets amplify each other's personalities and bring out the best in harmonious comraderie. Acoustic (1994) echoes his MTV Unplugged video concert; he shines up close, attentive to every nuance of his voice and guitar playing. In Quanta (1998), Gil demonstrates the immediacy of his concerns, with lyrics contemplating the Internet's relation to music. In the 1990s, he released some dozen albums, including Gil and Milton (2001), a collaboration with vocalist Milton Nascimento, another, but more flamboyant, singer of the Tropicalista generation. Taking chances with his voice, improvising songs without words, and dancing with merriment onstage, Gil exudes playfulness even in his sixties.

Gil's strengths include his inspired blends of Afro-Bahian, rock, soul, reggae, and other Caribbean rhythms, which support lyrics ranging from political issues to songs of seduction. He bears myriad honors, including a Knight of Arts and Letters citation from the French minister of culture, but his greatest rewards are the adoration of an international audience, and the faith his nation's government places in his socio-political integrity.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

O Eterno Deus Mu Dança (WEA Latina, 1989); Parabolic (WEA Latina, 1991); Tropicalia 2 (Nonesuch, 1993); Acoustic (Atlantic, 1994); Indigo Blue (Terrascape, 1997); Quanta (Atlantic, 1998); O Sol de Oslo (Blue Jackel, 1998); O Viramundo (Ao Vivo) (Poly-Gram, 1998); Gil and Milton (Atlantic, 2001); Me, You, Them (Atlantic, 2001); Kaya N' Gan Daya (WEA, 2002); Palco (WEA, 2002). With Carlin-hos Brown: Alfagamabetizado (1997). With João Donato: João Donato Songbook, Vol. 3 (1999). With Lalo Guerrero: Papa's Dream (Jarana, 1995). With Ernie Watts: Afoxé (CTI, 1991).