Gilberto Gil

Singer, songwriter

A dominant force in contemporary Brazilian music, Gilberto Gil helped shape that nation's modern music in the twentieth century. His lasting influence could be seen beyond the borders of Brazil. Toward the end of the century he continued to exert his influence on new generations of musicians by discovering and nurturing new talent while continuing his own schedule of recording and performing.

Gilberto Gil was born on June 29, 1942, in Salvador, Brazil, and spent his childhood in Bahia, in the Brazilian interior. As a child he began playing drums and showed an interest in various forms of music. He started teaching himself to play trumpet by listening to radio programs at the age of seven. His family moved back to Salvador when Gil was in his teens. It was in 1950, after hearing the music of Luiz Gonzaga, that he decided to learn to play the accordion. Gil played with the group Os Desfinados while still in high school. When he heard Joao Gilberto on the radio, he switched instruments again, this time to guitar.

Gil studied business at the University of Bahia and worked for a short time in Sao Paulo for Gessy-Lever, a huge multinational firm. In 1966 he decided to devote himself solely to a career in music. Early musical influences, in addition to Gonzaga and Gilberto, included Sivuca and Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim, the legendary Brazilian composer with whom he studied at the Goethe Institute. Gil earned his first recording contract in 1966, and he had his first hit as a songwriter with Ellis Regina's version of "Louvaçáo" that same year.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to write about Gilberto Gil without mentioning Caetano Veloso. Both were musicians shaped by almost identical influences. They were university students in Bahia and met at the Teatro Vila Velha in Salvador in 1963. Gil and Veloso competed in several music festivals. At one such competition, Gil's "Domingo no Parque" became one of his first songs to be widely recognized. Tarik De Souza wrote in a 1986 UNESCO Courier article, "For their part, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso picked up, each in his own way, the musical threads laid down by [Dorival "Dorri"] Caymmi and Joao Gilberto." They would become longtime friends and artistic collaborators.

Mark Holston wrote in Guitar Player that Brazilian musicians "owe their privileged status to a unique combination of factors present only in Brazil. Through imported African slaves came Brazil's most important musical ingredient, as Jobim describes: [that of] ‘the basic African rhythm.’ Europeans, Jobim continues, also had an impact: ‘The European contribution … is enormous: melody, harmony, and form, as well as instruments.’"

Gil and Veloso were among the artists attempting to amalgamate all these various influences, with the addition of electric guitars from British and American rock, while remaining politically and artistically relevant and uniquely Brazilian. The result was a movement called Tropicalismo. The movement has been described in various terms, often perceived as a counterpart to the American hippie movement. Bahian artists, including Gil and Veloso, Tom Ze, Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia (Veloso's sister) and Jose Carlos Capinam were associated with the movement from 1967-69. The band Os Mutantes, composers Rogerio Duprat and Julio Medaglia, and poets Augusto and Haroldo de Campos were also associated with Tropicalismo.

Tropicalismo was "a [cry] for moral and aesthetic liberty launched by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil," explained Mario de Aratanhain the UNESCO Courier. "Political dissent invaded the realm of music, growing into full-blooded revolt against the military dictatorship set up in 1964. Under the new rulers, harsh artistic censorship joined up with police violence to silence a generation." "Their lyrics were socially-conscious and provocative, but they also experimented with the electrifying rock sounds that emanated from England and the United States," wrote Christopher Dunn in Americas. In that same article Gil told Dunn, "Tropicalismo opened the doors to all influences, it had a democratic attitude towards culture. It helped to reaffirm the popular culture of the streets, and influenced the re-africanization of Brazilian culture."

Around the same time, Brazil was entering a period of increased protests, political violence, military censorship and political and cultural repression. In 1968 President Arthur da Costa e Silva censored the arts and press. Under his regime, left-wing leaders, labor organizers, and artists, including Veloso and Gil, were arrested. "We were very supportive of what was happening in the universities in the [United States] and in Paris, for instance," said Gil, "and reproduced those events for Brazilian students. So I wound up in jail for two months, then house arrest for six months. Then I was sent away to London, where I stayed for three years."

Trips during his Exile

During his exile, Gil made several trips to Africa and began exploring music of the diaspora throughout the Caribbean, particularly reggae. The most influential of his trips was one to Nigeria in 1977. "When I went to Nigeria in '77, I met Fela, Stevie Wonder and King Sunny Ade. That trip really gave me the push toward blackness, toward really trying to understand the roots and spirit of the culture," explained Gil. "I made the links between Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley: people speaking out, being proud of being black, understanding the difficulties of getting black culture into Western civilization. So when I got back to Brazil, I started doing music in a more black-oriented vein."

From Tropicalismo sprang Música Popular Brasileria (Brazilian Popular Music), or MPB. Gil is considered the first MPB musician to use an electric guitar. This wave of music in the 1970s introduced new Brazilian artists to the United States, but Gil's music was not widely recognized in American until the 1980s, when Talking Heads founder David Byrne and other English-speaking musicians injected bossa nova and other Afro-Brazilian sounds into their own music.

For the Record …

Born Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira on June 29, 1942, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Played various instruments in childhood and youth, including accordion, drums and trumpet; met Caetano Veloso in 1963; signed first recording contract, 1966; first noted hit "Domingo No Parque"; founded Tropicália movement in 1967 with Veloso and others; government censorship imposed in Brazil, Gil and Veloso arrested, jailed, and forced into exile in London, 1968; began exploring roots of Brazilian music; trip to Nigeria in 1977 resulted in recording Refavela; entered Bahian politics, successfully ran for city council, appointed to various cultural and social organizations, 1987; retired from politics, but remained involved in some organizations on a voluntary basis, 1992; continued to record throughout 1990s with Veloso and other musicians and as a solo artist.

Awards: Grammy Award, for Quanta Live, 1998; Knight of Arts and Letters (France) and Cruz da Ordem de Rio Branco (Brazil).

Addresses: Record company—Blue Jackel Entertainment, P.O. Box 87, Huntington, NY 11743. Website—Official Gilberto Gil Website: http://www.gilbertogil.com.br.

In addition to being active as a recording artist throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gil became politically active, particularly in Bahian cultural programs. He was a city councilman, elected with more votes than any other candidate, and was one of the few blacks in Brazil to hold public office in the late 1980s. He formed a group called Blue Wave and performed at events to raise funds and awareness for rainforest preservation. In 1995 he became part of the council for the Brazilian social program called Comunidad Solidaria. However, he decided against running for a second term, saying, "I just couldn't adapt to the character of being a politician. The masks you wear. I'm not a warrior. I'm a humanist. And politics are not humanist at all."

Even after his short political career, Gil's popularity did not wane, and he continued to record and tour internationally. Gil's Quanta Live was recognized with a 1998 Grammy Award. Gil told Rhythm, "the most important thing to me is that I like the record, and that's the best point about receiving an award." Recorded live at the peak of the band's form in Brazil, Gil considered the Grammy a band achievement.

Towards the end of the century Gil by now in his fifties continued to grow musically. "I've always been a musician, and I have always tried to keep developing new ideas," said Gil in an interview for O Sol De Oslo. "Since I see change as a natural process, I think I've always been changing and developing my music. It's hard for me to state precisely which directions I took, but I have moved along using my feelings and intuition." He won another Grammy in 2006 for Best Contemporary World Music Album for Eletracustico, a live album featuring covers of such songs as John Lennon's "Imagine" and Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds."

In 2001 Gil provided the soundtrack for the film Me, You, Them. The recordings on the album were a tribute of sorts to Brazilian musician Luiz Gonzaga, one of the country's leading proponents of baiao—a North Brazilian music that relies heavily on the percussive sounds produced on the zabumba double bass drum. The soundtrack featured Gil's remakes of Gonzaga classic songs, original material, and original 1950s recordings by Luiz Bonfa. That same year Gil also released a live album, Sao Joao Vivo, and a collaboration with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil & Milton Nascimento. The latter featured many original compositions penned by the duo as well as an interesting reggae-tinged cover of the Beatles' George Harrison song "Something." The restless and politically invigorated Gil released an album consisting entirely of Bob Marley covers in 2002, Kaya N'Gan Daya. He followed this with a concept album, Z: 300 Anos de Zumbi, which was conceived as a ballet about Zumbi, a Brazilian hero who founded a refuge for escaped slaves. Gil was named Brazil's Minister of Culture in the early part of the twenty-first century, while continuing a frenetic schedule of recording, composing, and performing. His 2006 release, Gil Luminoso, marked a departure of sorts for Gil, as he performed entirely solo with only self-accompaniment on guitar. The "unplugged" versions of many tunes from nearly four decades of recorded output revealed new depth and sincerity in Gil's songwriting craft and delivery technique.

Selected discography

Refavela, Warner Music Brazil, 1977.

Personalidade, Polygram Brazil.

A Gente Precisa Ver o Lua, WEA Brazil, 1981.

(Contributor) Beleza Tropical: Brazil Classics, Vol. I, Luaka Bop, 1989.

(With Caetano Veloso) Caetano y Gil: Tropicalia 2, Nonesuch, 1994.

(contributor) Red Hot + Rio, PGD/Verve, 1996.

(Contributor) Tropicália 30 Anos, (five-CD set reissue), Mercury/Polygram Brazil, 1998.

Quanta Live, Atlanta/Mesa, 1998.

O Sol de Oslo, Blue Jackel Entertainment, Inc., 1999.

(Contributor) Beleza Tropical 2: Novo! Mais! Melhor!, Luaka Bop, 1999.

(Contributor) Copacabana Mon Amour, Inedit, 1999.

(Contributor) Me, You, Them, Atlantic, 2001.

(Contributor) Sao Joao Vivo, WEA International, 2001.

(Contributor) Gilberto Gil & Milton Nascimento, Atlantic, 2001.

(Contributor) Kaya N'Gan Daya, WEA International, 2002.

(Contributor) Z: 300 Anos de Zumbi, Lightyear, 2002.

(Contributor) Eletracustico, WEA International, 2004.

(Contributor) As Cancoes de Eu tu Eles, WEA International, 2005.

(Contributor) Soul of Brazil, WEA/Warner, 2005.

(Contributor) Gilberto Gil: Ao Vivo, WEA, 2005.

(Contributor) Gil Luminoso, Biscoito Fino, 2006.

Sources

Books

Broughton, Simon, et al, editors, World Music: The Rough Guide, Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994.

Schreiner, Claus, Música Brasileira, Marion Boyars Publishers, 1993.

Periodicals

Americas (English edition), September-October 1993.

Guitar Player, December 1994; May 1999.

Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, August 12, 1993.

Nation, May 20, 1991.

New York Times Magazine, April 25, 1999.

Philadelphia Inquirer, June 1, 1999.

Rhythm, June 1999.

Time, October 16, 1989.

UNESCO Courier, December 1986; March 1991.

Online

All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com (February 12, 2007).

Gilberto Gil Official Website,http://www.gilbertogil.com.br/index.php?language=en (February 12, 2007).

Other

Additional information was provided by Blue Jackel Entertainment, Inc., publicity materials, Arto Lindsay's liner notes to Caetano y Gil: Tropicalia 2, and several online publications.