Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (born June 26, 1942) is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter. Gil is also the current Minister of Culture of the country, although he has declared his intention to resign the post in 2008[1]. Gil is best known for his late 1960s tropicalismo recordings, including Roda, Lunik 9, and Domingo No Parque. Elis Regina has recorded many of the songs he wrote.

He began his career as a bossa nova musician, but soon began writing songs that reflected a new focus on political awareness and social activism, becoming part of the Música Popular Brasileira, or MPB, movement along with other artists such as Caetano Veloso. In the late 1960s he appeared in performance with and on recordings by the São Paulo psychedelic rock group Os Mutantes. In the 1970s, Gil added new elements of African and North American music to his already broad palette, and continued to release a steady stream of albums, including Realce and Refazenda. João Gilberto recorded Gil's Eu Vim Da Bahia (I Came from Bahia) on his classic João Gilberto LP.

In 1968, Gil and Veloso were arrested by the military government of Brazil for "anti-government activity" and spent several months in prison. Thereafter, they exiled themselves to London. Gil began playing with groups like Yes, Pink Floyd and the Incredible String Band, while continuing his solo career. In the 1970s, he toured the US and recorded an English-language album. He worked with Jimmy Cliff and released in 1980 a cover of "No Woman, No Cry" (Bob Marley & the Wailers) that was a massive hit and introduced reggae to Brazil.

Gilberto Gil delved heavily into his Afro-Brazilian roots (Bahia) by blending international pop music (rock, funk, reggaeton) with Brazilian urban music. He felt an especially close relation with the Black Movement of the 1980s and began to focus on worldwide black culture. Thus, he began to combine his Afro-Bahian roots with an assimilation of Caribbean and African-American musical forms. His musical repertoire of the 1980s presented an increased development of dance trends, such as disco, reggae, soul music, rock, and punk. Despite his interests in commercial success during this time, Gil’s dedication to the roots of Afro-Bahian and Afro-Brazilian music is quite sincere and successful. He justifies his devotion to reggae as “a form of democratizing, internationalizing, speaking a new language, a Heideggerian form of passing along fundamental messages.” Still, Gil has been criticized for a conflicting involvement in both authentic Brazilian music, and the world-wide money-making arena. Gil has had to walk a fine line between remaining true to traditional Bahian styles, and engaging with commercial markets at the same time. Listeners in Bahia were much more accepting of Gil’s blending of music styles, while those in southeast Brazil felt at odds with it.

He composed for dozens Brazilian artists: Elis Regina, Simone, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Zizi Possi, Daniela Mercury, Carla Visi and Ivete Sangalo.

Gil won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Quanta Live and the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album for Eletracústico.

He continued recording, performing and involving himself in various social causes, and was eventually elected to office in Salvador, his hometown, in the early 1990s. His 1993 album with Caetano Veloso, Tropicália 2, featured a cover of a Jimi Hendrix song "Wait Until Tomorrow" and is regarded as one of his finest efforts since the late 1960s.

When President Lula da Silva took office in January 2003, he chose Gil to serve as Brazil's new Minister of Culture. During his Ministry, Gil released his songs "Refazenda", "Rebento", "Refavela" and "Oslodum" under the Creative Commons Sampling License. As Minister, Gil created the Culture Points program, offering small grants to various poor Brazilian communities, with the purpose of spreading hip hop music and awaking the dormant imagination of the masses through a creative, musical outlet. Funding from the Culture Points initiative has led to classes on graffiti technique, as well as the operation of digital audio and video equipment. Gil has since asserted “you’ve now got young people who are becoming designers, who are making it into media and being used more and more by television and samba schools and revitalizing degraded neighborhoods. It’s a different vision of the role of government, a new role.”

In May 2005 Gil was awarded the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. He was the first Latin American recipient of the annual award, which was given to him by the King of Sweden. Gil also performed four songs in an outdoors concert the day before the award show and again at the show with only two songs, accompanied by Jimmy Cliff.

In September 2005 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur from the French Government. This coincided with the Année du Brésil en France (Brazil's Year in France).

In 2006, Gil publicly endorsed drug policy reform, to treat drug use as a public health — rather than criminal justice — concern.

His daughter Preta Gil is also a musician. His son Pedro Gil (killed in a car crash in 1990) was the drummer of rock band Egotrip.

Discography

• 1967 Louvação
• 1968 Gilberto Gil (Frevo Rasgado)
• 1969 Gilberto Gil (Cérebro Eletrônico)
• 1971 Gilberto Gil (Nega)
• 1972 Barra 69: Caetano E Gil Ao Vivo Na Bahia
• 1972 Expresso 2222
• 1974 Gilberto Gil Ao Vivo
• 1975 Refazenda
• 1977 Refavela
• 1978 Gilberto Gil Ao Vivo Em Montreux
• 1978 Refestança
• 1979 Nightingale
• 1979 Realce
• 1981 Brasil
• 1981 Luar (A Gente Precisa Ver o Luar)
• 1981 Um Banda Um
• 1983 Extra [WEA Latina]
• 1984 Quilombo (Trilha Sonora)
• 1984 Raça Humana
• 1985 Dia Dorim Noite Neon
• 1987 Gilberto Gil Em Concerto
• 1987 Soy Loco Por Ti America
• 1987 Trem Para As Estrelas (Trilha Sonora)
• 1988 Ao Vivo Em Tóquio (Live in Tokyo)
• 1989 O Eterno Deus Mu Dança
• 1991 Parabolic
• 1994 Acoustic
• 1995 Esoterico: Live in USA 1994
• 1995 Oriente: Live in Tokyo
• 1996 Em Concerto
• 1996 Luar
• 1997 Indigo Blue
• 1997 Quanta
• 1998 Ao Vivo Em Tóquio (Live in Tokyo) [Braziloid]
• 1998 Copacabana Mon Amour
• 1998 O Sol de Oslo
• 1998 O Viramundo (Ao Vivo)
• 1998 Quanta Live
• 2000 Me, You, Them [Brazil]
• 2001 Milton and Gil
• 2001 São João Vivo
• 2002 Kaya N'Gan Daya
• 2002 Quanta Live [Brazil]
• 2002 Z: 300 Anos de Zumbi
• 2004 Eletrácustico
• 2005 Ao Vivo
• 2005 As Canções de Eu Tu Eles
• 2005 Soul of Brazil
• 2006 Gil Luminoso
• 2006 Rhythms of Bahia

External links

• "Musica Popular Brasileira e mais"

• Gilberto Gil official site
• Gilberto Gil's Official Label Site - Free music online
• Curriculum Vitae
• Wrasse Records website
• Gilberto Gil
• Wired Mag - We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin
• Beats of the Heart video series "Spirit of Samba"- contains brief interview in the early 80's

Video link

• Gilberto Gil RBMA video lecture session