Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒiwˈbɛʁtu ˈʒiw]; born 26 June 1942), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician, known for both his musical innovation and political activism. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Minister of Culture in the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Gil's musical style incorporates an eclectic range of influences, including rock, Brazilian genres including samba, African music, and reggae.
In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Passos and the second or paternal family name is Gil Moreira.
Gilberto Gil
Singer, songwriter, politician
8 (including Preta)
1959–present
Gil started to play music as a child and was a teenager when he joined his first band. He began his career as a bossa nova musician and grew to write songs that reflected a focus on political awareness and social activism. He was a key figure in the Música popular brasileira and tropicália movements of the 1960s, alongside artists such as longtime collaborator Caetano Veloso. The Brazilian military regime that took power in 1964 saw both Gil and Veloso as a threat, and the two were held for nine months in 1969 before they were told to leave the country. Gil moved to London, but returned to Bahia in 1972 and continued his musical career, while also working as a politician and environmental advocate.
Early life (1942–1963)[edit]
Gil was born in Salvador and spent much of his childhood in Ituaçu. Ituaçu was a small town of fewer than a thousand people, located in the sertão, or countryside, of Bahia.[1] His father, José Gil Moreira, was a doctor; his mother, Claudina Passos Gil Moreira, an elementary school teacher.[1][2] As a young boy, he attended a Marist Brothers school.[3] Gil remained in Ituaçu until he was nine years old, returning to Salvador for secondary school.
Gil's interest in music was precocious: "When I was only two or two and a half", he recalled, "I told my mother I was going to become a musician or president of my country".[4] He grew up listening to the forró music of his native northeast,[2] and took an interest in the street performers of Salvador.[5] Early on, he began to play the drums and the trumpet, through listening to Bob Nelson on the radio.[6] Gil's mother was the "chief supporter" in his musical ambitions; she bought him an accordion and, when he was ten years old, sent him to music school in Salvador which he attended for four years.[1][4] As an accordionist, Gil first played classical music, but grew more interested in the folk and popular music of Brazil.[1] He was particularly influenced by singer and accordion player Luiz Gonzaga; he began to sing and play the accordion in an emulation of Gonzaga's recordings.[7] Gil has noted that he grew to identify with Gonzaga "because he sang about the world around [him], the world that [he] encountered".[8]
During his years in Salvador, Gil encountered the music of songwriter Dorival Caymmi, who he says represented to him the "beach-oriented" samba music of Salvador.[8] Gonzaga and Caymmi were Gil's formative influences.[1] While in Salvador, Gil was introduced to many other styles of music, including American big band jazz and tango.[8] In 1950 Gil moved back to Salvador with his family. It was there, while in high school, that he joined his first band, Os Desafinados ("The Out of Tunes"), in which he played accordion and vibraphone and sang.[1] Os Desafinados was influenced by American rock and roll musicians like Elvis Presley, as well as singing groups from Rio de Janeiro.[1] The band was active for two to three years. Soon afterwards, inspired by Brazilian musician João Gilberto, he settled on the guitar as his primary instrument and began to play bossa nova.[5]
Gilberto Gil
Personal life[edit]
Gil has been married four times. He had two daughters Nara and Marilia, with first wife Belina Aguiar. He was then married to famous singer Nana Caymmi, they had no children. His third wife was Sandra Gadelha with whom he had three children: Pedro, Preta and Maria. Sandra inspired one of his most beloved songs Drao, she was with him during the very hard times of Brazilian dictatorship and they both were exiled. His fourth wife is Flora Giordano. The couple has three children: Bem, Isabella and Jose. His first son Pedro Gil, Egotrip's drummer – died in a car accident in 1990.[44] Preta Gil, an actress and singer, is his daughter with Sandra Gadelha.
Gil's religious beliefs have changed significantly over his lifetime. Originally, he was a Christian, but was later influenced by Eastern philosophy and religion, and, later, explored African spirituality. He is an agnostic.[44] He practices yoga and is a vegetarian.[11]
Gil has been open about the fact that he has smoked marijuana for much of his life. He has said he believes "that drugs should be treated like pharmaceuticals, legalized, although under the same regulations and monitoring as medicines".[45]
Musical style and influences[edit]
Gil is a tenor, but he sings in the baritone or falsetto register, with lyrics and/or scat syllables. His lyrics are on subjects that range from philosophy to religion, folktales, and word play.[46] Gil's musical style incorporates a broad range of influences. The first music he was exposed to included The Beatles and street performers in various metropolitan areas of Bahia. During his first years as a musician, Gil performed primarily in a blend of traditional Brazilian styles with two-step rhythms, such as baião and samba.[4] He states that "My first phase was one of traditional forms. Nothing experimental at all. Caetano [Veloso] and I followed in the tradition of Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro, combining samba with northeastern music."[4] American music critic Robert Christgau said that along with Jorge Ben, Gil was "always ready to go further out on a beat than the other samba/bossa geniuses".[47]
As one of the pioneers of tropicália, influences from genres such as rock and punk have been pervasive in his recordings, as they have been in those of other stars of the period, including Caetano Veloso and Tom Zé. Gil's interest in the blues-based music of rock pioneer Jimi Hendrix, in particular, has been described by Veloso as having "extremely important consequences for Brazilian music".[48] Veloso also noted the influence of Brazilian guitarist and singer Jorge Ben on Gil's musical style, coupled with that of traditional music.[48] After the height of tropicália in the 1960s, Gil became increasingly interested in black culture, particularly in the Jamaican musical genre of reggae. He described the genre as "a form of democratizing, internationalizing, speaking a new language, a Heideggerian form of passing along fundamental messages".[49]
Visiting Lagos, Nigeria, in 1976 for the Festival of African Culture (FESTAC), Gil met fellow musicians Fela Kuti and Stevie Wonder.[1] He became inspired by African music and later integrated some of the styles he had heard in Africa, such as juju and highlife, into his own recordings.[50] One of the most famous of these African-influenced records was the 1977 album Refavela, which included "No Norte da Saudade" (To the North of Sadness), a song heavily influenced by reggae.[51] When Gil returned to Brazil after the visit, he focused on Afro-Brazilian culture, becoming a member of the Carnaval afoxé group Filhos de Gandhi.
Conversely, his 1980s musical repertoire presented an increased development of dance trends, such as disco and soul, as well as the previous incorporation of rock and punk.[49] However, Gil says that his 1994 album Acoustic was not such a new direction, as he had previously performed unplugged with Caetano Veloso. He describes the method of playing as easier than other types of performance, as the energy of acoustic playing is simple and influenced by its roots.[52] Gil has been criticized for a conflicting involvement in both authentic Brazilian music and the worldwide musical arena. He has had to walk a fine line, simultaneously remaining true to traditional Bahian styles and engaging with commercial markets. Listeners in Bahia have been much more accepting of his blend of music styles, while those in southeast Brazil felt at odds with it.[49]