Los Angeles Times s1

GILBERTO GIL

"The prevailing tone of Gil's songs is a ruminative sweetness, albeit one achieved via brainy harmonic and melodic gambits..." - Los Angeles Times

“I knew that music was my language, that music would take me to see the world, would take me to other lands. For I thought there was music of the earth and music from heaven.” -Gilberto Gil Short Bio

Gilberto Gil’s illustrious career spans four decades with over 50 albums released, multiple Grammy Awards won, six gold records, four platinum singles, and more than five million records sold. As a singer, guitarist, composer, and diplomat, Gil plays a key role in the modernization of music and culture throughout the world. Gil has tackled a wide variety of important issues in his lyrics from social inequality to race relations, from African to Asian culture, from science to religion, among others. The mastery with which Gil explores these subjects makes him one of the greatest Brazilian lyricists to date.

Gil’s new album, Gilbertos Samba, reinterprets classics recorded by João Gilberto and a variety of other gifted musicians such as Tom Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, Carlos Lyra and Caetano Veloso and includes songs from Gil’s early repertoire. North America will enjoy this concert in the spring of 2015 and take part in a great experience to hear the voice of Gilberto Gil, blending the history and culture of the Brazilian nation.

Long Bio

As a child growing up in the countryside of Bahia, Brazil, chasing the first clarinet sounds as festival bands opened religious celebrations, Gilberto Gil realized that music was his language. Although Gil chose to develop a solid body of work on the guitar, his first foray into music was on the accordion, initially inspired by local bands and radio music. An early influence was Luiz Gonzaga, who pioneered the musical genre Baião in northeast Brazil, blending classic European folk music with Asian, African and Indian music in a modern format.

Gilberto Gil has developed one of the most relevant and renown careers as a singer, composer and guitar-player in both world and pop music. His extensive and prolific catalogue of work has been covered and recorded by João Gilberto, Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Sérgio Mendes, Ernie Watts, and Toots Thielmans. Over the years, his political and environmental activism gained prominence alongside his musical career and reached a new height in 2003 when he was

1 appointed Minister of Culture for Brazil. As a musician and as a diplomat, Gil possesses a key role in the constant modernization of Brazilian popular music and culture throughout the world.

A leader of the Tropicalia movement in Brazil in 1967 and 1968 along with artists like Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa, he and other musicians mixed traditional samba, salsa, and bossa nova with rock and folk instruments.

Gil’s new album, Gilbertos Samba, is a reinterpretation of classics recorded by João Gilberto and a variety of other gifted musicians such as Tom Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, Carlos Lyra and Caetano Veloso and includes songs he sang on his own first albums. Released in March 2014 in Brazil it was followed by a national tour during 2014 with guitarist Bem Gil, percussionist Domenico Lancellotti, and Mestrinho on accordion and percussion. North Americans will have the opportunity to enjoy this concert in the spring of 2015 and experience hearing the voice of Gilberto Gil, whose career blends with the history and culture of the Brazilian nation.

Caetano Veloso says of Gilbertos Samba, “Now Gilberto, the name that Gil shares with João, appears in plural form, as an album title where the former disciple pays tribute to the eternal master. Nothing could say more about Gil than to go back to the legacy of João Gilberto…with an artistic temperament that contrasts with that of the master. To listen to Gil playing João is to come into contact with the whole adventure of our music and our life.”

For his unflinching creative engagement in bringing to the world the heart and soul of the Brazilian music , Gilberto Gil has received many honors in Brazil and abroad such as the Swedish Polar Prize and the French Legion of Honor. A unique composer powered by immense talent and curiosity, Gil is equally a unique musical ambassador powered by firm cultural conviction.

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