Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

THE NEW YORK TIME Gilberto Gil, at the microphone, during his performance on Wednesday night at Irving Plaza. Gilberto Gil mixes social commentary and dancing drive. Linda Rosier for The New York Times POP REVIEW Why Brazilian Complexities Are Fun By JON PARELES ner), in which he invoked African deities, sang about a barefoot crab vendor and, in the title song, consid- ered quantum physics and the fragil- ity of existence. Gilberto Gil's audience didn't sim- ply clap along when he performed at Irving Plaza on Wednesday night. It clapped in double time, in triple time and in overlapping syncopations, fol- lowing the increasingly elaborate cues of a drummer who made the musical complexities look like fun. That's part of the pleasure of Mr. Gil's music: true to the esthetics of Brazilian pop, it pretends its ingenu- ity comes easily, that the songs just In English-speaking pop, such top- ics tend to arrive wrapped in preten- sions. Mr. Gil, however, draws on his Brazilian heritage - sambas, bossa novas, Afro-Brazilian chants, region- al rhythms - along with infusions of reggae, jazz and rock. His voice is an arrived spontaneously. And while the bouncing along, they happen to carry Mr. Gil is one of Brazil's and the world's great songwriters: a tune- smith, poet and band leader whose many ambitions only bolster one an- other. His songs have a lot on their mind: particle physics, love, trains, musical heroes. Above all, he cele- brates the glories and contradictions of Brazil, from its cultural vitality to the lives of its struggling poor. He started the concert on Wednes- day with "Ciencia e Arte," praising Brazil's unheralded achievements; he finished with a song hailing the women of Bahia, his home state. The set featured material from his new album, "Quanta" (Mesa/Time War- amiable baritone with a rich falsetto at its disposal; he turned ballads into intimate conversation, made up- tempo songs sound casual and tossed percussive syllables back and forth with his drummers. The band breezed along, now and then revving up its core of percus- sion. In "Expresso 2222," a train song that repeatedly transformed its rhythms, a triangle solo had the crowd riveted. For part of his two-hour set, Mr. Gil sang in English, paying homage to Bob Marley ("Stir It Up"), Stevie Wonder ("The Secret Life of Plants") and Jimi Hendrix ("Wait Until Tomorrow"). He also applaud. ed his Brazilian idols, including Dori- val Caymmi and Antônio Carlos Jo- bim. It was a concert about tradition: about folk rhythms and African-root- ed religion, about Mr. Gil's musical models, about the way such forms as samba and reggae can combine dancing propulsion with social com- mentary. Mr. Gil's respect for his forebears is clearly sincere; he's not out to dethrone past generations but to learn from them. But the concert was also a lesson in modernity, about not being con- fined or intimidated by tradition. Mr. Gil freely combined and hybridized his sources (and his own older songs). After "De Ouro e Marfim" ("Of Gold and Ivory'), a tribute to Jobim using the samba-reggae beat of Ba- hia, Mr. Gil sang Jobim's "Girl From Ipanema," but he turned the classic bossa nova into reggae, lacing it with saxophone licks from the Wailers. Here's how to live with the weight of tradition, Mr. Gil's music suggests: keep your ears open and use what you love