Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

18G FRIDAYA AUGUST 29, 1997 IN CONCERT 311 gets ambitious Gil tackles technology 311 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Coral Sky. 311 is playing at a 20,000-ca- pacity amphitheater, and the only thing we can think of is Oprah trying on her old clothes after her most successful diet: That's a lotta empty space. 311 at a 20,000-capacity amphitheater? Here's some 411 for the ambi- tious reggae/rock band, formed in Omaha in 1990: Ticket sellers are struggling to sell enough seats so there are more butts filling them than air 311 at a 20,000-capacity amphitheater? This is like Kathie Lee Gifford signing with Death Row Records It's like Charlton Heston regis- terings are Democrat. like opening a live music joint on Washington Avenue. Nothing wrong with aiming high, mind you, but you have to have the goods to back up such lofty aspirations. Judging from the pub accorded the band's 's lat- est CD, Transistor, 311 might be the only band in recent memory to garner worse reviews than Toto did in its day. Entertain- ment Weekly, for one, gave the record a big fat "F" and that seemed kind. First-week sales of Transistor topped 100,000 cop- ies, good enough for a No. 4 entry in Billboard, but the CD tumbles out of the Top 10 this week. 311 fashions itself as an eclec- tic hard-rock, reggae, funk and hip-hop act, often hitting all the styles within the same song on past albums Music, Grassroots and 1995's self-titled break- through CD. The result is a mess that fails to tap the insistent rock the aggressive swing of hard Transistor is a double-length album crammed onto one disc. "It had been two years since we recorded our last album, so we were really excited to roll tape," bassist P-Nut stated in a press release. "We also wanted to give our fans a lot of music because they have been waiting for our new album for a while," added drummer Chad Sexton. "We did not want to release a double CD because we did not want our fans to have to pay $22 for the album." That makes sense. But 311 at a 20,000-capacity amphitheater? It's like... really silly. HOWARD COHEN Herald Staff Writer 311 with Goldfinger: 7:30p.m. Thursday, Coral Sky Amphitheater, 601-7 Sansbury's Way, West Palm Beach: $22. $16.75: 1 (800) 759-4624. IN CONCERT: 311, left, brings its eclectic reggae/rock sound to the very large Coral Sky Amphitheatre. Below, Gilberto Gil plays the Gusman Center tonight with fellow singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso, was an instiga- ballads. tor of Tropicaitempted noth ing less than to reformulate the relationship between global and indigenous cultures. In the hands of a lesser pop- meister, the opportunity for self- indulgent navel gazing and pre- tentiousness would have been irresistible. But Gil says his piece as if chatting among friends. It The military dictatorship in tako so make it sound so simple. Don't miss him. power in Brazil rewarded Veloso and Gil with jail and exile. Since his return to Brazil in 1972, Gil has, in a way, taken the ideas of Tropicalia to some of its logical conclusions, reworking indigenous rhythms with Anglo- American pop and rock, celebrat- ing the African roots of Brazilian culture, and calling attention to the incongruities of technology in FERNANDO GONZALEZ Herald Arts Writer Gilberto Gil: 8 tonight: Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, 174 East Flagler St. Miamit $20, $30 and $40: (305) 374-2444,372-0925 or 672-5202 BOSTON 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Coral * In Quantas title trackha wheat SkWhy let the fact you don't have a new album Boston technically has a new launching a tour? OK, '70s icon release on the stands - a Greal- est Hits set that even fi stwo features: three years since the band's last nifty new songs. But it's been studio album and 11 years since the one before that. In fact, in 21 years Boston has released only five albums. That's a lot of mileage on More Than a Feeling HOWARD COHEN GILBERTO GIL 8 tonight at Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. pered ballad featuring the Brazilian singer and songwriter Milton Nascimento, he sings, "I Gilberto Gil, 55, has never been know art is the sister of sci- your standard-issue pop starence / Both daughters of a fleet- and he clearly is not about to ing God." Throughout the album become one now. he alludes to Web sites and Gil is appearing tonight at orixas (deities in Candomble, an Gusman Center for the Perform- Afro-Brazilian religion), pays ing Arts as part of the tour for his homage to bossa nova masters latest release, Quantas, in which Tom Jobim and Joao Gilberto, he (mostly) mulls over the impact casually chats in song with Nasci- of science and technology on mento, discusses religious faith, modern society. Chinese philosophy, the slave traders' island off the coast of Africa, and the simple pleasures of eating crabs. The music runs from rootsy sambas, Candomble rhythms and African vocal har- monies to delicate, introspective sing-alongs, sweaty, uncing de a It's not exactly the subject of Studio and career of tackling slippery sub- jects. Back in the late 1960s, Gil, NUNAVN Boston: 7:30 pm. Wednesday, 4624 Coral Sky: $25.75, $35.75: 1 (800) 759