Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

VOICE OCTOOCR 1G, 1904 From Brazil, with Heart and Soul By Carol Cooper 55 This is a very good work week to find it what happened in Brazilian music ter the bossa nova: two days of Gilberto I and two of Beth Carvalho remain, ck-to-back in the intimate surround- of Sounds of Brazil. The two artists me together, serendipitously, like two alves, of a sphere within which are used all the past and future trends in uso-Afro-Indian music. Arranged chronologically, Beth Carval- 's LPs between 1968's Andanca and 34's Suor no Rosto represent one de- mined, intelligent woman's attempt to valorize her culture-which in most of particulars is black, while she, accord to conventional Brazilain standards, not. The covers of records like Nos tequins da Vida (1977), De Pé No 20 (1978), and Na fonte (1981), are plete . with ethno and biographic notes d often depict the singer surrounded the composers and players who con- ue to generate (against tremendous ---rcial impediments) the many dif- . varieties of samba. Although she s initially attracted to the hot bossa va tunes of the mid-'60s, by 1970 Car. iho had found her vocation in what et/statesman Vinicius de Moraes die- ribes as "the true sam samba as was prac. ced in the hillside Schools-without ologetic frills or or much innovation in Editional arrangements. Without eva. on." This fixed Carvalho firmly among ythms and orchestrations which had en formalized by Rio's itinerant sam- stas in the '20s and '30s. Acoustic string d percussion instruments set up inter- ven melodies and lilting syncopation to which predetermined rhyme nemes and a store of poetic folk wis- m would be propelled by gifted soloists Continued on page 99 The difference between a night of Car- valho and a night of Gil, then, is the difference between hearing High Mass in Latin or receiving the same exalted sacra- ments in a secular tongue. Luar's "Sonho Molhado" ("Wet Dream") is laid over the rhythmic structure of a forro whose ac- cordion, pounding esquenta muie, and contrapuntal guitar el quite funky in deed when rearranged under a swinging gospel chorus and Gil's slurred Al Green- isms. It's a creole mass if you will, gunr. anteed to get the European and North Annericnn heathen off as well as provide sly amusement for the inner circle-an old Jesuit trick, conversion by syncre- lism. "Geleia Geral," my favorite of all the 'Tropicalia inaterial, has Gil pointing up the emotional resonance between the Beatles' raucous, self-aflirming "yeah, yeah, yeah" and Northern Brazil's semi- pagan musical passion play the Bumba Boi. but the Having just completed a three-month recording session in Jamaica with Wailers, it seems that Gil is preparing to veer in yet another syncretic direction. He'd been fond of the primal reggae beat since he'd first heard it more than a de- cade ako, riddims on "Extra," the title cut of his current album , are steeped in Marley's hard-won strengths, sub- incrying all but his distinctively non-Ja- maican voice in its in its atmosphere. After the virtue of nationalism, which is self- knowledge, Lionnism-which should be no less than omniscience. And this is the extra grace Gil requests, in every musical language at his command, of any saint, god, or power. willing to grant it. RIFTS Continued from page 96 cchocd by a tight unison chorus. At Carnegie llall last Friday, with four of her favorite musicians, Carvalho's warm, firm alto introduced New York to the stirring rool sounds of cavaquinho, pandeiro, and repique da mao. Opening with Noca Da Portela's "Virada" ("Turn about") was the fastest way she could think of to destroy the notion that samba is all Carnival sex and frivolity. Chosen when it was released in 1981 by all three opposition parties in Brazil as a rallying anthem, "Virada" is a a march with teeth whose tiny, mandolin-toned cavaquinho challenges and taunts its huge guitar cousin to the encouraging basso pulse of the surdo. By the time Carvalho arrived at her song of happy female defiance "Vou l'estejar" ("I'll Celebrate"), the au- dience was singing hook, verse, and re- frain while applauding the clegant musi. cianship of the ensemble. Even without translated lyrics, Carvalho had gotten across some of the relcllious essence of samba, which turns the most melancholic Mediterranean or Angolan progressions into n celebration of all that is noble and immortal in the human spirit. Don't miss her upcoming sets at S.O.B.'s-these ranchos, marchas, toacias, and samba cancoes may be the most sophisticated "rock and roll" you've ever heard. Which brings us to the triumphant re- turn of Brazil's most imabashed icono. clast, Gilberto Gil. Don't be fooled when his rock band takes the stage: this is no facilc "crossover artist." The set he per- forined Sunday at S.O.13,'s pulled hcavily from albumns which initially angered many of his subsequent converts: berto Gil 2222 from his northeastern rock period; Realce and Luar from his north- castern funk immersion. It was almost as if he juxtaposed these bits of transitional cultural history for the predominantly Brazilian crowd in answer to those who are constantly calling his vinyl medita- tions on similar emotional or ideological strains in global pop a betrayal of his roots. As Caetano Veloso points out, Gil's "Chuckberry fields forever," magnifi- cently realized live last week, is a person- al history/homage, and indeed its ctfort- less bridging between '50s rockabilly rills, r&b shouts, circular baigo percus- sion, bossa nova traps, and the nasal ac- cents of Bahia's blind street singers is no sappy fusion but a thesis with an interior logic as original and accurate as that of the newest Savannah Band Ll'. Daily News, Wednesday, October 10. 1904 Gil draws fans Brazilian singor-guitarist GIl- berto Gil was a soil-out during tho first part of his five-day al S.O.B.'s (204 Varick 243-4940), but at press timo tho club said thoro wore tick- els availablo for tonight and tomorsow. Show times are 9 and 11:30