Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

Founder celebrates 25 years GIL, FROM 1E everyday in colonial situations, Gil said with a shrug during a recent interview . "The people of the South were colonized by the powerful of the North, and we are, all the time, unconsciously, digesting everything. Butto make a better use of this we need better knowledge of these pro- -esses, we need to ... establish a more just dialogue, a greater bal- ..ice. Pop culture is one of the largest export industries of the United States. MTV is now not only in 17 countries in Latin America but also in Europe and Asia. But the same pop industry that lion- izes artists such as Paul Simon, David Byrne and Peter Gabriel for remaking other people's music has little interest in hear- ing the other people's artists. Simon, for example, went to Brazil and used music and musi- cians from Gil's city, Salvador in the northeastern state of Bahia, for his album The Rhythm of the Saints. Albums reunite 'rebels,' revisit classics ALBUM REVIEWS recording of his unplugged show for MTV Brazíl is an opportunity to revisit old Gil classics such as Refazenda, Expresso 2222 or Aquele Abraco. For new listeners, it is a chance to discover a marvel- ous songwriter and performer. The acoustic setup and spa- cious, immaculately clean recording work well for Gil. Taking away the clutter and more explicit power of his electric setting accentuates the strengths in his singing and his writing the nuances, the catchy melodies and subtle harmonic turns, the richness in the Afro-Brazilian rhythms without robbing his punch. Palco, with its bouncy drive and killer hooks, is still a show stopper. And Aquele Abraco, his farewell song before going into exile in 1969, seems to gain layers in this almost sober version. Unplugged might have started to run its course as a concept, but it certainly works here. FERNANDO GONZALEZ Herald Pop Music Critic Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Tropicalia 2, Elek- tra/Nonesuch. Tropicalia, the artistic and intellectual movement spear- headed by singers-songwriters Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, challenged the social, cultural and political rules of Brazil in the late '60s. Tropi- calia 2, recorded last year, reunited Gil and Veloso for a celebration and update. It was a risky proposition. Revolutions and revolutionar- ies don't age well, and these onetime rebels are now the pop establishment. But Gil and Veloso are simply two of the world's best songwriters. The years have added crafts- manship, and their voices and lyrics are darker and heavier, though much of the tart humor is still there. This is no nostalgia trip. Veloso and Git can still turn expectations inside out - as in Haiti, which sounds sweet and eminently danceable until you realize it is a subtly sinister meditation on oppres- of Tropicalia Leaving nothing behind "Nothing happened in Salva- dor after he left. Nothing," says Gil, and it is because the way in which it was done was wrong. Instead of being a two-way thing, something that would help the ripe and just eat it. He left some culture of Bahia, Paul's attitude seeds." was vitiated by the old attitude of MTV, with its global perspec- coming to get our raw material. tive and reach, can play an It's what I call the cultural safari: important role in decentralizing Visit a place in your air- world pop culture, perhaps conditioned car, take your rifle changing, even reversing, the and start bagging exotic animals flow of information and helping to take home and put up on the set up true, international, wall. He didn't spend enough cross-cultural dialogue. Or, it can time, he was not out with the simply join the established mind- people. So the work did not have set, the old ways of doing busi- an impact back home. It justness, and worsen the situation Ipassed. with its more sophisticated grip. *David was more respectful. "MTV Brazil, for example, is He went there and lived anony- part of the problem," says Gil mously, learning who the African When they arrived almost fou chiefs were, who the community years ago, all they did was show leaders were, trying to under the things from the North: Amer stand the complexities of ourica, Europe: There was no polic society. And when he did the to open up to local music. Only album he abandoned rock and now they are beginning to com the Talking Heads. He took risks. mit to local music. So it's agai All that has left something as the same vice, it just reinforce opposed to taking the fruit that is the same paternalistic process - sion. Most of the tunes are sung in English Portuguese, with translations provided in the CD booklet. For Gil and Veloso, the language is a musi- ·cal instrument. Some of the imagery, the puns, their use of sound, is inevitably lost in the -translation, but still... Check out Da Da, a delight- ful word game, or Tradicao, Gil's sensual slice of life. Or consider the sly humor on Baiao Atemporal, a sort of Zen commentary on truck driving, or the remake of Hendrix's Wait Until Tomorrow. Stylisti- cally, Tropicalia 2 moves effortlessly from the drum- ming of the Afros blocos and urbane bossa nova to new wave rock. This is intelligent pop in any language. tic. Gilberto Gil, Acoustic, Atlan- For old fans, Gilberto Gil's Why? Maybe it's because MTV thinks along the lines of the mul- has provided the tools for a response to age-old problems has tinationals: a center and a created new ones. Instant com- periphery that is there to be munication has obliterated any that is deplorable Brother logic sense of space and time. Pro- cesses of reflection, assimilation Carli Cohen, creative director and adaptation that once took of MTV Brazil, disagreed. years now need to happen almost "It's not that we didn't want immediately. There is barely Brazilian music," she said, "We time to swallow, let alone diges just didn't have Brazilian video and spit out, all the images and clips. Even today, the labels do sounds constantly com in not invest money videos. Even with heightened aware **The programming is-all ours. ness, technologically weaker soci I'd say 80 percent. We use Yo eties might be fighting a losin MTV Raps! animation and some battle. rockumentaries; otherwise MTV Brazil is made in Brazil. "Now it's a massacre," say Gil.* "A constant bombardmen That's why we need to kno beforehand what does mea not only regarding television bu what we eat, what we hear, wh: we wear, what we read, ever thing. We just have to find a wa to deal with it." Age-old problems. For Gil "these reassurances might be cold comfort. If any- thing, 25 years after Tropicalia, the challenges have grown harder. The same technology that ANVENTIOCLCAT.