Gilberto Gil’s history with the accordion

The instrument marked the songwriter’s entrance in the music universe, dictated songs and albums that made him a representative of Northeastern music.

By Instituto Gilberto Gil

Text: Gilberto Porcidonio, journalist and social scientist

Paisagem de Ituaçu, cidade onde Gilberto Gil passou a infânciaInstituto Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil canta Asa Branca em evento da agência de publicidade W/Brasil
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The accordion that Baião King Luiz Gonzaga sounded from the backlands of Pernambuco to Brazil echoed in Gilberto Gil since the artist from Bahia was a boy with colorful dreams in Ituaçu, in the countryside of Bahia, where he grew up.

Detalhe do cenário do DVD Fé na Festa (2010-02-10)Instituto Gilberto Gil

These colors remind us of Saint John’s festivities which he eagerly followed from his house’s balcony ever since he was little. In the Northeast of Brazil, the countryside culture, just like that of Bahia, is especially one of the land worker, the contact with the land and its people.

Gilberto Gil durante apresentação no São João Carioca (2010-05-29)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Something that makes the worker relax and withstand the uninterrupted working hours under a hot sun. And the backlands are hot, very hot. Music, especially in times of party, harvesting, and abundance, takes colors, sounds, and landscapes to this hard work..

Gilberto Gil durante apresentação no São João Carioca (2010-05-29)Instituto Gilberto Gil

And it plants the hope for better days in those who, despite all difficulties, refuses to leave their land and story behind. In all of the artist’s work, this effort for fruitfulness, for the place, for the return to the roots is always present wherever he is.

Gilberto Gil, em planície, toca Lamento Sertanejo em seu violão durante documentário Tempo Rei (Janeiro de 1996)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“This whole frame of reference in my world, in the end, refers to Ituaçu, the basis of this whole permanence of the rural world image inside me. All the other places I saw in the countryside, every small river bank, every mountain…

Gilberto Gil dedilha e canta São João, Xangô Menino, que compôs com o amigo Caetano Veloso, para Mãe Stella de Oxóssi, em cena do filme Tempo Rei (Janeiro de 1996)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“… Everything I saw around the world brought me back to Ituaçu, this place that occupies a mythic function in my life,” said, moved, the singer and songwriter during the documentary Tempo Rei, from 1996.

Tempo Rei movie, starring Gilberto Gil (1996)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil e a irmã, Gildina Gil, na infância (1952)Instituto Gilberto Gil

These first parties and musicality were followed by the young Gilberto Gil’s eyes and ears before he could even read and write. In the eve of Saint John, still in the early morning, the bands would go out on the streets of the village, which, at the time, had only 900 inhabitants.

Gilberto Gil e Gildina Passos Gil Moreira, quando crianças (1950)Instituto Gilberto Gil

The movement stirs up the kid, who was profoundly inspired and touch by the musicality. “I have a very Strong memory of the moment, of when I was 3 or 4. And of when I was 7 and got in touch with Luiz Gonzaga’s music…

“… Even before, a bit there in the Northeast environment, the Caatinga, the small town in the Bahia countryside, I had a very natural contact…

Gilberto Gil na infância (1949)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“… My father took me to see the viola players, the singers, the spoken poets, this whole world of cordel literature. I had a lot of contact with them,” said the artist in an interview.

Gilberto Gil e músicos à época do álbum Refazenda (1975)Instituto Gilberto Gil

This Northeast of which the artist is very intimate comes up as a direction for his fifth studio album, Expresso 2222, from 1972, recorded after his return from exile in London; and then in Refazenda, from 1975, a record that is entirely permeated by the backlands sonority and fertility.

Dominguinhos, Luiz Gonzaga e Gilberto Gil no show 20 Anos-Luz (Novembro de 1985)Instituto Gilberto Gil

But the “thing with Northeastern music itself,” as the artist himself says, really came on when he met singer and songwriter Luiz Gonzaga (1912–1989), through the radio waves and the speaker services in the city where he lived.

Gilberto Gil, Elba Ramalho, Luiz Gonzaga, Belchior e Dominguinhos no programa Chico & Caetano (1985-11-13)Instituto Gilberto Gil

The appearance of the man who introduced the accordion, the zabumba bass drum, and the triangle to national pop was essential for the musician to have his first turning point as an instrumentalist: learning to play, in the 1950s, the accordion at the famed Regina Academy, in Salvador.

Gilberto Gil ainda adolescente com colegas de Salvador (1959)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Gil moved with his family to the capital of Bahia to finish secondary school. Later, he would become part of the instrumental band Os Desafinados, who performed in city events.

Foto de Luiz Gonzaga para Gilberto Gil (1950-10-28)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“When Gonzaga appeared with those verses about showing how to dance baiao, pay attention… and everything that came along with that great hit of his, I was naturally compelled to become one of his disciples…

Gilberto Gil em ensaio fotográfico para a revista Bravo (2012)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“… I became a disciple of that great idol that he became in all of Brazil,” says Gil about Luiz Gonzaga.

Gilberto Gil e Cícero Assis em show do álbum As Canções de Eu, Tu, Eles (2000)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Mixagem alternativa da música A Volta da Asa Branca, pertencente a trilha sonora gravada por Gilberto Gil para o filme Eu, Tu, Eles
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The creator of the anthem “Asa branca” shows up various times in the artist’s work: “Respeita Januário,” “Vem, Morena,” “Macapá” are some of the songs from the album Gilberto Gil e as Canções de Eu, Tu, Eles, from 2000, which had the whole soundtrack for the movie Eu, Tu, Eles 

Cena do documentário Viva São João no qual Gilberto Gil se apresenta com Joquinha Gonzaga em festa junina (2001)Instituto Gilberto Gil

A student and deep connoisseur of the Baião King’s work, Gil was also in Exu, Gonzagão’s native town, in the backlands of Pernambuco, during the recordings of the 2002 documentary Viva São João!

Documentary film Viva São João! with Gilberto Gil, by filmmaker Andrucha Waddington (2002)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil com o músico Dorival Caymmi em show na década de 1980 (1980)Instituto Gilberto Gil

From the accordion to the guitar

The guitar, which ended up being the instrument that would define him on stage, only came later, and through the influence of two Bahia-born artists: João Gilberto’s very urban bossa nova and Dorival Caymmi’s very beachy sound.

Gilberto Gil e integrantes da Banda de Pife Princesa do Agreste no estúdio, durante ensaio para o show Futurível (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

But the musicality from the country side was already in him, and he tried to take his compasses, footprints, and melodies to compositions that mixed a bit of each of those worlds.

Gilberto Gil durante show em uma foto que compõe o livro Gil 60 - Todas as Contas (1985)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“This sound with more guitar was something I heard with Dorival and in the melodies my grandmother recalled. Records by Paraguassú, Dilermando Reis, more of a guitar mode…

Gilberto Gil em show da turnê do álbum Unplugged (1994-08-10)Instituto Gilberto Gil

“… I only came to find this many years later, when I developed the memory of Luiz Gonzaga’s accordion, it drove me to find certain fingering techniques. ‘Expresso 2222’ is the clearest example of this type of thing,” said Gil in the 1996 documentary Tempo Rei.

Capa do álbum Louvação, de Gilberto Gil (1967)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Louvação
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But in his first album, Louvação, from 1967, whose title is already reminiscent of the religious parties typical of the countryside—in honor of some patron saint or other—the artist’s singing and its guitar, in several moments, very explicitly emulates this influence.

Capa do álbum Gilberto Gil, de Gilberto Gil (1968)Instituto Gilberto Gil

This shows in the songs “Louvação,” “Procissão,” “Roda,” and “Viramundo.” In his second album released in the following year, Gilberto Gil, who was already creating the Tropicália rhythms, writes the song “Domingo no parque".

Gilberto Gil no III Festival da Música Popular Brasileira (Outubro de 1967)Instituto Gilberto Gil

The hit Gil took to the stage of the TV Record music festival with band Os Mutantes took his career to another level. After that, all Gil had to do was be Gilberto Gil: show his own self to the world.

Credits: Story

Exhibit credits

Text and research: Gilberto Porcidonio
Assembly: Isabela Marinho 
Copyediting: Chris Fuscaldo

General credits

Editing and curation: Chris Fuscaldo / Garota FM 
Musical content research: Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo, Laura Zandonadi e Ricardo Schott 
Ministry of Culture content research: Carla Peixoto, Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo 
Captions: Anna Durão, Carla Peixoto, Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo, Daniel Malafaia, Fernanda Pimentel, Gilberto Porcidonio, Kamille Viola, Laura Zandonadi, Lucas Vieira, Luciana Azevedo, Patrícia Sá Rêgo, Pedro Felitte, Ricardo Schott, Roni Filgueiras e Tito Guedes 
Data editing: Isabela Marinho and Marco Konopacki
Gege Produções Review: Cristina Doria
Acknowledgements Gege Produções, Gilberto Gil, Flora Gil, Gilda Mattoso, Fafá Giordano, Maria Gil, Meny Lopes, Nelci Frangipani, Cristina Doria, Daniella Bartolini e todos os autores das fotos e personagens da história
All media: Instituto Gilberto Gil

*Every effort has been made to credit the images, audios and videos and correctly tell the story about the episodes narrated in the exhibitions. If you find errors and/or omissions, please contact us by email atendimentogil@gege.com.br

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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