The String Concert, the 17 strings tour

In harmony with the 17 strings, the artist evoked his homeland when he sang the classic “Saudades da Bahia,” immortalized in the voices of its creator, Bahian Dorival Caymmi, and one of its interpreters, also from Bahia, João Gilberto—who recorded it on a 1961 album.

With a blessing on Brazilian solo, the trio left for Oslo, Norway, on November 5th of the same year, when they performed at the Rockefeller Music Hall and began a series of concerts spread out over eight other countries on the continent:

France, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, Germany, Spain, and Italy. The 2009 phase of the tour ended on Latin soil, with a concert for the Argentinians who occupied the more than 3,000 seats of the Gran Rex Theatre on the night of December 16th, a Wednesday.

In Italy, one of the spaces that housed the String Concert was the Manzoni Theater, in Milan. Gil has a strong bond to the country and always goes back to the Italian stages.

Hamburg, Germany, also welcomed the singer, his son Bem, and Jaques with a theater full of fans and people curious about Brazilian culture. Gil’s music is an universal language.

The String Concert went back to Europe in 2011, but the trio chose the East to close the tour, which ended on April 22. On “the other side of the world,” Gil, Bem, and Jaques crossed Israel, Singapore, China, and South Korea.

An official member of Gilberto Gil’s band since 2006, Bem Gil’s musical inspiration is his father. The first result of closer partnership between the two came with BandaDois.

In the project, Bem and Gil performed, on tour—with a predominance of the acoustic guitar, the tambourine, and the timbrel—a select repertoire with hits from all periods of the singer’s career, such as “Tempo rei,” “Refazenda,” and “Andar com fé.”

The partnership culminated in the release of a DVD in the end of 2009, with the recording of two concerts at the Bradesco Theater on September 28th and 29th of the same year.

Directed by Andrucha Waddington and produced by Liminha, the material features José Gil and singer Maria Rita, who performed, in a duet with Gil, the song “Amor até o fim,” written by him and recorded by her mother, Elis Regina, in the 1970s.

Gil’s youngest son, José Gil accompanied, in the double bass, his father and brother on the songs “Refavela” and “Babá alapalá,” at the concert BandaDois, recorded during a break The String Concert tour.

The String Concert was a development of that project, conceived originally when the two decided to add another member, arranger, maestro, and cellist Jaques Morelenbaum.

Part of the Morelenbaum family, famous for its involvement with music, Jaques is son to maestro Henrique and piano teacher Sarah, and brother clarinet player Lucia and maestro Eduardo. In the musical universe, he is known as “Jaquinho.”

Throughout his career, Jaques and his wife, singer Paula Morelenbaum, accompanied important music personalities like Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Ryuichi Sakamoto, among others. Gilberto Gil always followed the family’s career.

His curriculum was only one of the reasons for the invitation to join The String Concert. “Jaquinho” is also a great admirer of Gil’s work and has vast knowledge about MPB.

The Gil and Morelembaum families were always close. The years-long friendship paid off with enormous harmony on stage.

All of these qualities became evident in the integration of the cello’s elegance and Gil’s acoustic guitar, in this essentially Brazilian chamber formation proposed by the concert.