Expresso 2222 and the accordion mood promoted by the acoustic guitar

Here is a challenge: listen to the introductory chords of the song Expresso 2222, by Gilberto Gil, strummed virtuously by him, on his guitar, and try to replace the sonority of the strings with the syncopated harmony of an accordion.

But here is the paradox: despite Gil’s statement that his musical world only got consolidated when he listened to João Gilberto and bossa nova, and that “the acoustic guitar is what brought me into this world of a new way of composing, a new way of bringing poetry to music”…

Expresso 2222, composed to be played on the acoustic guitar, seems to have been designed in, or thought for, an accordion. It is as if, in his mind, the accordion-playing child he once was, would still play and make him dream of and create in 120 bass keys…

After all, this is his root. Gil started playing accordion at age of ten, in the beginning of the 1950s, an era in which said instrument had a fundamental importance for the paths of the national popular repertoire.

It was the peak of the King of Baião [Brazilian rhythm], Luiz Gonzaga, an avowed idol of the singer and songwriter – Gilberto Gil even wrote the preface for the book Vida de Viajante – A Saga de Luiz Gonzaga [Life of a Traveler – The Saga of Luiz Gonzaga], a biography written by Dominique Dreyfus.

The musical revolution caused by Luiz Gonzaga, also known as Gonzagão, in Brazil, by bringing the Northeastern outlands and inlands to the spotlight, had been one of the motivations for the boy’s wish to learn the instrument.

“Let me introduce a general data on the accordion’s presence in the Brazilian music world: you think of Milton Nascimento, there it was, the accordion, with him; you think of João Donato, there it was, the accordion; you think of Wagner Tiso, there it was…

“… the accordion had a strong presence at that moment, for the generations who were there, in the end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s; It was a basic instrument, because of the presence of Luiz Gonzaga, no doubt about it…

“… because of the presence of several authors from Southern Brazil, the Rio Grande do Sul state, associated to the country music of that region, to the country music of São Paulo, to the music of Minas Gerais… I mean, the accordion was fundamental in the formation of these generations…

“…There are several artists, some with roots in the field of instrumental music, others who have spread through the field of composition, others were songwriters, singers, that have turned into interpreters in a broad sense… And I am one of them.”

“There, I turned into a reference,” he says, amused. “One day, I ended up being invited by Jorge Santos (musical producer), and the boys of the Santo Antônio neighborhood took me to JS studios, to record a jingle,” he recalls, smiling.

His loyalty to the accordion lasted just until he got to know the acoustic guitar, by the hands of singer, guitar player, songwriter, father of bossa nova, the master João Gilberto—and had an epiphany. From then on, he started exploring what he calls “the strings language.”

Gil left aside the “pitagoric” accordion, with its “straight forward, rational” sonority. “I left the accordion behind when I first heard João,” he says, in an almost confessional way. “When I saw João, the acoustic guitar was an instrument that scared me. I thought it was weird…

“... I could not feel attracted to the instrument, and vice-versa. The accordion was easier to me, that pitagoric way it has” he laughs. And he goes on: “Not the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar was a mystery. It was more Eastern, more North of Africa, linked to the lute…

“… the sound formations for the harmonies and melodies were more complex than what you had in a keyboard, in a piano. It was the acoustic guitar that made me abandon the accordion, to have me devoted to it definitely.”

Although the singer-songwriter has never played his accordion again – except when he released the album Gil & Milton, in which he and his friend from Minas Gerais, Milton Nascimento, wrote together the track Duas Sanfonas.

In it, they play the instrument, something that was repeated during the tour - the vibrant, simple, and colorful sound of the bellows still inhabits Gilberto Gil's imagination, and accompanies him, whether in the example that opened this text, or in other signs of his dormant passion.

Like his devotion to the Saint John’s parties, which he has always made a point of attending, performing concerts in the main Northeastern parties.

This devotion even yielded the album Fé na Festa, released in 2010.

The album lists tracks that bring back his accordion origins.

It even brings an homage to Luiz Gonzaga, in the track “Aprendi com o Rei,” a fresher recording of the song released in the album Refavela, from 1977.