Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben: the partnerships of Xangô and Ogum

Two artists with such different personalities and trajectories, but, at the same time, with a lot in common: the admiration for João Gilberto, the devotion to the acoustic guitar (and later on, to the electric guitar), songs that talk about faith, Carnaval, Africa and the diasporic culture.

Both have samba, Northeastern rhythms and American black-music as their influences. Gil and Jorge are two big names of the MPB who have established a musical dialogue, one that has transformed a jam moment into an album that would become a classic in our music.

Gil does not remember exactly how they met:

“Personally, I am under the impression that it had happened when I came to São Paulo, in 1965, and started to experience all that musical atmosphere of the new authors, new artists: Edu Lobo, Geraldo Vandré, and Elis Regina…

“… At some point, we crossed paths. He was also beginning to perform on TV shows, which were a new way of promoting music in the country. And then we must have met in any corridor at Record TV, in some place in São Paulo.”

The TV shows mentioned by Gil were O Fino da Bossa, hosted by Elis Regina and Jair Rodrigues and aired from 1967 to 1967, and Jovem Guarda, hosted by Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos, and Wanderléa, aired from 1965 to 1968.

Jorge Ben had released, in 1965, the album O Bidú: Silêncio no Brooklin, regarded as “the synthesis of the tropicalists wishes,” according to Caetano Veloso, which had felt in the good graces of those who were going to be the founders of the movement.

Yet, for Gil, the interest he took on Ben’s work was nothing of a novelty, since he had already fell for the singer ever since the releasing of the first album of the Rio de Janeiro-born, Samba Esquema Novo, in 1963. In 1968, Gil and Caetano Veloso hosted a TV show at the defunct channel TV Tupi.

Divino Maravilhoso was terminated by the end of that year, with the arrest of its two hosts, on December 27. They would only be freed by February of the following year, then kept in house arrest and, in July, they left for the exile in London.

Years later, the mutual admiration of Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben would lead the two of them to think of concerting together, an idea that ended up being shut down after Ben suffered from laryngitis. Yet, they would cross paths again in an album, which emerged in a completely spontaneous way.

In 1975, producer André Midani, then-director of the Philips record label, invited a few Brazilian artists for a dinner thrown in honor of guitar player Eric Clapton, who had arrived in town and wanted to meet local talent.

There were Caetano Veloso, Rita Lee, Erasmo Carlos, Jorge Ben, in addition to British Cat Stevens, who happened to be staying in Brazil for a while. The two British, plus Gil and Jorge, set off a jam session.

Stevens was the first to give up, shortly followed by the God of guitar. There were only the Brazilians left. The chemistry was such that they went on a long jam session which left the guests agog.

A few days after, they went on studio, with their respective producers, Perinho Albuquerque and Paulinho Tapajós, in addition to bassist Wagner Dias and newly-discovered percussionist Djalma Corrêa.

There was also a partnership between them, the instrumental “Sarro,” that was never recorded. The album cover, signed by Rogério Duarte and Aldo Luiz, pictures the image of two cowrie shells, and its title is a reference to their two orixas: Jorge is Ogum and Gil is Xangô.

Although it was not a bestseller, the album earned positive critics and turned into a cult throughout the years.

The two would only compose together again 44 years later: the song “Ela diz que me ama,” for the singer Roberta Sá. The track featured both composers and was recorded in the album Giro, in 2019, exclusively listing never-recorded lyrics by Gil made especially for the artist.

The partnership comeback emerged once they became neighbors, in 2018, when Jorge (called Ben Jor since 1989) moved to Copacabana Palace and Gil moved to the Chopin Building, right next to the hotel.