ReGil: Gilberto Gil's Four "Re" Albums

Revolutions in behavior, the breakthrough of feminist activism, and the discovery of psychedelic drugs made the 1970s a time of shamelessly bold creativity, permissive relationships, informality, and transgression.

 Altered consciousness and the surge in sense and non-sense that came with it pervaded the work of numerous artists around the world. Brazil was no exception.

In 1975, Brazil was under military rule and censorship determined what kinds of music could be recorded or performed. It had been three years since Gilberto Gil had returned from his three-year exile in London, where he was exiled from 1969 to 1972.

And the title song of his new album led his fans to believe he was sending a message to the dictatorship that still ruled Brazil.

The line "Abacateiro, acataremos teu ato (Avocado tree, we will accept your act)" even seemed to be a reference to the brutality of the military regime: they wore an avocado-green uniform and had introduced the oppressive Institutional Act No. 5 in 1968.

However, the musician was actually inspired by nature, saying: "Refazenda is a recollection of the countryside and living with nature; a reiteration of our dialogue with it and of what we learn from its rhythm."

The word guariroba, in the Refazenda lyrics, refers to a palm tree typically found in the Brazilian savanna (the Cerrado), as well as being the name of a farm some of Gilberto Gil's friends owned about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Brazil's capital, Brasília. 

According to Gil, they even thought about using the property to set up an alternative community for families. Nothing came of the idea, however, and they ended up selling the farm.

Inspired by the simplest sounds in baião music and Northeastern rhythms, the A-side of his Refazenda LP featured the songs Ela, Tenho Sede, Refazenda, Pai e Mãe, Jeca Total, and Essa é pra Tocar no Rádio.

While Ê, Povo, Ê, Retiros Espirituais, O Rouxinol, Lamento Sertanejo (Forró do Dominguinhos), and Meditação were on the B-side. The concert tour visited 45 Brazilian towns and cities, and Refazenda became one of the most important albums Gil ever made.

Refazenda came out of Gil's desire to speak about his Northeastern roots. While planning the LP, Gil made a number of notes. The album's insert contains all the lyrics and credits

Gilberto Gil returned from a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977 inspired to start including African themes in his songs. The musician spent a month in the African country, where he attended the 2nd World Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC). 

The event brought together 50,000 artists of African descent and from the black diaspora, including the multi-instrumentalist and composer Fela Kuti, who also created Afrobeat and was a human rights activist. From that moment onward, Gil's sound would never be the same again, and neither would his political stance.

As well as African influences, Gilberto Gil sought out rhythms from other black music movements for his new sound. American funk and Jamaican reggae both had an influence on the songs he wrote for his Refavela album, as did the Bahian Carnival street bands (or blocos) Ilê Aiyê and Filhos de Gandhy.

These last two were responsible for reviving African influences at Carnival in Salvador.

If, on Refazenda, Gil revisited his Northeastern roots, on Refavela he recognized his African roots.  

Released in 1977, the Refavela LP featured Ilê Ayê, Aqui e Agora, No Norte da Saudade, and Babá Alapalá on its A-side; while Sandra, Samba do Avião, Era Nova, Balafon, and Patuscada de Gandhi made up the B-side.

Babá Alapalá is one of the tracks exploring African ancestry, referencing the names of orixás, which are symbols in African religions.

During the era of slavery, Catholicism was imposed on the black population. This led to each orixá being associated with a Catholic saint.

Orixás are believed to be African ancestors who have become deities as a result of supposedly acquiring control over aspects of nature and the human condition during their lifetime on Earth. 

The other song to explore this theme is Balafon, which is both the name of the song and the name of the xylophone-style instrument Gil received as a gift during his visit to Nigeria.

In the same year as he released Refavela, Gilberto Gil decided to do a concert with his Tropicálista friend and former Os Mutantes band member, Rita Lee. 

Both had been arrested for possessing cannabis in 1976 and they decided to combine their bands—Gil's Refavela and Rita's Tutti Frutti—to do a tour, which would be recorded and released as an LP. The album had not been planned and it ended up being the fourth album in the middle of Gil's "Re" trilogy. 

In their show, the pair sang the Roberto Carlos and Erasmo Carlos song É Proibido Fumar, as a challenge to the Brazilian authorities. On the album insert, Gil had fun with a text: 

"Refestança is a place / Where singing happens / Where dancing happens / Where they only plant… banana trees." Rita's text rounded this idea out further: "It means a mixture of race, color, sound, farm, city, and chewing gum and banana."

The album's opening track is Refestança, a song that they wrote together. The song list also features Gil's Domingo no Parque and Back in Bahia, while Rita Lee's contribution includes her song Ovelha Negra, and one she cowrote with the budding author Paulo Coelho, called Arrombou a Festa.  

The song Giló, which Rita wrote for Gil, is a celebration of their friendship. The duo's show and album also included a tropical cover version of Get Back by The Beatles—titled De Leve in Portuguese—and a sarcastic cover version of É Proibido Fumar.

The band Tutti Frutti—made up of Roberto de Carvalho, Luís Sérgio Carlini, Lee Marcucci, Sérgio Della Monica, Wilson Pinto de Oliveira, and Naila Mello—played on some of the tracks.

And Gil's band Refavela—Moacir Albuquerque, Pedrinho Santana, Djalma Correia, Milcíades Teixeira, Carlos Alberto Charlegre, and Lucia Turnbull—backed the two singers on others. 

Interestingly, the tour brought Lucia Turnbull and Rita back together on stage three years after disbanding their duo act Cilibrinas do Éden. They had done a few concerts and recorded some songs together, although these were only ever released as pirate copies and not officially. 

The Refestança tour began in October 1977 and visited several Brazilian state capitals—Goiânia, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Vitória, and São Paulo, ending at the Maracanãzinho arena in Rio de Janeiro. 

During the closing concert, part of the set collapsed and took some of the shine and joy out of the pair's performance. But it did nothing to stop the party or eclipse this historic encounter between two Brazilian music legends.

After living in Los Angeles for a while—where he recorded his Nightingale album, produced by the US-based Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes—Gil began work on the final album in his "Re" trilogy.

Realce would be released in August 1979, three months after his cover version of the Bob Marley hit No Woman, No Cry (Não Chore Mais) became a hit in Brazil. Gil invited former Os Mutantes band members Liminha (bass) and Sérgio Dias (electric guitar) to play on the track with him.

The idea for the title Realce came to Gil while he was traveling. The idea of producing a trilogy came from his admiration for the Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni's trilogy of alienation, a series of three films connected by the same theme.

Marco Mazzola took charge of producing the album and he suggested that the singer-songwriter should go with a mixture of Brazilian and foreign instruments to achieve a sound that would highlight both Brazilian music and disco music, which was popular all around the world at that time.

Once again, Gilberto Gil chose nonsense lyrics for the title track, with Realce's danceable arrangement speaking far more than any message. 

When putting together these disco music arrangements, Gil turned to Steve Lukather (from the rock band Toto) for electric guitar, and to Jerry Hey (arranger for the funk and soul band Earth, Wind & Fire) for keyboards. 

In the song Sarará Miolo, Gil went against the Eurocentric ideas of beauty, revering black people's natural hair and calling racism a "white people's illness." 

Inspired by Caetano Veloso's remarks about the film Superman, Gil wrote Super-Homem: A Canção (Superman: The Song), one of the first feminist songs in the history of Brazilian music.  

At that time, Gil was already in a relationship with Flora Giordano, the woman he had met in 1979 and would marry in 1988. They went on to spend their lives together, and she even became his manager.

Dorival Caymmi's song Marina also speaks out against racism and celebrates women, and Gilberto Gil turned it into a disco track. 

Another one dedicated to a woman is Toda Menina Baiana, which Gil wrote for his eldest daughter, Nara Gil. The songs Tradição, Rebento, Logunedé, and Não Chore Mais also feature on the album.

The Realce tour consisted of 51 performances in 30 Brazilian cities. Appearing with the Jamaican singer-songwriter Jimmy Cliff, Gil performed in sports halls and stadiums in five Brazilian state capitals. The pair recorded a TV special for Rede Globo, Brazil's largest TV network at the time.