Chuck Berry Fields Forever: Gilberto Gil’s acoustic and electric guitars

At three years old, Gilberto Gil would already say what he wanted to be as a grown up: “musgueiro” - a made up word meaning musicina. First, there was the accordion, encouraged by his mother Claudina, who enrolled him in music school at the age of ten.

Despite having introduced the singer to the instrumentist life, the accordion had not turned into his main instrument.

As soon as he heard João Gilberto singing “Chega de saudade” on the radio, Gilberto Gil’s ears changed.

The accordion keys were losing their charm and, in 1961, he convinced his mother to gift him his first acoustic guitar—an Author N. 3 model, professional grade and made by Di Giorgio, the same brand used by his bossa nova idol.

In spite of initial difficulties adjusting to strings, the acoustic guitar would turn into his main instrument, in which he would become one of the biggest names in the country.

In 1969, Gilberto Gil had another important album branded by the electric guitar, titled Gilberto Gil. In it, Lanny Gordin played the electric guitar, a musician who had turned a benchmark in Brazil, back then, for his free jazz and Jimi Hendrix influenced style.

When Gilberto Gil was forced by the military dictatorship to say goodbye to Brazil and go off to exile, Duprat finished the third album along with Lanny and his Giannini Super Sonic—a national electric guitar which ended up returning to the career of the singer in the 2000s, through the hands of his guitar player son, Bem Gil.

The electric guitar has never left Gil’s life, being played by the instrumentalists accompanying him: the Gibson is played by Perinho Santana and Sérgio Chiavazzoli; and the Fender is played by Celso Fonseca. Exiled in London, influenced by the boiling pot of the 1970s, he decided to learn how to play.

Hanging around bars and nightclubs such as Revolution, Round House, Speakeasy, and Marquee, Gil had watched idols and jammed (playing bongo drums or acoustic guitar) with big names of music: this is how he got to meet David Gilmour, from Pink Floyd.

Immersed in such a scenario where nylon strings were not headliners and seeing some of the greatest guitar players of history live, the singer decided to invest in electric guitars.

At a shop in Shaftesbury Avenue—where Eric Clapton used to go—the Brazilian bought his first electric guitar: a fancy ES-330, semi-acoustic, by Gibson, same model played by B. B. King and Brian Jones, from the Rolling Stones.

Back to Brazil in 1972, Gil kept investing in the band set up. Then, sharing his hands between the Gibson and the Di Giorgio acoustic guitar, the singer had recorded with Lanny Gordin (electric guitar), Tutty Moreno (drums), Perna Fróes (piano), and Bruce Henry (bass) the album Expresso 2222.

Gil would still play his first guitar up to the time around the album Raça Humana (1984) —it is pictured in a photo of the singer recording "Vamos fugir" with the Wailers’s bass player, Aston “Family Man” Barrett.

In 1975, when Gilberto Gil had initiated trilogy “Re” with Refazenda, looking to get back to his outland origins, the acoustic guitar briefly replaced the electric.

Always searching for novelties, the singer started using the acoustic guitars made by American brand Ovation, known for their carbon fiber bodies and built-in electronics—which made it possible for the musician to employ a pedalboard in his instrument, like a guitar.

Another possibility was opening up for the artist on stage with the instrument: with no need to keep the acoustic guitar close to a mic in order to amplify it, the singer would not need any more to perform sat or having the help of a stool.

His stage performance and interaction with audience was growing. He was one of the few instrumentists to own an Ovation in Brazil, which would later on be the go-to acoustic guitar of MPB names such as Caetano Veloso and Gonzaguinha.

In an interview to Revista Música magazine, in 1976, the singer said: “There are few of these in Brazil. Jorge Ben owns one, I own one and Odair José owns the third.”

The neon electric guitar accompanied Gil for the entire decade and toured the world. In addition to clips (such as the one of “O eterno Deus Mu Dança”), he used the G&L in his concerts in Tokyo (1986) and at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival (1985).

In addition to be used at the aforementioned concerts, it was also the acoustic guitar used in the memorable 20 Anos Luz (1987), O Poeta e O Esfomeado (with Jorge Mautner, 1987), and at Rock in Rio festival (1985).