Gilberto Gil as a role model

Celso Fonseca got here referred by someone and then referred Serginho Chiavazzoli when he left the band. It turns out that Serginho turned into one of the strings instrumentist more intimately connected to my style. 

Bassist Arthur Maia, who passed in 2018, played with Lulu Santos, Ney Matogrosso, Lobão, Marina Lima. He recorded solo albums and made history in Brazilian music with his Cama de Gato band. His enviable portfolio included a time in the Culture Secretary of Niterói City, where he lived.

Yet ask any MBP fan what is Arthur most famous for and the answer will certainly be: as Gilberto Gil’s bassist, with whom he went up on stage for decades, playing historic concerts, such as Tropicália 2, sided with Caetano Veloso.

Arthur, who also had a rock band with drummer Pedro Gil (Egotrip, in the late 1980s), son of Gilberto Gil, used to be asked to stay closer to the audience, so that he could play longer solos in songs like Palco.

Arthur, who was posthumously honored by Gil in the celebrations of Niterói’s 446 years, in November 2019, is one of the musicians that have regarded Gil’s as a role model, an artist who works compositions exhaustedly and love rehearsals and the road.

In the picture, Gilberto Gil in a special appearance in a bassist’s concert, in 2012.

Pepeu Gomes, who would be up on the stage with Gil in the concert Barra 69, in Bahia, just before Gil and Caetano leaving for exile, had his professional lived changed by Gil.

He was a bassist of the group Os Leif’s, when Gil presented him with the compilation album Smash Hits, by Jimi Hendrix. He found the American guitar player to be an idol. “I heard the album so many times that I went to bed a bassist and woke up a guitar player,” he said. That was thanks to Hendrix and to Gil, who acted as a connection.

It was during this tour that Chiquinho rescued a kid from drowning in Recife. The musician will be forever linked to Gil, as the Bahia-born has told this history in the song Chiquinho Azevedo.

Celso Fonseca, guitar player and songwriter, also became a famous Gil squire after the 1980s. At 24 years old, he premiered in Gil’s band and, as soon as in 1982, recorded the album Um Banda Um.

He also co-produced O Eterno Deus Mu Dança album, in 1989. It took him a few years for him to uncover his singer and songwriter vocation, and he hit the charts in 1986 with “Sorte,” a partnership with Ronaldo Bastos in the voices of Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso.

He also worked on MTV Unplugged, in partnership with Arthur Maia.

Another name connected to Gil’s work is Sérgio Chiavazzoli, an experienced guitar player, violinist, and mandolinist, who had played before with singers such as Oswaldo Montenegro prior to joining Gil’s band, and had been a music teacher.

It has been quite a ride for a musician who had been among the founders of his hometown Niterói’s first musical truck.

Bahia-born Gustavo Di Dalva is a gifted percussionist, present in Gil’s projects since the 1990s, when he played in some tracks of the double album Quanta.

Bem’s arrival in his father’s work brought more people to the band: Bruno di Lullo, for instance, a bassist that had played with Bem in the band Tono, and is now part of Bem’s personal projects.