"The String Concert and the Rhythm Machines"

Singing a refined repertoire, Gilberto Gil presents very intimate arrangements, in what could be considered a string concert. After inviting his son, guitarist Bem Gil, to join his acclaimed voice and guitar concert Gil Luminoso and to record and perform with him on "BandaDois" album and DVD, Gil decided to create a more complete harmony inviting maestro and cellist Jaques Morelenbaum to participate in the project.

The trio takes us to a dreamlike subversion of the space-time notion, to a dreamy atmosphere, where an impeccable ode-to-sensations soundtrack resides.
As a good dream should, all is new where all is connected, where instincts are familiar. Emotions are polished through melodic guitar phrases, in words we keep down deep in the brain, chants we evoke from the bottom of the heart, and new chants on the voice of Gilberto Gil, the reverence son-father and the blessing from father to son that surrounds the beautiful union of melodic and rhythmic guitar of his son, Bem Gil, and at the one man orchestra of Jaques Morelenbaum.

Two new elements sew an even more challenging ensemble. In 2012, the French violinist Nicolas Krassik, a Brazilian soul musician, son of the famous French tradition of jazz violinists, and Gil's longtime percussionist, Gustavo di Dalva, with his rhythmic cadence along with the electronic rhythmic machines present a fluid movement of the ancient and the modern encounter.

It is a concert where every single note and gesture is preserved and punctuated.

Gil's biography

Gilberto Gil carries out a fundamental role in the constant modernization process of Brazilian popular music. Partaking of this scene for 46 years, he has developed one of the most relevant and renown careers as a singer, composer and guitar-player in this field. Gil has had his albums released abroad since 1978, the year of his successful performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Switzerland, recorded live. Every year he tours Europe, North America, Latin America and Japan with his contagious pop music spoken in portuguese-brazilian and international language. A music with a strong rhythmic appeal and melodic richness, as mixed as its people.

Rhythms from the northeast of Brazil like the baião, apart from samba and bossa-nova were fundamental in his formation. Using them as a starting point, Gil forged his own music to which he incorporated rock, reggae, funk and rhythms from Bahia such as afoxé. Gil has tackled a wide variety of issues in his lyrics, pertinent to modern reality: from social inequality to the racial question, from African to Oriental culture, from science to religion, among others. The mastership with which Gil explores these subjects makes him one of the greatest Brazilian composer-lyricists.

Gil's importance to the culture of his country goes back to the 60's, when he and Caetano Veloso created Tropicalism. Radically innovative in the music scene, the movement assimilated pop culture to national genres; deeply critical on political and moral levels, Tropicalism ended up being repressed by the authoritarian regime. Gil and Caetano were imprisoned and exiled.
In London, Gil recorded an album in English for the local Philips. When he returned to Brazil, he began a series of anthological records in the 70's: "Expresso 2222", "Gil Jorge" (with Jorge Ben Jor), "Os Doces Bárbaros" (with the baianos Caetano, Gal Costa and Maria Bethânia) and a conceptual trilogy made up by "Refazenda" (of country extraction), "Refavela" (with rhythms from Jamaica, Nigeria, Rio and Bahia) and "Realce". The latter, recorded in Los Angeles, fixed his option for pop music, which would direct the outcome of his work in the 80's. In the 90's came "Parabolicamará", "Tropicália 2", (a celebration, with Caetano, of the 25 years of the Tropicalist movement), and "Unplugged", (a collection of successes, recorded live for MTV). In 1997, the double CD Quanta was released. In 1998, "Quanta gente veio ver" won the Grammy Award. In 2000 - "Eu Tu Eles" and "São João Vivo". In 2002 - "Kaya N'Gandaya", a CD and a DVD after a worldwide Tour became an alive CD. In 2004, Eletracustico (an alive CD and DVD) was the result of Gil´s concert at ONU in NY and as Gil is commited as Brasil´s Minister of Culture he decided to record in Rio, to seal his journey into politics, being the same sensible Gil

In 2006, the Biscoito Fino label re-released the álbum with the title “Gil Luminoso – voice and guitar”, a CD that was recorded in 1999 to be packaged with the book “Giluminoso – A PoÉtica do Ser”, by Bené Fonteles. The book was an homage to Gil with more than 50 lyrics by the songwriter, photographs and a long statement from Gilberto Gil. The Gil Luminoso tour, one of the most beautiful of his career, traveled to Europe and the United States.

In2008, Gilberto Gil released "Banda Larga Cordel", reaffirming his irreversible engagement with the new rules and compasses of the universe of bits and bytes – a theme that hás fascinated him for more than 30 years – where Gil makes his work widely available for webcasts, podcasts, cellcasts, etc. The shows had warm invitation to photograph and film what one wants and however much one wants. Backstage scenes from the tour were posted on the internet in diverse platforms from a specially-created hot site.

In November 2009, Gil went on a European tour that lasted 32 days (15 shows in 9 countries) with the show “The String Concert” where he performs with his son Bem Gil, an impressive surprise in the new Brazilian music scene, and the outstanding musician and arranger Jaques Morelenbaum.

Still in the year 2009, in December, the new CD/DVD "Bandadois" was released, recorded live in September, at Bradesco Theatre in Sao Paulo and directed by Andrucha Waddington. The show, vocals and guitars, had as special guests Maria Rita and his sons Bem, who has been touring with him for a while, on guitar and the youngest in the family José, who surprised the audience by joining in playing bass on a few songs.