Gilberto Gil (1968) CD

Brazilian singer-songwriter and Tropicalia pioneer Gilberto Gil made his self-titled 1971 album during the period when he and compatriot Caetano Veloso were political exiles in England. Like Veloso's contemporaneous work, the album is balanced between hippie-era optimism and a melancholy longing for home (the latter exemplified most obviously in a cover of the Blind Faith song "Can't Find My Way Home"). A mostly acoustic affair (except for the full-band rave-up of the tongue-in-cheek "Crazy Pop Rock"), the album mixes modified bossa nova rhythms with folk-rock influences and a pronounced psychedelic side (see "Three Mushrooms" and the bonus-track live versions of Hendrix and Beatles tunes).

By 1968, the Brazilian Tropicalia movement was well under way. Young upstarts like the genre-bending Os Mutantes and the provocative chanteuse Gal Costa had released landmark full-lengths, while Jorge Ben, the elder statesman of Brazilian pop, demonstrated his support of Tropicalia with the lush, psychedelic JORGE BEN. Also in 1968, Gilberto Gil released his second full-length, GILBERTO GIL (FREVO RASGADO), a multi-hued concoction that married samba rhythms to the far-out sonic experimentation then being pioneered by Pink Floyd and the Beatles. Though the mournful orchestration and whispered vocals of tunes like the celebratory "Domingo No Parque" and the lovestruck "Luiza Luluza" are perhaps a shade more well mannered than the unrestrained cacophony of Gilberto's debut, they must have seemed nothing less than revolutionary to the young people of Brazil. Gil's sophomore outing is one of the high points of his career and represents a vital chapter in Brazilian musical history.

Gilberto Gil's second album is packed with some of the best songs of his career -- jubilant pop extravaganzas like "Domingo No Parque," "Pega a Voga, Cabeludo," and "Frevo Rasgado" that were equally inspired by the irresistible, brassy bombast of Carnaval and intelligent rock & roll from America and Britain. Even more than the other tropicalistas, though, Gil blends his rock and native influences seamlessly, resulting in songs like "Ele Falava Nisso Todo Dia" that chart an intriguing fusion of Brazilian and British Invasion (before he breaks into Portuguese for the first verse, the intro sounds exactly like a few early Rolling Stones productions). Gil's occasional backing band, the teenage tropicalia breakouts known as Os Mutantes, join in on the feel-good Brazilian pop anthem "Domingou." Enjoyable and never as experimental as his work would soon become, Gilberto Gil 1968 is one of the best tropicalia albums ever released. [Water's reissue appeared in 2008.] ~ John Bush

The second album from this legend (and current Brazilian Minister of Culture) is one of the earliest, and most important, documents of the Tropicalia movement. Featuring help from Sao Paulo eccentric geniuses, Os Mutantes, Gil's 1968 release marries Brit

Liner Note Author: Michael Saltzman.

Director: Rogerio Duprat.

Arranger: Rogerio Duprat.