Gilberto Gil

A national icon in both music and politics, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Gilberto Gil helped expand the language of Brazilian music through his role in the Tropicália movement and elsewhere. Born Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira in Bahia, he developed an early interest in baião music that prompted him to become an accordion player; however, he moved to guitar due to the influence of bossa nova progenitor João Gilberto. Gil became associated with Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé—radically minded artists who drew inspiration from North American musical traditions and psychedelia. Gil built out an adventurous, successful, and now-legendary discography in the late ’60s and ’70s, including his celebrated 1975 record of acoustic jams with Jorge Ben, Gil e Jorge, and 1977’s African-pop-informed Refavela. In the late ’80s, he began an active political career—in the mid-2000s, he served as the country’s minister of culture—but without slowing down his musical output. Up through his eighties, he recorded regularly, exploring styles like reggae, forró, and samba.