FORT LAUDERDALE – The Broward Center presents Gilberto Gil in The String Concert featuring Jaques Morelenbaum & Bem Gil in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, March 31 at 8 PM.
With Gil performing alongside his son Bem on guitar and cellist/producer/conductor Morelenbaum, the String Concert featuring acoustic versions of Gil’s hit songs is sure to surprise, entertain, inspire and sizzle.
For nearly five decades, Gil has had a key role in creating the popular music of Brazil and sharing it with the world. The singer, songwriter and guitarist has won seven Grammy Awards and has 12 gold records and five platinum records among his more than four dozen releases.
Beginning with the rhythms of northeastern Brazil’s ballad, samba and bossa nova, Gil made his own music, incorporating rock, reggae, funk and rhythms of Bahia, as afoxé. The topics of his compositions are also far-ranging including social inequality and racial issues, science, religion, and elements of Eastern, Western and Latin and African cultures.
A revolutionary musician, Morelenbaum also greatly influenced modern Brazilian pop music. He is best known for combining popular and orchestral music by adapting the cello for rock music. He has played alongside musical luminaries Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne.
Reviewing Gil in a 2008 concert appearance the New York Times applauded, “Before the songs began he described their rhythms with specificity; then he let them loose in a generalized, amiable pop, with overriding tastes of reggae or disco or rock. And over them he crooned, holler-chanted like a roots-reggae singer, turned sideways and flirtatiously moved his hips like a female samba dancer…everything was in sync, and the whole house moved to it.”
Gil’s international collaborations include many with the Caribbean music world. A 1980 tour with Jimmy Cliff filled football stadiums and Gil’s Brazilian version of the Bob Marley song "No Woman, No Cry" hit number one in Brazil and sold 700,000 copies. Gil returned to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, where he had found fame in 1978, to perform in a reggae evening with Jimmy Cliff. Gil also appeared in the Rock in Rio music festival at Carnegie Hall with Al Jarreau, James Taylor and George Benson, among others.
In the '60s, Gil and Caetano Veloso created Tropicalismo. The movement’s pop culture themes and social issues lead the government to suppress the music and exile the two men. Gil later returned to Brazil and was appointed Minister of Culture of Brazil in 2002.
Gil contributes to the constant modernization of Brazilian popular music and culture throughout the world. Four years ago, as Minister of Culture, he signed a historic agreement naming the Broward Center as the first performing arts center to be named as a Brazilian Point of Culture in the United States. As a Point of Culture, the Broward Center helps to amplify Brazilian culture in all its many forms throughout the South Florida presenting a variety of Brazilian performances and educational events. “We are thrilled that the Gilberto Gil comes to the Broward Center’s AuRene Theater with this outstanding performance,” said Kelley Shanley, President/CEO of the Broward Center. “It represents a highlight of our season and the culmination of years of exciting collaborative work with the Brazilian community.”
Tickets are $29, $39, $49, $59 and $69. Tickets and group discounts are available through the Broward Center’s box office at 954/462-0222 or www.BrowardCenter.org. The Broward Center for the Performing Arts is located in the Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District at 201 SW Fifth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.
Source: www.browardcenter.org
