After hearing The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Gilberto Gil filtered its sound and much more through his Brazilian ears to help create Tropicália, a musical form so powerful that the government occasionally imprisoned or attempted to blow up its more popular practitioners.
Times have changed, and Gil went on to enjoy an illustrious career as a musician and a statesman. In his past five years as Brazil's Minister of Culture, he formed an official partnership between Brazil and the Creative Commons, among other things.
In an hour-long press conference on Wednesday, Gil introduced his latest album, Banda Larga Cordel, which translates as "The Broadband Pamphlet" (Gil's band is called Broadband, in another tip of his hat to the digital revolution). He also had interesting answers to general questions about technology and the future of music.
The entire album preview is available below in the WMA streaming format.
I attended the press conference via videoconference and recorded the interview by holding a mic up to my speakers, but anelectrical hum that was part of the webcast makes it tough totranscribe. If a video of the interview doesn't appear online, I'll suffer through the electricalhum and post some choice excerpts. His takeson music sharing, culture mashing and where it's all heading are wellworth a listen (or, failing that, a read).
In the meantime, here's a full preview of every track on Banda Larga Cordel. Click only if you know what's good for your ears:
