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AP
Gilberto Gil, until yesterday Brazil's Minister of Culture, at the Montreux, Switzerland, Jazz Festival earlier this month.

When Gilberto Gil became his country's Minister of Culture in 2003, the gig must have been more than sweet to the Brazilian musician who had been arrested, along with his bandmate Caetano Veloso, by Brazil's military government in 1969. Gil and Veloso's fusion of bossa nova and rock called Tropicalism would influence many other musicians, but their political lyrics back then led to his imprisonment and eventual exile for a few years to London.

Now, AFP reports, Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil leaves politics for music. At 66, that gig is over for him, and he's shaking off the office that interfered too much with the music -- he was asked to play only in his free time, and had to ask permission to tour abroad.

I watched a lot of YouTube in the last hour, and finally selected the video below of a much younger Gil playing an acoustic gig for its energy and sound quality. Many of his recordings stream free at his site, though, and these are a better way to hear the music.

Found along the way: AP moved the photo above of Gil playing at the venerable Montreux (Switzerland) Jazz Festival earlier this month. Looking for the link, I found a trove of videos (unembeddable) and a streaming playlist at that Google translation of the festival site from French to English. Gil does a laid-back Girl From Ipanema. Other videos catch Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons (of ZZ Top), Joe Jackson, Sheryl Crow, John Mayall, Otis Taylor, Robert Cray, Tower of Power, Chaka Khan, Das Pop, The Crusaders & Funk Unit with Nils Landgren, Madness, Mick Hucknall ("a song about Fannie Mae and the recession" called Poverty), Ryan Bingham, Neon Neon and more.

Bonus: Carlos Santana et Buddy Guy get down together at Montreux in 1974. Sweet AND smokin'.

 Tags  Gilberto Gil jazz

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