Independence and Pride in Gil’s <i> Tropicalismo</i>

It took about 30 seconds for Gilberto Gil’s first Los Angeles appearance in nearly a decade to become a hip-shaking, body-vibrating dance party. He was preceded at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday by a colorful array of Brazilian performers, but they were clearly only the appetizers for the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s main course of non-stop rhythmic gusto. Gil’s music integrated samba, rock, jazz, funk, reggae, hip-hop and, no doubt, six or seven other current musical forms with a vigor and energy that were virtually impossible to resist. And it did so with style, sophistication and lyricism.

The point man for a post-bossa nova wave of rock-tinged, African-seasoned Brazilian music sometimes described as tropicalismo , Gil has been a significant figure in both the music and the politics of his native Bahia. As a political activist--an important aspect of his identity to Brazilians--Gil sang about independence and pride as often as he sang of love and passion. That he was performing in the colorful and boisterous arena of a musical party in no way diminished the power and impact of a music illuminated by what he has described as the “negritude” of black consciousness.