No other Brazilian recording with solo guitar was, probably, as successful from the commercial point of view, or as regards cultural influence as was the Dilermano Reis 78 r.p.m. recording in the early fifties with "Abismos de Rosas" (An Abyss of Roses) on one side and the "Sons de Carrilhões" (The Sound of the Bells) on the other.
In this recording, the all-popular guitar was implicitly invested with the dignity of a concert instrument, an achievement on a par with Villa-Lobos' dream, cherished in his beautiful "choros", in tones that were deliberately popular, written especially for this instrument. The guitar was formerly in use almost exclusively by amateurs, or in the rhythm section of small groups, most of the time, with a great deal of originality and inventiveness, acting as bass (even before the more intensive use of a guitar with seven strings).
With João Gilberto, as from the late fifties, and then as a matter of course, the guitar brought together two vocations, shared by ancestral Iberian kin, namely that of solo instrument and as accompaniment, to the benefit of our more popular kind of music, the samba, rendering it more complex from the conceptual, harmonic, and rhythmic point of view, contributing structurally towards devising the most musical, original, and sophisticated means of singing popular music in Portuguese, and one of the most beautiful and personal ways to sing in any language.
This event was at the same time, a turn-about, a step ahead in the development of this very domestic instrument, and had a bearing (and still does) in several ways on all of us who already played or who began to play the guitar. This made it, quite naturally so, I insist, the main feature within our professional musical environment, even when it was played together with male or female singers.
In the case of João's guitar, with the left hand, the harmony rings out plasma-like, together with the voice. Each chord sounds like a note, unique, brilliant, firm, such is the need and integrity of its composition to form a true submelody both in the sense of one other voice, as in that subtle "melody of the tone colors" that the impressionists referred to. The right hand pulses actively, at the same time, dividing and subdividing the bars, establishing a single rhythmic uno, on the same or on different planes to that which it accompanies and by which it is many times, even, accompanied.
At this same time, nylon strings were adopted throughout with a sound less brilliant than that of steel, but that afford more concise execution, with use of fingers and nails free of reeds and plectra.
Gilberto Gil, a born musician, so very versatile, began playing everything on the accordeon and later changed over to the guitar because of this bossa nova of João's. First, by reproducing the innovating techniques and the characteristic "beat" of the samba and after, by adapting the all that he played before and whatever else came his way, that is: baião, xotes, frevo, and marches, old-fashioned samba, rock, afoxé, reggae, etc., to his new instrument, developing a rich style, unique, wide in scope, strongly influential, contributing to the development of the use of guitars within and beyond popular music. And I shall say in what way.
First, with increased rhythmic-percussive possibilities, utilizing the fingers of the right hand, with exception of the little finger (used only by some rare classical guitarists), in a form that is almost independent, developing different pulsing lines, that are nevertheless complementary, with a sound like a complex polyphonic "kitchen" (listen to "Expresso 2222" : Sound 347 KB). Gil is skillful and original also in use of the reed.
Second, by disengaging the left hand. That is, very often, a chord (a convenient combination of "voices") on his guitar becomes at most, only a starting point to play and the confluence of notes that follows, becomes dependent on the need for expression of each piece of music in particular. In this plan, tonality and atonality, consonance and dissonance may co-exist normally and, consequently, may precipitate greater use of the arm of the guitar and of its sound range, from the deepest area to the most acute, incorporating, also, some "modes" characteristic of "caipira" folk guitars (listen to "Jurubeba" : Sound 241 KB).
Besides all of this, the way Gil chooses and uses the bass notes on the guitar is remarkable for its wealth, not only in his improvisation, but in arrangements for music from other composers and, also, in composing his own songs (listen to "Vitrines" : Sound 298 KB or the dazzling "Esotérico" : Som 432 KB) that links him to that traditional function of the instrument to which I referred above, as its continuator, enriching and innovating. These "frameworks" are true musical pieces brimming with imagination, surprise, precision, swing, clarity, and distinction. In fact, of all there can be of good in any art.
It is said that Gilberto Gil has ties with the baroque style. Concerning the nature of his guitar, this is absolutely true, in the measure in which various melodic-rhythmic voices of different heights may sing out simultaneously through the guitar. And this is pure music, and in a general way, the essence of any music, and it was this, also, that motivated Debussy's ironic challenge: "Why harmony, if the greatest composer of all times, J. S. Bach, never used harmony?"
In any case, what is of interest to me here, mainly, is the use and development of the guitar in the context of our own popular music and the contribution and advancement that the two Gilbertos bring to us (although I do believe that Gil's guitar should be in far greater evidence in his records) to play this instrument that, among us, from the start was given a name in its augmentative form ("violão"), as if to herald the importance of the guitar.
by Péricles Cavalcanti