Something wonderful happened in Brazil in the late 1960s. Stevie Wonder's soul-funk, Bob Marley's revolutionary reggae, and the smooth bossa nova of Joao Gilberto came together in one person: Brazil's irreplaceable Gilberto Gil.
As a youth raised in rural Bahia, Gil was intoxicated by the bossa
Percussion drums, those essential and heavenly instruments of Latin rhythm, cover the stage: they emit an unexpected presence, like silent band members waiting to come alive. The buzzing current in the air tastes sweet like brown sugar, but also hints at crackling spice. The crowd awaits a genius, a
Bach achieved a religious, mathematical, and musical ideal: he combined extreme complexity with impeccable stability, at once defining and surpassing Baroque ideals. From painting to music to architecture, the arts of the Baroque era took embellishment to its limit without surrendering harmony or uni