Gilberto Gil says “adeus” to ministerial post

Seminal Brazilian singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil quit from his post as culture minister after working for nearly five years. “I felt a big pressure on my artistic work that was accumulating,” Gil said as his third stab at resigning in less than a year was accepted by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva earlier today.

Despite being such a well-known performer, Gil’s musical career has always had a political slant since he helped found the Tropicalismo movement in the 1960's.

During Gil’s time as cultural minister, he promoted treasures such as capoeira and samba while bringing to light “neglected forms of cultural expression” like indigenous painting. At times he faced controversy such as when he backed the free online downloading of music. (Coincidentally, he publicly announced his resignation during “a conference on authorial rights in Rio de Janeiro.”)

Gil will continue to keep performing concerts worldwide and will surely promote unity via music as he did in one recent performance:

(…)"bringing people together"—and all the happy incongruities that old-fashioned ideal implies—has been Gil's tack for over 35 years…

(His) set fixated on themes of communication and interrelation. To start, his band built a spidery funk song from a ringtone (rather than the other way around), a gesture that encapsulated both his ruminative bent and his cheeky sensibility… His occasional corniness, though, makes him a more believably humanistic David Byrne: someone thrilled enough by the way people come together to join in, rather than organize a grant-funded multimedia installation about it.

Image- wired.com

Sources- AFP, BBC News, Bloomberg, Village Voice, Xinhua, PBS, cnet.com

De Musica Ligera: The return

It has been months since the last time we wrote our post exclusively on music. Let’s take a quick a look at some recent music news that has caught our attention:

* Dominican singer/songwriter Juan Luis Guerra was the big winner in last week’s Latin Grammy Awards after winning an award for each of his five nominations. Other award winners included Calle 13 and Pepe Aguilar, along with personal favorites Aterciopelados and Manu Chao.

Fellow contributor Maegan la Mala was at the event last Thursday in Las Vegas and she gave her two cents from the press room in this blog post.

YouTube: Juan Luis Guerra – “La Llave de Mi Corazon”

* Mexican rockeros Café Tacuba are set to begin a U.S. tour starting this Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this brief interview, vocalist Emmanuel Del Real admits that their latest album is “more rock-oriented” than previous efforts and expressed pride at the group’s fans.

YouSendIt: Café Tacuba – Arboles Frutales

* An article from Billboard notes the change in music tastes in Spain as a result of the boom in immigration from Latin America to that country. For instance, music sales for Latin music have soared since Spain's foreign-born population uses cellular phones and roughly four out of five digital sales are done via cell phones.

YouTube: Alejandro Fernandez and Beyonce - “Amor Gitano”

* Another piece from Billboard notes that crossover Spanish-language hits in the U.S. have been far and few between. Moreover, the only songs that do crossover and become hits in the mainstream music scene are those that are “tied to an uptempo, easy-to-dance-to track” according to Leila Cobo.

YouTube: N.O.R.E. featuring Daddy Yankee - “Oye Mi Canto”

* Famed Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil is going to quit from his post as culture minister next year. Local media reports said that his resignation will be due to a polyp on his vocal cords which may sadly put a halt to his illustrious music career.

YouSendIt: Gilberto Gil – "Bat Macumba"

* Lastly, just for the hell of it, an ode to Mexican-American singer Hope Sandoval - Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You”:

Sources- YouSendIt, YouTube, Wikipedia, Associated Press, Wikipedia, Reuters, Scientific American, VivirLatino, Boston Herald