>>Sal Masekela: I read a quote. When you were
2 years old, you said to your mother, "I am
going to be a musician and a father of many
children."
>>Gilberto Gil: Yeah.
>>Sal Masekela: How did that work out for
you?
>>Gilberto Gil: Both. Well, well done, good.
Yeah, musikero. I used to say to my mother,
"I want to be a musikero," instead of a musician,
a musikero. That was child language.
And when I was 10, she reminded me, You "told
me when you were 2 that you were going to
be a musician. Still on that?" I said yes.
Then she sent me to a music school --
>>Sal Masekela: Wow.
>>Gilberto Gil: -- to learn how to play accordion
and then guitar and then everything and then
a career. At the age of 22 I produced my first
child which was, yeah, one, two, three, four,
five -- eight.
[ Laughter ]
So achievement.
>>Sal Masekela: Well done. That's pretty cool.
>>Gilberto Gil: She's fun. She's 9 -- she
is going to be 98.
>>Sal Masekela: And she is still with us?
[ Applause ]
>>Gilberto Gil: Still with us. She always
reminds me, "You told me you were going to
be a musician and father."
[ Laughter ]
>>Gilberto Gil: She's sound and safe back
in -- beautiful, beautiful lady.
>>Sal Masekela: That's fantastic. At what
point did you start to realize that music
was going to have a deeper power for you than
just entertainment?
>>Gilberto Gil: The first -- from very early,
as I just mentioned the episode in my child
times. I mean, I knew that music was going
to be very important for me, for myself, because
I had already sort of a hint, you know, that
music was very important for everybody.
So I felt that I would like to be a musician,
to give my contribution. And I started doing
it.
And then we got in Brazil the times where
military men took over the power, you know,
and started a dictatorship, a military regime.
And that was the time the whole Brazilian
music community got together to use the powers
of music to fight the regime, to have the
possibility to reinstall democracy, to regain
the game for the Brazilian society.
And that was the time we all sort of realized
how strong and how powerful music can be,
not only for addressing messages, you know,
or provoking or asking people to come -- for
some thing, for some kind of struggle but
also by nourishing daily, you know, the lives
of millions and millions and millions and
millions of people with energy, with this
pleasure to be alive and that sort of thing
despite of all suffering, all the pain of
all hassles of life.
I mean, music and many other forms of life,
of art and entertainment. But music, especially,
can give the people that sense, can -- of
-- of well-being, you know? Despite of all
matters.
>>Sal Masekela: How did the military government
react to your message and the message of your
peers and during the '60s and that Tropicalia
movement?
>>Gilberto Gil: Me, and not only me, but many
other colleagues, we were obliged to leave
the country. First imprisoned, you know? I
was imprisoned for almost three months.
>>Sal Masekela: Wow.
>>Gilberto Gil: Yeah, in Rio. And after that
I was in sort of a confinement, home confinement
in Bahia, my hometown, for six months. And
then they asked me to leave the country in
sort of a soft unofficial exile.
>>Sal Masekela: Soft exile.
>>Gilberto Gil: Yeah. I stayed in London for
three years and got back when the whole Brazilian
society was starting to be able to know to
sort of restore democracy in Brazil. That
was restored in '78. And we've been trying
to build a new democracy in Brazil since then.
>>Sal Masekela: What is that like? I know
my father was politically exiled.
>>Sal Masekela: Also in South Africa.
>>Sal Masekela: For 30 years from South Africa
because he spoke out against the apartheid
regime.
>>Gilberto Gil: I had a similar situation.
>>Sal Masekela: I know for him it broke his
heart to have to leave his home, but he used
it to tell people the story about his country.
>>Gilberto Gil: In his case it was harder
because he had to stay long, long, long -- many
years, no? At least 20 years.
>>Sal Masekela: 30 years.
>>Gilberto Gil: 30 years out. It only took
me three years to be out of Brazil and then
back. But it's always hard. But the examples
of exiled men and women all over the globe
because of political matters, do you know?
It's a long, long, long book about that. I
mean, it's hard. But it's necessary. I mean,
when we feel that the value of freedom, of
democracy, liberty and everything, it's -- it's
a more valuable value than any other thing.
I mean, we get strong enough to fight. And
that happened with us in Brazil with your
father, Miriam Makeba, and so many others
in South Africa. And it's happening always.
It's happening now concerning some Arab countries.
You know, it happened for the times of the
union, the Soviet Union and that area. I mean,
it's -- it happened for any -- many other
South American countries like Chile, Argentina,
and other -- Uruguay and other places. It's
necessary.
You know? It's part of life.
>>Sal Masekela: Yeah. You would go back home
to Brazil and find a life, of course, in music
again. But also in politics.
>>Gilberto Gil: Yeah, a bit, a bit, yeah.
A little bit. When I got back to Brazil, I
-- I got together with some fellows in my
hometown, Salvador. Some of them became politicians.
And one of them became a mayor of the City
of Salvador. Then I asked him -- that was
the time that Gorbachev was doing the perestroika
in Russia, in the Soviet Union. And that gave
me a sense of hope, a sense of -- you know,
new possibilities for politics all over the
globe. Then I asked the fellows in Bahia to
give me a place in the government there. So
they asked me to join. I was cultural secretary
for the City of Salvador in 1988. 1988, '89.
And then later, when President Lula was elected
president in Brazil, he asked me to be minister
of culture for the whole country. And I accepted.
Because I think that was an exceptional, very
important moment for -- in the Brazilian history.
And provided that he thought that I could
give a contribution, I said okay.
Let me join him and do something. We managed
to. For six years I was minister of culture
in Brazil. Yeah.
>>Sal Masekela: And probably one of the only
ministers of culture in any country to win
a Grammy while you're actually sitting as
minister.
[ Laughter ]
>>Gilberto Gil: While in the office, yes.
>>Sal Masekela: Because, unfortunately, I
asked -- and he agreed, President Lula, to
be able -- I told him, President, give me
the possibility of having some licenses sometimes.
License that anyway, public servants they
are allowed to have one month license every
year. And I asked him, "Every year you give
me one month license that I can go back to
music.
You know? Go to Europe, go to Africa, go to
America, do my music." And he said, "Yes,
you can do it." And that's when I recorded
an album during the ministerial period. And
the academy here in L.A. considered me --
>>Sal Masekela: Yes, congratulations. Talk
to me now about your vision for the country
and the work that you're doing with music
and culture as a whole with culture points.
>>Gilberto Gil: Brazil is, of course -- I
mean, any nation somehow has the dream of
being a power -- you know? -- in the traditional
sense of the word.
I think that Brazilians -- Brazilian population
and Brazilian governments also -- and Brazilian
productive sector, you know, the industry
and everything, they want Brazil to be a power
in the traditional sense.
But more and more, step-by-step, we move into
a different feeling, a different sense that
Brazil has to be a power but not a traditional
one, has to be kind of a soft power, a cultural
power, a spiritual power. Because we are very
-- we are very much into arts, into entertainment,
into celebrating life and so and so and so
and so.
So I think that Brazil, maybe, I hope, can
give the world a contribution that is not
so classical in terms of power, you know,
not following the tradition of being a power
in the sense of the arms and, you know, and
the guns and the bombs and the -- you know,
that sort of thing. I think that Brazil can
be a cultural power provided that we also
can develop a good economy that we can occupy
a place, you know, in the culture of the nation's
-- economically, politically. But the contribution
that we actually -- I think that we are able
to give to the world is a cultural contribution,
you know, in terms of a spirit, you know?
That sense of life as something that is worth
living, the taste for life, you know, the
taste for things that we can enjoy, that we
can -- that can -- you know? -- that can entertain
us, that can give us a sense of joy. Yeah.
I think Brazil -- I hope Brazil is going to
play a role in that kind of joy, power.
>>Sal Masekela: Well, you are a sterling example
of that joy. And thank you so much for sharing
with us today.
>>Gilberto Gil: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>>Sal Masekela: Gilberto Gil.
