Globetrotters Committee member Tony, a professional photographer and journalist writes:
Going home in a black cab in London, not surprising, but being dropped home by the ‘Minister Of Culture’ certainly was. Gilberto Gil a great Brazilian singer and now a Minister, was in London to give a presentation in the ‘Collyer-Bristow Gallery in Bedford Row.
He was here to launch ‘ondAzul’ founder of the charity that helps bring clean and unpolluted water to many parts of Brazil a country that has the most water in the world but at the same time some of the most polluted.
I was invited by Joao Fortes, a good friend who had helped me arrange permission to go and visit ‘Yawanawa’ tribe in the deep Amazon some years ago, so I have first hand experience of many trips to Brazil.
A very Brazilian affair in a very old established English
Lawyers Gallery. After a short presentation, a video on
flat screens round the Gallery, Gilberto Gil picked up his
guitar and this place became the Latin Quarter. He slowly
built up this very different audience of Diplomats, M.P.s,
Environmentalists and Lawyers into a group with many of
them singing along with some of his songs especially the
ones he wrote while in exile in London. The pace quickened
and joining in was Jim Capaldi the well known drummer, but
not with drums but making his mouth a bass and drum rhythm
section and he certainly helped drive it along. One of the
Partners told me the place had never been so alive and with
the wine flowing, the music playing, this did not feel like
a winter night in London but a music bar back in the warmth
of Rio. Sometimes you can travel without going
anywhere.
So this is how after BBC World Service and other interviews, I found myself in a cab with Joao and Gilberto, heading back to town. Very, very early flights for them and a lie in bed for me. If you’d like to find out more about Gil, you can visit his website: www.gilbertogil.com.br
For more information, see; www.ondazul.org.br
March is Brazil month in Selfridges, London. www.selfridges.com