Product: Acustico MTV: Gilberto Gil (1994)
Rating: 5.0
Superb performance plus DVD special features
This session was broadcast on Brazilian MTV in 1994. Gil at that time had been a major star for decades, performing some of these songs since early in his career. Here he rises above a stodgy MTV studio setting to deliver note-perfect performances with a superb backup group. The audio quality is good, though not as good as the audio-only CD of this same session (hearing that CD, without video, you can hardly believe it's a live session, the recording and performance are so clean).The DVD has some fine special features. Buried in the Audio menu is an option for Gil's Commentaries which turns on voice-overs of him discussing each song. Subtitles are available for the commentaries, or for the actual song lyrics. The commentaries illuminate the theme of each song and its cultural backdrop. We learn that "Aquele Abraco," for instance, is a joyful stream of sense impressions and TV-slang going through Gil's mind as he reenters Rio after two years of prison and exile.