Editing Gilberto Gil (section)

== Early life (1942–1963) ==
Gil was born in [[Salvador, Bahia|Salvador]] and spent much of his childhood in [[Ituaçu]]. Ituaçu was a small town of fewer than a thousand people, located in the [[sertão]], or countryside, of Bahia.<ref name=katz>{{cite journal |last=Katz |first=David |author-link=David Katz (author) |author2=Gil, Gilberto |date=July–August 2009 |title=Truth to Power |journal=[[Wax Poetics]] |issue=36 |pages=48–60 |publisher=Wax Poetics, Inc. |location=[[Brooklyn]], New York City |issn=1537-8241 }}</ref> His father, José Gil Moreira, was a doctor; his mother, Claudina Passos Gil Moreira, an elementary school teacher.<ref name=katz/><ref name=tepel>{{cite web |url=http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?3800 |title=Gilberto Gil |access-date=2008-03-15 |last=Tepel |first=Oliver |date=August 7, 2006 |work=The international artist database |publisher=culturebase.net |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061120012716/http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?3800 |archive-date=November 20, 2006 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> As a young boy, he attended a [[Marist Brothers]] school.<ref>Veloso (2003), p. 180</ref> Gil remained in Ituaçu until he was nine years old, returning to Salvador for secondary school.

Gil's interest in music was precocious: "When I was only two or two and a half", he recalled, "I told my mother I was going to become a musician or president of my country".<ref name=quinn>{{cite news |first=Mike |last=Quinn |title=Mixing Miami With Copacabana |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A73901 |work=[[The Austin Chronicle]] |date=September 17, 1999 |access-date=2008-03-24 }}</ref> He grew up listening to the [[forró]] music of his native northeast,<ref name=tepel/> and took an interest in the street performers of Salvador.<ref name=skelly>{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6573/biography|pure_url=yes}} |title=Biography |access-date=2008-03-16 |last=Skelly |first=Richard |work=[[AllMusic]] |publisher=[[All Media Guide]]}}</ref> Early on, he began to play the drums and the trumpet, through listening to Bob Nelson on the radio.<ref name=tourneen>{{cite web |url=http://www.ejn.it/mus/gil.htm |title=Gilberto Gil |access-date=2008-03-16 |last=Tourneen |first=Saudades |work=Europe Jazz Network |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321161024/http://www.ejn.it/mus/gil.htm |archive-date=March 21, 2008 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Gil's mother was the "chief supporter" in his musical ambitions; she bought him an [[accordion]] and, when he was ten years old, sent him to music school in Salvador which he attended for four years.<ref name=katz/><ref name=quinn/> As an accordionist, Gil first played classical music, but grew more interested in the folk and popular music of Brazil.<ref name=katz/> He was particularly influenced by singer and accordion player [[Luiz Gonzaga]]; he began to sing and play the accordion in an emulation of Gonzaga's recordings.<ref name=wald>Wald (2007), pp. 113–116</ref> Gil has noted that he grew to identify with Gonzaga "because he sang about the world around [him], the world that [he] encountered".<ref name="myers">{{cite journal|last=Myers|first=Robert|author2=Gil, Gilberto|year=1990|title=Brazilian Popular Music in Bahia: 'The Politics of the Future': An Interview with Gilberto Gil|journal=Studies in Latin American Popular Culture|location=[[Austin, Texas]]|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|volume=9|pages=298–311|issn=0730-9139}}<!--|access-date=2010-07-27 --></ref>

During his years in Salvador, Gil encountered the music of songwriter [[Dorival Caymmi]], who he says represented to him the "beach-oriented" samba music of Salvador.<ref name=myers/> Gonzaga and Caymmi were Gil's formative influences.<ref name=katz/> While in Salvador, Gil was introduced to many other styles of music, including American [[big band]] jazz and [[tango music|tango]].<ref name=myers/> In 1950 Gil moved back to Salvador with his family. It was there, while in high school, that he joined his first band, Os Desafinados ("The Out of Tunes"), in which he played accordion and vibraphone and sang.<ref name=katz/> Os Desafinados was influenced by American rock and roll musicians like Elvis Presley, as well as singing groups from Rio de Janeiro.<ref name=katz/> The band was active for two to three years. Soon afterwards, inspired by Brazilian musician [[João Gilberto]], he settled on the guitar as his primary instrument and began to play bossa nova.<ref name=skelly/>