Thrill to Gil
Brazilian musical treasure Gilberto Gil was exiled by the country's military government in the late '60s. He's now Brazil's Minister of Culture. After beginning his career as a bossa nova artist, Gil joined with such like-minded artists as Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Tom Ze to establish the "tropicalismo" movement, which was more socially conscious and worldly than other Brazilian pop and traditional forms. Gil's music is a stylistic hodge-podge that dresses up samba-based sounds with a lot of Western harmony, jazz influences, rock, funk, reggae and other genres. He sings, mostly in Portuguese, with a passionate, lilting tenor and possesses a lovely falsetto. He's also an able guitarist. In his country, the 64-year-old Gil is a legend along the lines of Dylan. I can't stress enough how much of a rare treat this concert is for Tampa Bay. Anyone who claims an interest in world music should be in attendance.
Gilberto Gil, 8 p.m. Sat., March 31 @ Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. $45.50/$65.50, www.tbpac.com. —Eric Snider
Skirt chasing
Athens, Georgia's Modern Skirts play smiley, keyboard-and-acoustic-guitar driven pop that speaks to the Beach Boys and Beatles fan inside us all. The quartet's songs are meticulously crafted for maximum hummability, with lush vocal harmonies. The lyrics delve into timeless subject matter like lost love and longing ("Four More Years"), but there's a quirky edge to the band that is equally engaging. "I'm passing out on the dotted line just to keep you on the back of my mind," goes the out-of-leftfield lyric to the endearingly titled "17 Dirty Magazines." Also on the lineup are Orlando quintet The Sugar Oaks, who deliver laid-back, acoustic soul with a dollop of twang and jazz that smacks of summertime and front-porch goodness.
Modern Skirts w/The Sugar Oaks/Mouse Fire/Clock Hands Strangle, 9 p.m. Fri., March 30, New World Brewery, Ybor City. $7. —Wade Tatangelo
Hear "The Voice"
Tom Jones is 66 years old, albeit a very spry and robust 66. Do women still throw unmentionables on stage when he performs, and, if so, are they the kind of undies we want to see onstage? Just musing. By all accounts, the Welsh belter can still stir up a crowd with his lively stage presence and booming R&B voice. He has a wide-ranging cache of songs to choose from, be it the irrepressible "It's Not Unusual" or his cheeky cover of Prince's "Kiss."
Tom Jones, 8 p.m. Wed., April 4 and Thurs., April 5 @ Ruth Eckerd Hall. $39-$95, www.rutheckerdhall.com. —ES
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2007.