Gilberto Gil Umbelina

Umbelina began performing harmonica at age group 11, hearing music from other Portuguese-speaking countries and his own island’s rhythms. He shaped his first music group, Os Diablos perform Ritmo, in 1967, wanting to revitalize regional musical customs. He shifted to Lisbon in 1970 and Paris in 1978 after having a hard time producing ends meet being a musician. He came back to documenting in the first ’80s, combining regional rhythms with Brazilian affects.