The Story of Bossa Nova features 20 remastered original recordings from the late '50s/early '60s combined with a few modern interpretations of the genre, including 14 tracks written by composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. Taken from the vast EMI-Odeon archive of classic Brazilian music, this introductory set includes Marcos Valle's "Samba De Verao," Sylvia Telles' "Dindi," and the pre-Astrud Gilberto version of "Girl From Ipanema" by Pery Ribeiro.
In the early '90s, in the middle of his mandate as councilman for Salvador, Gil was again concerned with the Afro roots of Brazilian people, and this album strongly reflects that. "Madalena" brings social criticism through Afro soca grooves. "Parabolicamara" builds a discourse about communications over a beautiful ponto de macumba melody with enriched harmonies. "Um Sonho" is a doleful toada about the lack of understanding of the popular soul by politicians and technocrats. "Buda Nago" is a tribute to Dorival Caymmi in Afro-Bahian style, which features the guest singer Nana Caymmi (Dorival's daughter and Gil's former wife).
In the realm of Brazilian music there's only one bigger Gilberto than Gilberto Gil, and that is none other than the patron god of bossa nova, the legendary João Gilberto. In Gilbertos Samba, Gil pays tribute to the master in a two-fold way, firstly by recording his own versions of songs indelibly associated with João Gilberto (plus two originals by Gil), and secondly by doing something similar to what Gilberto did on his classic 1981 album Brasil. Gilberto recorded Brasil together with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia, but chose a repertoire of standards by composers Ary Barroso and Dorival Caymmi, effectively melding the three most important movements of Brazilian popular music into a single album, the sambas of the '30s and '40, the bossa nova of the '60s, and the tropicalismo of the '70s.