Jake Owen: Artist in Residence - A Tribute to Gilberto Gil

At PACNYC: Perelman Performing Arts Center, opera-trained vocalist Jake Owen turns his technique toward the songbook of Gilberto Gil, one of the central figures in modern Brazilian music. The program traces how Gil’s writing moves between MPB, samba, bossa nova, and other Afro-diasporic lineages, shaped by jazz-leaning harmony and a composer’s ear for structure. In New York, where Brazilian repertory is often heard in clubs more than concert halls, the setting gives this material a different frame. The result reads less like imitation than a study in transmission.