BOLDLY UNFAITHFUL is the whole point of Gaia Wilmer’s new Gilberto Gil project — and it’s exactly why it works.

The Brazilian saxophonist and composer has released Parabólico, the first part of a planned three-volume homage to Gil, made with her 20-piece Large Ensemble. Wilmer has built a recent reputation for radically reimagining major Brazilian songbooks, and Parabólico continues that streak with arrangements that often barely resemble their starting points.

Take the opening “Overture”: it stretches the 25 seconds of strummed guitars and group vocals that begin Gil’s 1985 album Dia Dorim Noite Neon into a slow four-minute bloom of breathy trumpet and twinkling piano accents. Elsewhere, “Oriente” swaps Gil’s wavering, emotive vocal harmony (from the 1972 original) for horn fanfares and jazz swing, supporting Mônica Salmaso’s lightly tripping bossa nova vocalisations.

Even “Eu Vim da Bahia” — one of Gil’s best-known tunes — gets flipped into experimental, flute-heavy ambience, with its sprightly melody pushed through the brassy heft of a big-band horn section.

Rather than playing spot-the-reference, Parabólico leans into reinvention while keeping something of the music’s core. “Aqui e Agora” deepens Gil’s trance-like mood with an undulating bass motif under a keening saxophone solo, and “Parabolicamará” reframes a lively groove with delicate opening improvisations from pianist Vitor Gonçalves.

It’s less tribute act than musical rebuilding job: a Ship of Theseus-style approach that treats decades-old songs as material still full of space to explore.