One of the most famous Brazilian artists of all time, Sérgio Mendes, died at the age of 83 after being sick for a long time with Covid. He had a long career as a pianist, singer, arranger, and bandleader. It started during the bossa nova boom in the early 1960s and went on for sixty years, long after the bossa craze was over.
A big part of his success came from being able to mix Brazilian songs and beats with western styles like rock, funk, and hip-hop. In the 1960s, he made records with the American jazz guitarist Cannonball Adderley. That same decade, he had hits by covering songs by the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.
Sérgio Mendes obituary https://t.co/e7JHeXSYZ1
— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) September 8, 2024
He played at the White House for President Richard Nixon in 1971 and again for President Ronald Reagan in 1982. He was a big star in the easy-listening market in the 1990s. In 2006, when he worked with will.i.am and other members of the American rap group Black Eyed Peas, he gained a new fan base.
Mendes, unlike João Gilberto or Antínio Carlos (Tom) Jobim, wasn’t one of the first people to create the boss style. It was a romantic, reflective mix of Brazilian samba-cancão, western classical influences, and American “cool jazz” that first appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s. Jobim helped him become one of the best performers of the style, though.
Charles Byrd and Herbie Mann, two famous American jazz musicians, came to Rio in 1961 to check out this new music. Mendes was one of the musicians they played with. Mendes went to Carnegie Hall in New York in November 1962 with Byrd and other American jazz musicians when Brazil’s bossa nova stars were asked to play with them.
His work changed after the visit. He met Adderley in New York and was asked to record with him. He also met Nesuhi Ertegun, the head of Atlantic Records, who signed him and put out his album The Swinger from Rio. Before he moved to the US in 1964, Mendes picked California over New York. The first two records he made there didn’t do well, but when he switched labels and styles, the results were amazing.
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He signed with the trumpeter Herb Alpert and the owner of A&M Records, Jerry Moss. And he found the thing that would make him famous.
He put together a band that he called Brasil ’66 with two female singers, Lani Hall and Bibi Vogel. Their 1966 album Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 was a huge hit. It was produced by Alpert.
It had covers of Western pop songs with Brazilian influences, like the Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” with English lyrics. But the most interesting thing about it was the new version of the Jorge Ben standard “Mas Que Nada,” sung in the original Portuguese. In the US, the record made it to the Top Ten, and Mas Que Nada was the first song in Portuguese to make it to No. 5 on the singles charts.
He continued to have hits with Brazilian-influenced covers of songs by the Beatles (Fool on the Hill), Simon and Garfunkel (Scarborough Fair), and Dusty Springfield (The Look of Love). The band always had his “trademark sound” of two girls singing together. He went on tour with Frank Sinatra for the first time in 1967. In 1968, he played his first concerts in Japan, where he became so famous that he went back over 30 times.
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In the 1970s, his business took a turn for the worse, but he kept touring and recording. During his career, he put out more than 40 albums. He had a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of Sinatra’s second big tour in 1980. Three years later, with Never Gonna Let You Go, he had another hit.
It was for his record Brasileiro that he won a World Music Grammy in 1992. His next album, Timeless, was a big change of direction. It was produced by Will.i.am and had visits by stars like Stevie Wonder and Justin Timberlake. The Black Eyed Peas’ hip-hop version of Mas Que Nada was the first song on it. It was a huge hit in Europe, going to No. 1 in Hungary and the Netherlands and No. 2 on the Hip Hop/R&B charts in the UK.
After it came out, Mendes played a show at the Barbican in London where he moved from his hits from the 1960s to light, breezy music. In the end, he did the hip-hop version of Mas Que Nada twice. One of the two women singers was his wife, Gracinha Leporace.
He was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for his song “Real in Rio,” which was in the cartoon movie “Rio.” In 2014, he produced, composed, arranged, and performed on the follow-up, “Rio 2.” His record In the Key of Joy came out in 2020. In 2015, he played to more than 100,000 people at Rock In Rio.
Sergio Mendes: A 2021 film about his life, Alpert, Harrison Ford, Pelé, and will all contributed to “In the Key of Joy.”i.am. Mendes last played live in November of last year, when he went on a European tour that included a stop at the Barbican.
Brazilian music legend Sergio Mendes dies at 83. https://t.co/wVSxCi8LuO
— Carl MacGowan (@CarlMacGowan) September 7, 2024
Mendes was born in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in the city of Niterói. “My dad was black, and my mom was Portuguese,” he said. He had osteomyelitis as a child and had to wear a cast for three years. But, “my father was a doctor, so we were able to get penicillin, and that saved my leg.” His mom gave him a piano, and it gave him “a new life.” He learned classical styles at the Niterói Music Conservatory.
At age 15, he was introduced to jazz by Dave Brubeck and became very interested in it. He started playing at tea dances and parties and quickly became a major figure in the bossa nova scene. It was at the Bottles club in Copacabana that he met Jobim and Gilberto.
He worked with the Bossa Rio Sextet to make Dance Moderno in 1961. A textile company hired the band to open for fashion shows in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. They played all over Brazil. He was then asked to join the top bossa nova artists at Carnegie Hall, and he did. He then changed the sound of Brazilian music.
His wife of more than 50 years, Gracinha, and their two children, Tiago and Gustavo, survive him. So do his three children from a previous marriage that ended in divorce, Bernardo, Rodrigo, and Isabella, as well as his seven grandkids.