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Sergio Mendes

Sergio Mendes is the most internationally successful Brazilian artist of all time. From the mid-1960s to the late ‘70s, Mendes established his legend by taking numerous albums and singles, such as “Brasil 66,” “Mas Que Nada,” and “The Look of Love,” to the top of the pop charts. It was those Sergio classics that won the heart and mind of evolving musical legend will.i.am, chief producer and songwriter of the Black Eyed Peas. One of the most successful rap acts of this decade, the band’s 2005 album, Monkey Business, is the urban pop crossover phenomenon of the year. Will collaborates with Sergio on the iconic pianist’s upcoming Concord Records/Starbucks Hear Music album, Timeless, Mendes’ first new release in eight years.

For Will (who claims Mendes’ “Slow Hot Wind,” reworked on Timeless as “That Heat,” is the first song he ever sampled while still an East L.A. teen), working with Sergio Mendes has been a dream come true. As Will states: “This album has been fourteen years in the making.” Things began rolling when Will invited Sergio to play piano on the cut “Sexy” from the Peas’ multi-platinum Elephunk album. Much to his amazement, Will discovered A&M Record’s President could arrange a meeting with his idol. The seed was planted. And the rest, as they say, is history.

“He came to my house with a lot of old vinyl that I recorded many years ago,” remembers Sergio. “And I was so surprised. It was like, ‘Wow!’ He knew every song. He knows every Brazilian riff. I could just feel his passion for the music. We talked and I said, ‘You know what? You love Brazilian music. Why don’t we bring the Brazilian music and melodies to the hip-hop urban world and put them together? I think we can make something really different.’”

“It turned into a wonderful marriage of rhythms,” Sergio continues, “because it’s all African rhythms and haunting melodies. It’s all about the same beats that we inherited from Africa. It’s that same common denominator that brought the samba to Brazil and brought jazz to America. We had a ball.”

“Hip-hop is urban to America,” adds Will, “but samba and bossa nova are urban to Brazil. It’s two urban cultures clashing and fusing together beautifully, because they all share a lot of the same qualities.”

Putting together the project, Will and Sergio, of course, brought in the Black Eyed Peas. They also recruited some of the biggest urban-pop artists of the last several decades, each a Sergio fan, to contribute to various tracks. Featured artists include Erykah Badu, Justin Timberlake, India.Arie, Q-Tip, John Legend, Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, and members of The Roots and Jurassic 5. The involvement of Wonder (Mendes wrote Portuguese lyrics to one of Wonder’s songs many years ago) was fortuitous. “Perfect timing,” says Will. “Me and Sergio had just finished in the studio at the Record Plant. Sergio left, and I was working on stuff until four o’clock in the morning. Then Venus, my partner, says ‘Hey, Stevie Wonder’s in the next hallway!’ So we went over and I said, ‘Mr. Wonder, I’m working on the new Sergio Mendes project.’ Oh, I love Sergio!’ he says. ‘I haven’t seen Sergio in about 15 or 20 years.’ So I was like, ‘we’d love, love to have you play harmonica or sing on one of the songs.’ He said, ‘Let me hear what you guys got cooking up.’ So we walked over to the room, played him ‘Consolacao.’ He says, ‘Let me get a copy of that so I can take it home and learn the melody.’ And, then he came by two days later…”

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In Pictures

Sergio Mendes at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts

Read "Sergio Mendes at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts" reviewed by Mark Robbins


The audience at the Sandler Center was on its feet cheering as the familiar sound of “Magalenha" filled the room and the cheering grew even louder as the band's leader, Sergio Mendes, took his place behind the keyboard. For 60 years Mendes has been the voice of Bossa Nova, Samba and Latin Jazz, and ever since Herb Alpert Presents: Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 made its debut in 1966 he has continually been at the top of the charts with ...

6
Album Review

Sergio Mendes: In The Key Of Joy

Read "In The Key Of Joy" reviewed by Jim Worsley


With exuberant Brazilian beats variously smoldering and at full flame, In the Key of Joy (Concord Records, 2019) archives the sound and the ambiance that defines Sergio Mendes. In 2020, the composer, keyboardist and vocalist celebrates more than sixty years in the music industry with this release. No matter how many beautiful songs and engaging records Mendes has provided over the years, many of a certain age will always first conjure up Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66. The ...

4
Live Review

Sergio Mendes with Eliane Elias at New Jersey Performing Arts Center

Read "Sergio Mendes with Eliane Elias at New Jersey Performing Arts Center" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes


Jazz Meets Samba Sergio Mendes with Eliane Elias, Lee Ritenour and Joe Lovano New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, New Jersey November 8, 2013 On a double-billed evening dedicated to the music of Brazil, pianist Eliane Elias kicked off the first set with an up-tempo take on Antonio Carlos Jobim's “Só Danço Samba" backed by her touring band, which was rounded out by Marc Johnson (bass), Mauricio Zottarelli (drums) and ...

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Album Review

Sergio Mendes: Oceano

Read "Oceano" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Sergio Mendes seems to one of those artists who has been around forever with his wonderful bands Brazil '66, '74, '77, each depicting an era of evolution in the world of popular Brazilian music. Sergio fans will remember the classic Lennon and McCartney “Fool on the hill" performed on a number of his earlier albums with vocalists Bonnie Bowden and his wife-to-be, Gracinha Leporace. His latest outing “Oceano" features one of Brazil's rising stars Ricardo Silveira whose own ...

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Obituary

Sérgio Mendes (1941-2024)

Sérgio Mendes (1941-2024)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Sérgio Mendes, a Brazilian jazz and hard-bossa pianist-arranger who relocated to the U.S. in 1964 and launched his Brasil '65 and '66 pop groups, died in Los Angeles on September 5 of complications from long Covid. He was 83. Mendes first performed in the U.S. at the famed Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall concert in late 1963 and remained here the following year. Like many Brazilian musicians who became expatriates in America, Mendes felt he could be more successful in ...

Recording

Sérgio Mendes: Brasil '66

Sérgio Mendes: Brasil '66

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Suffering from poor albums sales as a jazz-bossa pianist at Atlantic Records in 1965, Sérgio Mendes decided to listen to a recommendation made by Richard Adler, a producer at A&M Records. Adler, who would become Mendes's partner, urged him to keep his Brazilian feel but bring on American female vocalists to sing contemporary pop hits in English. So Mendes gave it a shot at A&M, and the result was the Brasil '66. Their first album, Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes ...

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Recording

On Second Thought: Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 - Fool on the Hill (1968)

On Second Thought: Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 - Fool on the Hill (1968)

Source: Something Else!

Like a Wayback Machine, certain sights, sounds, smells and tastes transports us to certain times and places in our lives. Listening to Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 from their hitmaking days from four and half decades ago puts me right back into preschool. Fool On The Hill was probably Mendes' most popular album in the U.S., and being squarely in the target demographic of adults too old for rock 'n' roll and too young for Glenn Miller, my dad snapped ...

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Performance / Tour

Sergio Mendes Comes to the Hollywood Bowl

Sergio Mendes Comes to the Hollywood Bowl

Source: Chris M. Slawecki

SERGIO MENDES COMES TO THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL | MORCHEEBA OPENS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, JULY 30 AND 31, 2010, AT 8:30 PM July 30 Media Sponsors: Hollywood & Highland Center, Univision/TeleFutura July 31 Media Sponsor: Univision/TeleFutura Brazilian pop maestro Sergio Mendes comes to the Hollywood Bowl for two nights, Friday and Saturday, July 30 and 31, at 8:30 p.m. Opening for and complementing Mendes' sound is the return of the newly-reunited Morcheeba, in its Hollywood Bowl debut.

For ...

425

Recording

Sergio Mendes' 'Bom Tempo' & 'Bom Tempo Brasil

Sergio Mendes' 'Bom Tempo' & 'Bom Tempo Brasil

Source: Michael Ricci

Earlier this year the great Brazilian artist Gilberto Gil toured the United States performing what he referred to at UCLA's Royce Hall as a “very simple concert": vocals, cello and two guitars.

Gil's contemporary Sergio Mendes takes the opposite tack on his new album, which features busy interpretations of tunes by Gil, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor and other Brazilian songwriters. Where Gil's tour demonstrated the writerly sophistication and architectural elegance of much of his country's music, “Bom Tempo" ...

316

Recording

Sergio Mendes' "Bom Tempo" and Album Remix out June 1

Sergio Mendes' "Bom Tempo" and Album Remix out June 1

Source: Michael Ricci

The new release date for Sergio Mendes' upcoming album Bom Tempo has now been set for June 1st via Concord Records, which will simultaneously release Sergio's remix disc Bom Tempo Brasil . Produced by Sergio himself, Bom Tempo expands Mendes' use of color, texture and street-derived energy, highlighting his mastery of authentic Brazilian rhythms and composition. The companion remix album Bom Tempo Brasil features dance mixes of new and classic Mendes tracks from producers including Paul Oakenfold, Cutmore, Moto Blanco, ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz Legends Pay Tribute to Sergio Mendes at Anthology

Jazz Legends Pay Tribute to Sergio Mendes at Anthology

Source: Michael Ricci

By Erick Pettersen On July 26, at 7PM, at Anthology--a jazz club in San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood--an ensemble of seven jazz performers, including jazz guitarist Peter Sprague and vocalist Kevyn Lettau, will perform a tribute concert to Sergio Mendes--a Brazilian musician who plays bossa nova, which he crosses with funk and jazz. Mendes influenced modern jazz, as well as the seven people who will perform that evening.

In 1995, many years after he met Mendes, jazz guitarist Peter Sprague's ...

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Recording

Sergio Mendes New CD Encanto Available Now

Sergio Mendes New CD Encanto Available Now

Source: Special Ops Media

Concord Records presents Sergio Mendes' Encanto, in stores now, the follow up record to 2006's Timeless. “Funky Bahia" Video Stream on YouTube. “Funky Bahia" Audio Stream.

On June 10th, 2008, Concord Records and Starbucks Entertainment will release Encanto (Enchantment), the newest record from the legendary Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes. Encanto is the follow-up to 2006's highly acclaimed collaboration with will.i.am called Timeless. On Encanto, Sergio takes us even deeper into Brazil recording all the basic tracks in Rio and Bahia, ...

207

Performance / Tour

Sergio Mendes Carnegie Hall

Sergio Mendes Carnegie Hall

Source: Michael Ricci

JVC Jazz Festival Review

Sergio Mendes is a proud member of the generation that invented bossa nova, but he has always been more popularizer than purist. Most of the hit singles he had with his group Brasil '66 in the late 1960s were pleasant middle-of-the-road pop with a mild overlay of samba. His most recent albums mix bossa nova with hip-hop and contemporary R&B, sometimes smoothly but often awkwardly. For Mr. Mendes's JVC Jazz Festival concert on Saturday night at ...

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Performance / Tour

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 2003 at The Blue Note

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 2003 at The Blue Note

Source: All About Jazz

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 2003 November 18-November 23

Sergio Mendes was the top-selling Brazilian artist in the United States in the mid 1960's, with huge hit singles and albums that regularly made the Top Ten charts. His records with the historical group Brasil '66 were wildly successful both in the U.S. and Brazil, making him one of the most popular musicians in South America as well as an international music star.

Born in Brazil in 1941, Sergio Mendes ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Bossa Nova at...

Liberation Hall
2023

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In The Key Of Joy

Concord Music Group
2019

buy

Encanto

Concord Music Group
2008

buy

A Trip To Brazil...

Verve Records
1999

buy

Videos

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