Yahoo Lifestyle Sergio Mendes, Brazilian Bossa Nova Music Innovator, Dies at 83
Sergio Mendes, the innovative and influential pianist, composer and arranger who was one of Brazil’s earliest contemporary crossover artists, died Thursday in Los Angeles, his family has confirmed. No cause of death was announced, although he recently suffered from long-term COVID. He was 83.
Mendes “passed away peacefully” in his hometown of Los Angeles, according to a statement from his family cited in the Guardian. “His wife and musical partner for the past 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his side, as were his loving children. Mendes last performed in November 2023 to sold out and wildly enthusiastic houses in Paris, London and Barcelona,” they said. “For the last several months, his health had been challenged by the effects of long-term COVID.”
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His longtime friend and collaborator Herb Alpert wrote on social media: “Sergio Mendes was my brother from another country. He was a true friend and extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its iterations to the entire world with elegance [and] joy.”
Long before Latin music’s current revolution of Bad Bunny and Rosalia, or the hipster fascination with tropicalia, there was Sergio Mendes.
For decades, Mendes defined how American audiences heard and digested Brazilian music, first as part of influential bossa nova guitarist-composer’s Antônio Carlos Jobim’s band, then with his own Brasil ’66. With his delicate feel for samba, jazz and the cosmopolitan pop of contemporary (and A&M Records labelmate Burt Bacharach), Mendes created a battery of hits such as “Goin’ Out of My Head,” covers of Beatles songs such as ”Fool on the Hill” and his classic take on composer Jorge Ben’s “Mas que Nada.”
After the mid-1960s and into the present, Mendes remained a titan of Brazilian pop/jazz sound, with everything from his production and arrangement of Sarah Vaughn’s “Brazilian Romance” and animated films about his homeland, such as 2011’s “Rio.”
On the topic of his career, and the diverse musicians he worked with during his life, Mendes told NPR’s Leila Fadel in 2020, “I’ve been, always, very curious, since I was a kid, working with different guys in Brazil. Then when I came to the United States for the first time in 1962, at the Bossa Nova Festival at Carnegie Hall, Cannonball Adderley invited me to work on his album. And after that so many other incredible encounters in my life: Frank Sinatra, will.i.am… I’ve been very fortunate to have had such experiences because that has enriched my life. Working with different people from different countries, from different cultures, I think it just helps you grow and learn new things. … I love that because you don’t program that; it’s about the magical encounter.”
Born on Feb. 11, 1941, in Niterói, Brazil, as the son of a physician, the young Mendes was steered by his father into conservatory training with the goal of becoming a classical pianist. But as he moved toward the central city of Rio, and began falling in love with American and Brazilian jazz, his classical interests waned. Not only did Mendes start playing in local nightclubs during the 1950s, he did so just in time to be affected by the revolution of bossa nova, the soft jazz-flavored derivative of samba pioneered by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim. That he wound up joining Jobim’s band, and thought of the guitarist and composer as a mentor, only made Mendes’ relationship to the bossa nova that much closer.
Along with playing with visiting American jazz players such as Charlie Byrd, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Mann in Brazil, Mendes’ own group, the Sexteto Bossa Rio (which made its first album “Dance Moderno” in 1961), hit Birdland in New York City with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley as part of a double bill. So enthralled was Adderly by Mendes’ quiet touch that the saxophonist and the Brazilian pianist cut and released “Cannonball’s Bossa Nova” for Capitol Records in 1962.
For the next several years, Mendes and his bands dropped several albums for Philips, Atlantic and Capitol, with the keyboardist forming his band, Brasil ’65, moving to New York and doing session work with jazz artists such as Art Farmer. In 1966, it was suggested that Mendes and the group sing in English, as well as Portuguese, with new Anglo-based songs such as “Goin’ Out of My Head” by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein as part of Mendes’ fresh mix.
That year, Mendes also made the acquaintance of A&M Records founders Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert – the latter a worldwide sensation with his own Anglicized take on mariachi pop music with the Tijuana Brass. Mendes also welcomed female vocalists such as Lani Hall into the newly-titled Brasil 66, and released their self-titled debut in 1966. The cool jazzy pop touched by the breezy inspiration of Brazilian melody – and of course Jorge Ben’s “Mas Que Nada” – propelled “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66” to platinum status.
As well as having Alpert as his producer and label boss, Mendes & Brasil ’66 toured with the trumpeter’s Tijuana Brass, and Alpert married Lani Hall in 1974.
When discussing the art of double-tracking Lani Hall’s voice for the luster of Sergio Mendes’ Brasil 66 albums, Herb Alpert told this writer how he wanted to replicate what “Les Paul had done for Mary Ford throughout the 1950s.”
“Lani had an absolutely lovely voice, and then, there was this other girl that Sergio had, BB Vogel, who was very beautiful, a model, a very nice lady… she was nice on stage: moved well, looked great. But, when I heard them singing together and I was about to record their vocal tracks, I was like ‘Holy shit, man, this can’t work.’ So, I wanted to see if Lani would double track, and if it all sounded good. And, it sounded great, so that was another bit of magic.”
While Mendes’ Brasil ’66 recorded pop albums such as 1967’s “Equinox,” 1968’s “Fool on the Hill” and 1969’s “Crystal Illusions” for A&M, the keyboardist kept up his jazz chops with albums such as 1968’s “Sergio Mendes’ Favorite Things” for Atlantic. Not long after this, the bottom began to drop out of the soft Portugese pop market in America.
After the folksy “Stillness” of 1970 with its covers of Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning” and Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” and 1972’s “Primal Roots,” an album filled with traditional Brazilian music, Mendes left A&M for Elektra and his first official solo album, “Sergio Mendes,” in 1975.
While Mendes didn’t find much commercial success with that solo record or a new one with Brasil ’77 soon after, his return to A&M with 1983’s “Sergio Mendes” proved to be a comeback album and gave him his first Billboard Top 40 album in 14 years. Much of its success was due to the high-charting pop and R&B single “Never Gonna Let You Go,” written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and sung by Joe Pizzulo and Leeza Miller.
From that point forward, Mendes continued to bundle together new vocal ensembles such as Brasil ’99 and Brasil 2000, both of which tied his brand of soft Brazilian jazz with Bahian hip-hop. He carried on with his signature sound in producing and arranging vocal giant Sarah Vaughn’s husky-voiced “Brazilian Romance” in 1985. By 2006, he had signed with Concord Records and released “Timeless” – his first album of new material in nearly a decade – including a re-recorded version of “Mas que Nada” with the Black Eyed Peas and Mendes’ wife, singer Gracinha Leporace.
Serving as a co-producer and co-composer on the soundtrack album for 2011’s animated film “Rio” for 20th Century Fox, Mendes was nominated for a best original song Oscar for “Real in Rio,” co-written with Carlinhos Brown and lyricist Siedah Garrett. Three years later, Mendes signed a contract with the Sony-Columbia imprint, Okeh Records, and released “Magic” in 2014 with American vocalists such as John Legend and Brazilian artists such as Carlinhos Brown. His last studio album, 2020’s “In the Key of Joy,” also featured appearances from a mix of American and Brazilian musicians, such as rapper Common and Joao Donato, singing music written, arranged and produced by Mendes.
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