Sergio Mendes - Biography
By J Poet
Sergio Mendes helped popularize Brazilian music in the United States in the 60s, but he was not without his detractors. He was either a Brazilian jazz pioneer or a creator of elevator music, depending on whom you ask. The truth is he was a bit of both, a credible jazz pianist with an unerring instinct for pop music. His Best World Music Album Grammy for Brasileiro (1992 Elektra) proved he was a credible musician by blending tough percussion tracks with samba, forro, reggae and jazzy piano, while people who fancy themselves world music aficionados scorn his best selling albums with Brazil ‘66. He continues to tour and record and released the Brazilian hip-hop flavored Encanto (Concord) in 2008.
Mendes was born in 1941, in Niteroi, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. He studied classical piano in college, but got seduced by the rhythms of bossa nova in the 1950s. When he was 15, a Dave Brubeck record changed his life. He started to model his piano style on the music of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. At 19, his band The Hot Trio was playing bars and jazz clubs, incorporating be bop into Brazilian music. He was friends with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto and met Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herbie Mann when they toured Brazil. His next band, Sexteto Bossa Rio, kept blending jazz and bossa and made several fine jazz heavy albums in Brazil and while on tour in the US including Dance Moderno (1961 Philips Brazil), Bossa Nova (1962 Riverside), a collaboration with Cannonball Adderly, Quiet Nights (1963 Philips), The Swinger from Rio (1965 Atlantic) with Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Brasil 65 (1965 Capitol.)
In 1964, just before moving to the US, the military junta that ruled the country arrested him, but eventually he was allowed to emigrate. In LA, he revamped his sound with two female American vocalists and created Brasil 66. Their first album Equinox (1967 A&M) went gold and laid the foundation for Look Around (1968 A&M), which also went gold and scored a hit with a bossa arrangement of “The Look of Love.” The tune was used in Val Guest’s messy James Bond film Casino Royale and got an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
Brasil 66 toured with Herb Alpert’s band and released Fool on the Hill (1968 A&M) which took home another gold record and followed with the best selling sets Crystal Illusions (1969 A&M), Ye-Me-Lê (1970 A&M.), and Stillness (1971 A&M.) Mendes reorganized the band as Brasil 77 for País Tropical (1971 A&M), Primal Roots (1972 A&M), which lived up to its name with a deep Brazilian groove, Love Music (1973 Bell), Vintage 74 (1974 Bell), Homecooking (1976 Elektra), with a revamped sound with hints of soul and light R&B, Sergio Mendes and the New Brasil '77 (1977 Elektra), and Magic Lady (1978 Elektra) his one disco album.
Brasil 77 kept touring, but Mendes didn’t record again until he made Sergio Mendes (1983 A&M) a gold solo outing that produced the Top 10 hit “Never Gonna Let You Go.” After morphing into Brasil 88 he cut Confetti (1984 A&M), Brasil 88 (1986 RCA) and Arara (1988 A&M) a jazz/pop outing.
Brasileiro (1992 Elektra) credited to Mendes as a solo artist, won a Best World Music Album Grammy and proved that Mendes could make forceful, compelling, roots heavy music. He followed up with the jazzy pop of Oceano (1996 Verve), then laid low until Timeless (2006 Concord) an album made with superstar collaborators like Will.i.am, Q-Tip, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Black Thought, India.Arie, and Stevie Wonder. Will.i.am returns for Encanto (2006 Concord), which also features Carlinhos Brown, Ledisi, Natalie Cole, and Herb Alpert on its blend of hip-hop, club and Latin jazz beats. Mendes continues to tour and perform, and has a huge following in Japan and Latin America. Career overviews include the two CD set The Very Best of Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 (1997 Phantom Sound & Vision UK), Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 - Greatest Hits (1990 A&M) and Sergio Mendes: Millennium Collection (2007 A&M.)