Sérgio Mendes married samba with bossa nova and created his typical sound. The jazz musician and pianist’s song “Mas que nada” (roughly: “What the heck?”) is a hymn to the carefreeness and lightness that almost everyone in South America’s largest country knows. But the song also carries the sun of Copacabana and the waves of Ipanema beach out into the whole world. Now the Brazilian music legend has died in Los Angeles at the age of 83, his family announced.
In his 60-year career, he has released more than 35 albums, won three Grammys and was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for the song “Real in Rio”, the soundtrack to the animated film “Rio”. He performed in Paris, London and Barcelona as recently as November 2023. In recent months, however, according to his family, he has been suffering from the effects of a long-term Covid illness.
Mendes was born in Niterói – opposite Rio de Janeiro – on the other side of Guanabara Bay. His father, a successful doctor, also had a career in medicine in mind for him. But Mendes also learned to play the piano, received a classical education and was interested in jazz.
Mendes enjoyed Rio’s vibrant nightlife
Mendes was drawn to the vibrant nightlife in Rio in the 1950s and 1960s and the city’s music bars at an early age. He played with his trio in the “Bottles Bar” in Copacabana, which, along with other clubs in the “Beco das Garrafas” alley, is considered the cradle of Bossa Nova. There he met Bossa Nova legends such as Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. They supported him – and performed with him.
“I was always the youngest, but I mastered my instrument as well as the old ones,” the musician with the distinctive beige hat recalled in an interview. At that time, bossa nova emerged as a new style, and Mendes mixed it with samba sounds to create his very own style. Jobim, who rose to world fame early on with “The Girl from Ipanema,” eventually took Mendes with him to the USA.
Mendes did not find it difficult to say goodbye to Brazil, as the military took power there in 1964. “I had a feeling that things would get ugly,” Mendes told the German Press Agency in an interview on the occasion of his 80th birthday. “And I tried my luck abroad.”
In the USA he played with Frank Sinatra and performed at Carnegie Hall. He laid the foundations for his career by founding the band Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66 and signing a contract with the record company A&M Records. He eventually landed a worldwide hit with “Mas que nada” – a cover song based on the original version by Jorge Ben Jor. Mendes hardly wrote any of his own songs anyway, but rather reinterpreted old songs.
“I have no formula for anything”
The musician constantly reinvented himself. For the crossover album “Timeless,” for example, he gathered Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am, Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and Erykah Badu around his piano. The result was, among other things, a bossa nova hip hop version of “Mas que nada,” which conquered the charts worldwide. “I don’t know how I do it,” Mendes told the dpa at the time. “I make the music that I like, that I feel; it’s very spontaneous work. I don’t have a formula for anything.”
He lived in the USA for decades, but he kept returning to Rio de Janeiro to satisfy his longings and find new inspiration. “Brazilian music has so much beauty and magic to offer,” said Mendes. “You can get a CD sent to you, but you can’t package the smell and sound of Rio.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240906-930-225464/1
This is a message directly from the dpa news channel.
