Sergio Mendes, Grammy-winning Brazilian music legend, dies at 83

[FILE] Sergio Mendes speaks onstage at Reel To Reel: Sergio Mendes: In The Key Of Pleasure at The GRAMMY Museum on March 11, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. | Rebecca Sapp/Getty Photos for The Recording Academy /AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO — Sergio Mendes, the celebrated Brazilian musician whose 1966 hit “Mas Que Nada” made him a worldwide celebrity and helped launched a protracted, Grammy-winning profession, has died after months battling the results of lengthy COVID. He was 83.

The demise Thursday of the Brazilian pianist, songwriter and arranger was confirmed in a press release by his household.

“His spouse and musical companion for the previous 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his facet, as had been his loving youngsters,” the assertion Friday stated. “Mendes final carried out in November 2023 to offered out and wildly enthusiastic homes in Paris, London and Barcelona.”

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Mendes was born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro’s sister metropolis, and studied classical music at a conservatory earlier than becoming a member of jazz teams. Within the late Fifties and early Sixties, he started enjoying Bossa Nova because the style was heating up in Rio’s nightclub scene with Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and others.

In 1962, they traveled to New York for a Bossa Nova competition at Carnegie Corridor. In the course of the journey, Cannonball Adderley invited Mendes to collaborate on the album “Cannonball Adderley and The Bossa Rio Sextet,” resulting in his first American document, “The Swinger from Rio,” after signing with Atlantic Data.

Two years later, Mendes moved to California and shaped Brazil ’64, which developed into Brazil ’66 after he added two feminine vocalists. The group’s debut album, produced by Herb Alpert, featured “Mas Que Nada.” Sung fully in Portuguese, “Mas Que Nada” was a mid-tempo Samba quantity initially launched in 1963 by composer Jorge Ben Sor, and up to date three years later by Mendes, who had been enjoying the tune in golf equipment and gave it a jazzier, extra hard-hitting really feel.

“I put a band collectively known as Brasil ’66,” he instructed The Guardian in 2019. “I’d at all times had instrumental teams, however once I added the 2 feminine singers – Lani Corridor and Bibi Vogel – it made a unique sort of sound. We recorded the tune in Los Angeles, with me, the drums, bass and guitar all performing dwell.”

Mendes’ model was a worldwide hit that helped perpetuate the Brazilian music growth of the Sixties. In 2006, a contemporary model of the tune topped U.S. charts, as carried out by Black Eyed Peas. It was included in his album “Timeless,” produced by will.i.am and likewise that includes Stevie Marvel, Justin Timberlake and John Legend, amongst others.

“Sergio Mendes was my brother from one other nation,” trumpet participant Alpert wrote on Fb, together with a photograph from many years in the past, sitting subsequent to Mendes on the piano. “He was a real buddy and intensely gifted musician who introduced Brazilian music in all its iterations to your entire world with class.”

Mendes’ different hits had been an eclectic mix starting from covers of the Beatles’ “The Idiot on the Hill” and “With a Little Assist from My Mates,” to his personal Brazilian chant, “Magalenha.” Mendes additionally composed the soundtrack for the movie “Pelé,” that includes saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, and even produced an album recorded by the nice Brazilian soccer participant.

Mendes received the 1992 Grammy Award for Greatest World Music Album for “Brasileiro” and two Latin Grammy Awards. He additionally acquired an Oscar nomination in 2012 for Greatest Authentic Tune for “Actual in Rio,” from the animated movie “Rio.”

“Brazilian soul was there,” pianist, singer, and songwriter Marcos Valle instructed GloboNews about Mendes’ music. Valle additionally famous that it was Mendes who helped open doorways for different Brazilian artists of his technology, together with himself, to achieve overseas audiences.

Mendes’ household stated they are going to present particulars relating to funeral and memorial providers at a later date.