I was saddened to hear of the passing of Sergio Mendes.
Sergio Mendes: 10 Essential Songs
The bandleader and musician, who died on Thursday at 83, was a bridge from Brazilian music to the world — and back.
Sergio Mendes earned a lasting place in international pop as a conduit between Brazilian music and the wider world. He had the genial stage presence, arranging skills and musical standards of an expert bandleader. He also had the A&R savvy and crossover instincts to latch onto potential hits and collaborate with musicians across multiple generations.
Mendes carried songs from Brazil’s master songwriters — among them Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor and Carlinhos Brown — to listeners worldwide, often in English translations. He also found American and British songs that could dovetail with Brazilian rhythms. His music chose suaveness over bite, and it sometimes shaded into slick easy listening or sought an over-processed American pop sheen. Yet while he spent much of his career living in the United States, his foundations in Brazilian music stayed strong.
Here, in chronological order, are 10 worthwhile songs from Sergio Mendes’s huge catalog. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music (or via YouTube links on each song title).
Sergio Mendes, ‘Oba-là-là’ (1961)
Mendes thought he was headed for a career in jazz on his 1961 debut album, “Dance Moderno,” which mingled Brazilian songs and American jazz standards. It opens with “Oba-là-là” by João Gilberto, an upbeat bossa nova with Mendes’s piano plinking out crisp chords and a zigzagging solo.
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Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, ‘Mas Que Nada’ (1966)
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 was the lineup that would bring Mendes hits through the 1960s, with women’s voices carried by breezy Brazilian rhythms. The band’s international breakthrough featured the irresistible melody of the Ben Jor song “Mas Que Nada.” The song’s lyrics, in Portuguese, praise the deep Afro-Brazilian tradition of samba. But Mendes’s finger-snapping version, with Lani Hall’s lead vocals, also uses thick, bluesy piano chords to add a touch of Nuyorican boogaloo. He remade the song repeatedly through the decades — all the way up to an EDM update this year — but his first one endures.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, ‘Constant Rain’ (1967)
Another Ben Jor song, originally “Chove Chuva,” got English lyrics from Norman Gimbel, turning a prayer into a post-breakup lament. The bossa nova takes on hearty handclaps and a vintage 1967 touch: The instrumental hook flaunts a sitar.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, ‘The Fool on the Hill’ (1968)
Brasil ’66 transformed — and lightened up — the pensive Beatles song from “Magical Mystery Tour” about a lone, unheeded sage. Mendes’s version brought in waltzing verses, a bossa nova chorus, a cushiony orchestral arrangement, a new countermelody and smiley, nonchalant vocals — and scored a Grammy-winning, international hit.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, ‘Viramundo’ (1970)
Mendes recorded Gilberto Gil’s “Viramundo” (“Wanderer”), a song that revels in being a perpetually traveling outsider, while Gil was in exile from the military dictatorship in Brazil. With Brasil ’66, Mendes turned it into a percussive samba parade, busy with triangle and cowbell, and topped by call-and-response women’s voices.
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Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’77, ‘País Tropical’ (1971)
This party-hearty version of Ben Jor’s “País Tropical” flaunts the anything-goes spirit of Brazilian tropicália. Mendes’s two-fisted piano, a horn section and very loose tambourine playing hint at gospel and soul, while there’s some wah-wah psychedelia in the guitar. Meanwhile, the singers sound like they might burst into laughter at any moment.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’77, ‘Promise of a Fisherman (Promessa de Pescador)’ (1972)
Mendes briefly turned away from American pop crossover efforts to touch down in Brazilian music with his album “Primal Roots.” In “Promise of a Fisherman (Promessa de Pescador),” he seeks out the mystical core of a song by Dorival Caymmi, using only its chorus. It begins with eerie whistling, followed by a stark processional chant for percussion and women’s voices that invokes Iemanja, the Yoruban-Brazilian deity of the sea; churchy organ chords affirm that it’s a ritual.
Sergio Mendes, ‘Magalenha’ (1992)
On his album “Brasileiro,” Mendes once more returned triumphantly to Brazilian music (and won a Grammy Award for world music). He teamed up with the brilliant Bahian songwriter and producer Carlinhos Brown for Brown’s song “Magalenha,” which pays tribute to Afro-Brazilian women’s work and the joys of a day in the sun. It’s all percussion and voices, with Brown’s lead vocals answered by a whooping (yet precise) backup chorus over a swaggering sambareggae beat.
Sergio Mendes featuring India.Arie, ‘Timeless’ (2006)
The “Timeless” album was Mendes’s bridge to hip-hop and neo-soul, produced by Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas with guests including Erykah Badu and Q-Tip. It included a hip-hop remake of “Mas Que Nada.” But the update is less forced in “Timeless,” written by Mendes and sung by India.Arie. It’s a pop bossa nova with jazzy chord changes and benevolent lyrics. Mendes’s electric piano offers easygoing, darting counterpoint as India.Arie insists “Kindness is timeless/Love is so easy to give.”
Sergio Mendes featuring Nayanna Holley and Carlinhos Brown, ‘Emorio’ (2010)
Reunited with Brown, Mendes reworked a song from the 1980s written by João Donato and Gil, with new lyrics in English sung by a high-flying Nayanna Holley and a little rapping in Portuguese from Brown. It merges funk and samba, tosses in bits of Brazilian standards (including “Mas Que Nada”) and lets Mendes slip in some modern-jazz piano improvisations and key changes before returning to the euphoric chorus.
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