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Remembering Sergio Mendes (1941-2024)
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Sergio Mendes, Brazilian musician who brought bossa nova to a global audience, died in September, 2024, at 83 years old.
A pianist, composer and arranger, he rose to fame with the group Brasil ’66 and remained a musical force for more than six decades.
Sergio Mendes, the Brazilian pianist, composer and arranger who brought bossa nova music to a global audience in the 1960s with his group, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, and remained a highly influential force in popular music throughout more than six decades, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 83 years old.
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The cause of his death, in a hospital, was a case of persistent Covid, his family said.
Mendes released nearly 35 albums, won three Grammys and was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 in the category of best original song (as co-writer of “Real in Rio”, from the animated film Rio).
His career in the United States took off in 1966 with his Brasil ’66 and the single “Mas que nada”, written by Brazilian singer-songwriter Jorge Ben. Mendes’ sound was deceptively rhythmically sophisticated but easy on the ears, gently amplifying the original guitar-centered hum of bossa nova with expansive keyboard-driven arrangements and whispering vocal lines that often included the Mendes himself accompanying a first line of two female voices.
The group’s lilting, sensual pulse came to symbolize an adult contemporary style in the 1960s that contrasted sharply with the rising youth culture that came to dominate the pop charts in the wake of the Beatles.
“It was completely different from everything, and definitely different from rock ‘n’ roll,” Latin music scholar Leila Cobo said in the 2020 HBO documentary Sergio Mendes in the tone of joy. “But that speaks to how sure Sergio was about that sound. He wasn’t trying to imitate what was happening.”
After venturing to the United States for the first time in 1962 to perform in a bossa nova concert at Carnegie Hall alongside many of the genre’s innovators – including his mentor, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim – Mendes eventually returned. to Brazil, only to flee in 1964 following a violent military coup that briefly included his own arrest. He recorded and toured the United States with a new group, but the public responded only lukewarmly when the other members of his band decided to return to Brazil. Mendes stayed; he wanted to try one more time for American success.
He is survived by his wife, Gracinha Leporace; his two sons, Tiago and Gustavo; three children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce, Bernardo, Rodrigo and Isabella; and seven grandchildren.
