Sérgio Mendes, a musician who emerged with Brazil’s bossa nova movement in the 1960s and became an ambassador for that country's music around the world, died Thursday in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. According to his family, the 83-year-old had been suffering from long COVID in recent months.
A composer, pianist, producer and singer, Mendes had a prolific career spanning over 60 years, collaborating with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire to the Black Eyed Peas. In a 2020 interview with NPR, he said these “incredible encounters” with musical peers began after his first visit to the United States, in 1962, when he performed alongside other bossa nova greats in a historic concert at Carnegie Hall. After that event, he was stunned to receive an invitation from Cannonball Adderley to work on his album.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have such experiences, because that has enriched my life,” Mendes told Weekend Edition Sunday. “Working with different people from different countries, from different cultures, I think it just helps you grow and learn new things. ... I love that because you don’t program that. It’s about the magical encounter.”
In his native Brazil and beyond, artists and celebrities have been paying tribute to Mendes on social media. The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am shared a picture of him and Mendes walking together, calling theirs “a timeless friendship.” Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento recalled how much fun they had when Mendes attended his concert in Los Angeles in 2022: “We had many years of friendship, partnership and music, and he will be with me forever in my heart.” Herb Alpert, who produced Mendes’ first international albums, mourned the loss of his “brother from another country,” saying: “He was a true friend and extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its iterations to the entire world with elegance and joy.”
Mendes was born in the city of Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro state. When the military dictatorship began in Brazil in 1964, he decided to escape and settle in the United States — a decision that would change his style as well, giving it an international twist. He invited two American singers to join the band he had formed, renaming it Brasil ’66. Their first record, helmed by Alpert, produced “Mas Que Nada,” a modern Brazilian classic and Mendes’ best-known song (though it was originally composerd by another Brazilian icon, Jorge Ben Jor). In 2006, a new version of the song recorded by the Black Eyed Peas in collaboration with Mendes revived the hit — and Mendes’ fame — for new generations.
Mendes held his last performances last year, staging sold-out concerts in Paris, London and Barcelona. In a statement, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva praised Mendes’ career achievements, which include landing the most songs in the US Top 100 of any Brazilian artist — 14 in total — and receiving a Grammy for the album Brasileiro in 1992. Wrote Lula, “Sérgio Mendes was one of the greatest exponents and promoters of our music and culture in the world.”
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