Sergio Mendes, the Brazilian singer, composer, bandleader, and keyboardist who became an international sensation after moving to the United States in the 1960s, died, in Los Angeles, on September 5. According to a statement from the Mendes family, the musician’s “health had been challenged by the effects of long term COVID.” Mendes was 83 years old.
Born in the Brazilian city of Niterói, in the early 1940s, a young Mendes studied piano at a local conservatory before playing in nightclubs and touring Brazil in various bands. He released his debut album, Dance Moderno, as the bossa nova movement gained pace in 1961. Tours of North America and Europe led to collaborations with Cannonball Adderley and Herbie Mann, followed by a move to the United States, where he formed Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’65. Despite continued success in South America, the bossa nova outfit’s first two albums sold poorly in North America, and, on the advice of producer Richard Adler, Mendes added two American singers and sang some songs in English. Nevertheless, it was the landmark Portuguese-language single “Mas Que Nada,” written by the samba legend Jorge Ben, that gave Mendes and the band—then called Brasil ’66 and soon skipping ahead to Brasil ’77—its U.S. breakthrough.
In a previously skeptical industry, “Mas Que Nada” and parent album Herb Alpert Presents: Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66 lent Mendes a cachet that crested in 1968, when he performed the Burt Bacharach and Hal David cover “The Look of Love” at the Academy Awards. The band played bigger and bigger shows—as well as showcases for Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, plus one at the 1970 Olympics—that added rock heft to a live setup driven by his frenetic keyboard work and uproarious percussionists.
Momentum slowed, but Mendes continued to explore modern and traditional styles in the ensuing decades, including with the Bahian-influenced 1992 album Brasileiro—winner of the 1993 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album—and the 2010 album of modernized Brazilian classics Bom Tempo. He co-produced the 1983 James Bond theme song “Never Say Never Again,” by Brasil ’66 vocalist Lani Hall, and collaborated with superstars including Stevie Wonder, Milton Nascimento, and Seu Jorge. He also worked with contemporary artists like John Legend, on the Oscar-nominated “Real in Rio,” and the Black Eyed Peas on a “Mas Que Nada” remix. Will.i.am produced that unlikely collaboration’s parent album, Timeless, on which Mendes performed alongside Eyrkah Badu, Jill Scott, Justin Timberlake, and many more. He released his final album, In the Key of Joy, in 2019, in conjunction with a documentary on his life.