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

By David Biller and Gabriela Sá Pessoa | Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO — Sergio Mendes, the celebrated Brazilian musician whose 1966 hit “Mas Que Nada” made him a global superstar and helped launch a long, Grammy-winning career, has died after battling the effects of long COVID for months. He was 83.

The death of the Brazilian pianist, songwriter and arranger on Thursday was confirmed in a statement by his family.

“His wife and musical partner of 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his side, as were his beloved children,” the statement said Friday. “Mendes last performed in November 2023 to sold-out and enthusiastic audiences in Paris, London and Barcelona.”

Born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro’s twin city, Mendes studied classical music at the conservatory before joining jazz bands. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began playing bossa nova as the genre gained momentum in Rio’s discos with Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and others.

In 1962, they traveled to New York for a Bossa Nova festival at Carnegie Hall. During the trip, Cannonball Adderley invited Mendes to collaborate on the album “Cannonball Adderley and The Bossa Rio Sextet”, which resulted in his first American record, “The Swinger from Rio”, after signing with Atlantic Records.

Two years later, Mendes moved to California and formed Brazil ’64, which evolved into Brazil ’66 after hiring two female singers. The group’s debut album, produced by Herb Alpert, featured “Mas Que Nada.” Sung entirely in Portuguese, “Mas Que Nada” is a mid-tempo samba song originally released in 1963 by composer Jorge Ben Sor, and updated three years later by Mendes, who played the song in clubs and gave it a jazzier, punchier feel.

“I started a band called Brasil ’66,” he told the Guardian in 2019. “I’d always had instrumental bands, but when I added the two singers – Lani Hall and Bibi Vogel – it made for a different sound. We recorded the song in Los Angeles, with me, drums, bass and guitar, all on stage.”

Mendes’ version was a worldwide hit that helped perpetuate the Brazilian music boom of the 1960s. In 2006, a modern version of the song reached the top of the American charts, performed by the Black Eyed Peas. It was included on his album “Timeless”, produced by will.i.am and also featuring Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and John Legend, among others.

“Sergio Mendes was my brother from another country,” trumpeter Alpert wrote on Facebook, along with a photo taken decades ago of him sitting next to Mendes at the piano. “He was a true friend and an extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its forms to the world with elegance.”

Mendes’ other hits are an eclectic mix ranging from Beatles covers of “The Fool on the Hill” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” to his own Brazilian song, “Magalenha.” Mendes also composed the soundtrack for the film “Pelé,” featuring saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, and even produced an album recorded by the Brazilian football great.

In 1992, Mendes won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for “Brasileiro” and two Latin Grammy Awards. In 2012, he was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Real in Rio,” from the animated film “Rio.”