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The Good Vibe.....an interview with Sergio Mendes / Jazz Journal

Posted: November 12, 2024

Jazz Journal writes……In this interview republished by kind permission of Latino Life, the late Brazilian bossa master talks to Amaranta Wright about Rio in the 1960s and the musical strands that bind together bossa nova and jazz. Not only did he showcase bossa nova to the world, Sérgio Mendes personifies how you don’t have to be a shark to succeed in the global music business. The Brazilian music legend here reminisces on an amazing music career and muses on the importance of gratitude.
 

In Brazil, there’s a saying “tudo bem” (everything’s cool) which just about encapsulates how Brazilians are – easy going and upbeat – and how they go about life – avoiding problems and making the best out of life. In the global music industry, known for its cut-throat environment, they say you have to be tough. Or perhaps, be so calm that you remain still, in the eye of the storm, while everyone else is pushing and flapping around you. A few minutes talking to Sérgio Mendes, probably music’s most recognised Brazilian name, and you can immediately tell that he has managed to sustain an astonishing 50-year career in music by doing the latter. He possesses that “tudo bem” vibe that would disarm the fiercest industry shark.
 

Sérgio Mendes leapt to international fame in 1966 and brought Brazilian music to the world stage with the Brasil 66 LP, produced by Herb Alpert. Its hit single, a rendition of Jorge Ben’s Mais Que Nada, was the first time that a song, sung entirely in Portuguese, reached the top five on the Billboard magazine pop chart.
 

Forty years on, in 2006, Sérgio topped the charts and music channels again, co-producing a Black Eyed Peas remix of that song. Between then and now, Mendes has toured internationally with Frank Sinatra, produced several gold and platinum records and many hit songs, won several Grammys and an Oscar nomination (for the animated film Rio), and made records with Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott, India Arie, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Q-Tip, Erikah Badu among many others. To use a cliché, Mendes is a living legend.
 

But it’s easy to forget, with his stellar lined CV and his credentials (some say the man who put the funk into bossa nova, others say Brazil’s Pérez Prado, bringing bossa nova to the world, where Prado brought mambo) that Sérgio is essentially a jazz man who lived through very special musical times.
 

‘At around 12-13, I remember listening to a Dave Brubeck record and it just blew my mind’
 

Imagine being in Rio in the early 60s, a bar on the beach, the long hair and swaying hips of passing girls inspiring melodies such as The Girl from Ipanema, and the great US jazz musicians routinely appearing to hear first hand the amazing sound of a new music called bossa nova, whose songs later became standard jazz repertoire. This is the stuff that legends are made of, the stuff of music.


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