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Sérgio Mendes, 83

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Obituary

“Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes, who helped popularise bossa nova and samba with Western audiences, has died at the age of 83, his family has confirmed.”

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  4. The Guardian obituary mentions an album I’d not heard
    .
    “Another celebrated Brazilian musician, João Bosco, said his country had lost not just a great musician, pianist and arranger, but also a great “thinker of Brazilian music”.

    Bosco called Mendes’s 1962 record Você Ainda Não Ouviu Nada! (You’ve not heard anything yet!) a landmark in Brazilian instrumental music.”

    Well worth a listen!

    • That one slipped under my radar too. Great album, thanks for posting.

      He played in London relatively recently, possibly at last year’s Meltdown festival. I didn’t go, but heard good things about.

      I’m pleased to hear that Joao Bosco is still around. When his self titled first album was reissued, the review in Steaight No Chaser said “so soft it’s hard”!

  5. I knew that Sergio’s mega-hit Mas que nada had been written by Jorge Ben who had charted with it in Brazil.

    What I hadn’t realised is that the Mendes version was recorded in Los Angeles and the two singers in his band, Brasil 66, namely Lani Hall and Bibi Vogel, were in fact from the USA.
    I had always presumed the single had been a hit in Brazil and then had broken internationally.

    Lani went on to marry Herb Albert, who was a major factor in Sergio’s breakthrough when he signed the band to his label A & M.

    https://www.wmra.org/2014-09-14/sergio-mendes-on-jazz-luck-and-the-magic-of-the-encounter

    Looking at that album, the two girls definitely look as though they are from Copacabana rather than Chicago ( Lana’s home town).

    • I was out drinking with an old mate last week. He brought along an music internet mate who brought along a copy of a Marcos Valle LP. This reminded me that he also wrote songs covered by Sergio I hadn’t heard this version of Batucada before.

  6. Sergio Mendes made great contribution to the bossa nova craze that was sweeping the country.

    I found this quote, @Alias, which suggests that bossa provided the soundtrack for the Kennedy Camelot.

    “The bossa nova may not have dazzled the youth, but it became a symbol of sophistication among the most powerful people in the country. In January 1963, a New York Times cultural column reported that Kennedy administration figures including Secretary of State James Rusk and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara “simply wouldn’t come to the White House to listen to [popular band leader] Fred Waring. You’ve got to give them Sandburg, Shakespeare, bossa nova, Leonardo da Vinci.” By the end of 1963, products from hair cuts to cashmere sweaters to ice cream were using the term “bossa nova” to convey sophistication.”

    It’s from this article:

    https://daily.jstor.org/the-bossa-nova-craze/

    Here’s another piece on JFK and Bossa Nova

    https://forum.amcorner.com/threads/jfk-bossa-nova.13431/

    “There were two prominent State Department sponsored tours to Brazil, which led to the awareness and later huge popularity of Bossa Nova in the U.S. In 1961 the Charlie Byrd Trio toured Brazil. Their discovery of Bossa Nova left such an impression that upon their return to the U.S., Byrd and Stan Getz recorded in March 1962 the Bossa Nova influenced album “Jazz Samba” which went to #1 on the Billboard album chart. In 1962 the Paul Winter Sextet toured Brazil, and on November 19, 1962 they were invited to perform Bossa Nova at the White House with Jackie Kennedy in the audience. This created a lot of buzz and publicity for Bossa Nova in the U.S.”

    Here’s another titbit which asks the question:

    What did Jacqueline Kennedy and Brigitte Bardot have in common?

    https://josehgarcia.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/what-do-jacqueline-kennedy-and-brigitte-bardot-have-in-common-a-bossa-nova-song/

    The answer is this song:

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