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Sérgio Mendes, the musician who left Brazil to bring the sounds of his country to the world
The man who made bossa nova an international sensation has died at 83, after a 60-year, 35-album career that straddled musical genres
A master of sparkling keys, flaring offbeat strides and enticing dissonances with harmonic elegance, Mendes not only popularised bossa nova globally, but developed a modern Brazilian take on the piano – a style that would pave the way for other musicians such as Eumir Deodato, Tania Maria and Amaro Freitas. The song, a magical puzzle of bossa nova, candomblé and rhythmic-laden guitar, was gaining momentum as a Brazilian standard when its composer, Jorge Ben Jor, met Mendes at a samba and jazz night in Rio in the early 1960s. Such a pulsating piano seems natural for a musician who learned classical music at home while living in the belle époque of 1950s Rio – a time when Brazil was poised to be the country of the future, when samba and jazz collided in the city’s hip venues.
Or read this on The Guardian
