Sergio Mendes

Sérgio Santos Mendes (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Brazilian Portuguese: ; 11 February 1941 – 5 September 2024) was a Brazilian musician.

His career took off with worldwide hits by his band Brasil '66. He released 35 albums and was known for playing bossa nova, often mixed with funk. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2012 as a co-writer of "Real in Rio" from the animated film Rio.

Mendes was primarily known in the United States, where his albums were recorded and where most of his touring took place. He was married to Gracinha Leporace, who performed with him from the early 1970s. Mendes collaborated with many artists, including Black Eyed Peas, with whom he re-recorded in 2006 a remake of his 1966 version of the song "Mas que nada", which was a breakthrough hit for him.

Mendes was born in Niterói, east across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro, on 11 February 1941. As he related in In the Key of Joy, a biopic about his career, he had to wear a cast for three years because he had osteomyelitis. His father was a doctor, and he was one of the first people in Brazil to be given penicillin. Sergio studied classical music at the local conservatory with hopes of becoming a classical pianist. As his interest in jazz grew, he started playing in nightclubs in the late 1950s at the time that bossa nova, a jazz-infused derivative of samba, was emerging.

Sergio Mendes played with Antônio Carlos Jobim, who was regarded as a mentor, and U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil. Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded Dance Moderno in 1961. He toured Europe and the United States where he recorded albums with Cannonball Adderley and Herbie Mann. In 1962 he played in a bossa nova festival at Carnegie Hall. Mendes moved to the U.S. in 1964 and cut two albums under the group name Sergio Mendes & Brasil '65 with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.