Brazilian musician and pianist Sergio Mendes, a bossa nova legend, has died at the age of 83 in Los Angeles, his family announced Friday.
Sergio Mendes “died peacefully” Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his wife and children, his family said in a statement.
“In recent months, his health had been affected by the effects of prolonged Covid,” she added.
Mendes has recorded over 35 albums and toured with major American artists such as Frank Sinatra.
In 1966 he achieved international success with his album “Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66” and the famous “Mas Que Nada”, an adaptation of a song by Brazilian artist Jorge Ben.
In 1993, Sergio Mendes won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for “Brasileiro,” which featured several tracks by Brazilian singer and percussionist Carlinhos Brown.
“Rest in peace, dear genius,” wrote Milton Nascimento, an icon of Brazilian popular music and one of the first celebrities to react to Mendes’ death, on Instagram, hailing “many years of friendship, collaborations and music.”
Launched on the Brazilian scene in the early 1960s, at the height of the bossa nova wave, Sergio Mendes quickly rose to fame. His talents as a pianist and composer of arrangements attracted the interest of Antonio Carlos Jobim.
His mastery of jazz impressed and the American saxophonist Cannonball Adderley chose his group, “Sexteto Rio”, to record the album “Cannonball’s Bossa Nova” in 1963.
– “Brazilian Roots” –
Throughout his career, Mendes has continued to exploit the inexhaustible vein of captivating music, in which he skillfully mixed the cadence of samba, the groove of jazz, the subtle vocal harmonies of bossa nova and the refinement of Californian pop.
But behind the famous musician and the commercial aspect of his songs, sometimes bordering on “easy listening”, hides an artist with great spontaneity.
“I am very curious, I like to learn,” Sergio Mendes confided during an interview with AFP in Paris in 2014.
“The roots of my music are Brazilian. In Brazil, we have a beautiful cultural and musical diversity, between the music of Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, classical music, the rhythms of Africa,” he recalled.
The death of Mendes, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 in the category of Best Original Song for “Real in Rio”, the soundtrack to the animated film Rio, sparked a wave of reactions in Brazil and internationally.
“In this moment of sadness, my thoughts go to the family, friends and fans of Sergio Mendes,” reacted Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, saluting the memory of “one of the greatest representatives and promoters of (Brazilian) music and culture throughout the world.”
Black Eyed Peas singer and rapper Will.i.am also paid tribute to the Brazilian pianist on Instagram, posting a photo of him with the caption “A friendship forever.” The American group had remixed his song “Mas Que Nada” in 2006.
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