Mendes is married to Gracinha Leporace who regularly performs vocals for her husband and can also be heard on his 2006 version of the song Mas Que Nada with the Black Eyed Peas.
Early career
The child of a physician in Niterói, Brazil, Mendes attended 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 just as bossa nova, a jazz-inflected derivative of samba, was taking off. Mendes played with Antônio Carlos Jobim (whom he regarded as a mentor) and many U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil.
Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded Dance Moderno in 196. Touring Europe and the United States, Mendes recorded albums with Cannonball Adderley and Herbie Mann and played Carnegie Hall. Mendes moved to the U.S. in 1964 and cut two albums under the name Sergio Mendes and Brasil '65 with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records.
Brasil '66
When sales were tepid, he replaced his Brazilian born vocalist Wanda de Sa with the distinctive voice of Chicago native Lani Hall (who learned Mendes' Portuguese material phonetically), switched to Herb Alpert's A&M label, and released Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, an album that went platinum based largely on the success of the single "Mas Que Nada" (a Jorge Ben cover) and the personal support of Alpert, with whom Mendes toured regularly.
The original lineup of Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66 was Mendes (piano), vocalists Lani Hall and Janis Hansen, Bob Matthews (bass), Jose Soares (percussion), and Joao Palma (drums). John Pisano guested as guitarist. This lineup recorded three albums between 1966-1968 (including the best-selling Look Around LP), before there was a major personnel change for their fourth album Fool on the Hill.
Karen Philipp replaced Hansen as the second female vocalist, while veteran drummer Dom Um Romão teamed with Rubens Bassini to assume percussionist duties. Sebastiao Neto was the new bassist and Oscar Castro-Neves the guitarist. This lineup had a more orchestral and big band sound than their predecessors. Most significantly, in the early 1970s, lead singer Hall pursued a solo career and became Alpert's second wife. Some accounts claim that Mendes was upset with Alpert for years for "stealing" Hall away from his group.
Though his early singles with Brasil '66 (most notably "Mas Que Nada") met with some success, Mendes really burst into mainstream prominence when he performed the Oscar-nominated Burt Bacharach and Hal David song The Look of Love on the Academy Awards telecast in April 1968. Brasil '66's version of the song quickly shot into the top 10, peaking at #4, and eclipsing Dusty Springfield's version from the soundtrack of the movie, Casino Royale. Mendes spent the rest of 1968 enjoying consecutive top 10 and top 20 hits with his follow-up singles, "The Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair". From 1968 on, Mendes was arguably the biggest Brazilian star in the world, enjoying immense popularity worldwide and performing in venues as varied as stadium arenas and the White House, where he gave concerts for both Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Middle career
Mendes' career in the U.S. stalled in the mid-1970s, but he remained very popular in South America and Japan. His two albums with Bell Records in 1973 and 1974, followed by several for Elektra from 1975 on, found Mendes continuing to mine the best in American pop music and post-bossa writers of his native Brazil, while forging new directions in soul with collaborators like Stevie Wonder, who wrote Mendes' R&B-inflected minor hit, "The Real Thing".
In 1983, he rejoined Alpert's A&M records and enjoyed huge success with a self-titled album and several follow-up albums, all of which received considerable adult contemporary airplay with charting singles. "Never Gonna Let You Go", featuring vocals by Joe Pizzulo and Leza Miller, equalled the success of his 1968 single "The Look of Love" by reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; it also spent four weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart. In 1984, Mendes worked with singer Lani Hall again.
By the time Mendes released his Grammy-winning Elektra album Brasileiro in 1992, he was the undisputed master of pop-inflected Brazilian jazz. The late-1990s lounge music revival brought retrospection and respect to Mendes' oeuvre, particularly the classic Brasil '66 albums. His stature in his native Brazil is reflected by "Cantor de Mambo", a song by fellow Brazilians Os Mutantes, which they regularly dedicate to Mendes in concert.
Later career
Timeless features a wide array of neo-soul and alternative hip hop guest artists, most prominently will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas. It was released February 14, 2006 by Concord Records.
The album features the Black Eyed Peas, Erykah Badu, Black Thought, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, India.Arie, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Q-Tip, Stevie Wonder and Pharoahe Monch.
The 2006 re-recorded version of "Mas que Nada" with the Black Eyed Peas had additional vocals by Gracinha Leporace (Mendes' wife); a version that is included on his album Timeless. In Brazil, the song is pretty well-known for being the theme song for the local television channel Globo's Estrelas.
The Black Eyed Peas' version also contains a sample of their 2004 hit "Hey Mama". The re-recorded song became popular on many European charts. On the UK Singles Chart, the song entered at #29 and rose to and peaked at #6 on its second week on the chart.
Official website of Sérgio Mendes: http://www.sergiomendesmusic.com
Primavera
Sérgio Mendes Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
É assim como um jardim sem flor
Só queria poder ir dizer a ela
Como é triste se sentir saudade
É que eu gosto tanto dela
Que é capaz dela gostar de mim
E acontece que eu estou mais longe dela
Estrela, eu lhe diria
Desce à terra, o amor existe
E a poesia só espera ver
Nascer a primavera
Para não morrer
Não há amor sozinho
É juntinho que ele fica bom
Eu queria dar-lhe todo o meu carinho
Eu queria ter felicidade
É que o meu amor é tanto
Um encanto que não tem mais fim
E no entanto ele nem sabe que isso existe
É tão triste se sentir saudade
Amor, eu lhe direi
Amor que eu tanto procurei
Ah, quem me dera eu pudesse ser
A tua primavera
E depois morrer
The lyrics of Sergio Mendes's song Primavera express the feelings of a person who is deeply in love with someone who is not with them. The singer compares their lonely, loveless state to a garden without any flowers, conveying the emptiness they feel without the presence of their love interest. The singer expresses their desire to tell the person how sad it is to feel longing for them, hoping that their reciprocal feelings may grow stronger, but the distance between them makes it difficult. The singer compares the distance between themselves and their love interest to the distance between stars in the sky, emphasizing how far apart they are.
The lyrics then take a poetic turn, invoking the imagery of a star descending to the earth to bring love to the singer's life. The singer declares that love cannot exist alone, it must be shared between two people. They express their hope to give all of their affection to their love and to share happiness with them. Despite the intensity of the singer's love, their beloved does not even realize that it exists, which only makes their longing and absence harder to bear. In the end, the singer wishes that they could become their beloved's spring and then die.
Overall, the song speaks to the universal feeling of longing for a deep emotional connection with someone else. The singer's simple yet poignant lyrics and smooth, flowing melody work together to create a hauntingly beautiful, melancholic piece.
Line by Line Meaning
O meu amor sozinho
My love is lonely
É assim como um jardim sem flor
It's like a garden without flowers
Só queria poder ir dizer a ela
I just want to tell her
Como é triste se sentir saudade
How sad it is to feel longing
É que eu gosto tanto dela
I like her so much
Que é capaz dela gostar de mim
That she might like me too
E acontece que eu estou mais longe dela
And it happens that I'm farther from her
Que da estrela a reluzir na tarde
Than the star shining in the afternoon
Estrela, eu lhe diria
Star, I would tell you
Desce à terra, o amor existe
Love exists on earth
E a poesia só espera ver
And poetry just waits to see
Nascer a primavera
Spring born
Para não morrer
So as not to die
Não há amor sozinho
There is no love alone
É juntinho que ele fica bom
It's together that it gets better
Eu queria dar-lhe todo o meu carinho
I wanted to give her all my affection
Eu queria ter felicidade
I wanted to have happiness
É que o meu amor é tanto
It's just that my love is so much
Um encanto que não tem mais fim
An enchantment that never ends
E no entanto ele nem sabe que isso existe
And yet she doesn't even know it exists
É tão triste se sentir saudade
It's so sad to feel longing
Amor, eu lhe direi
Love, I will tell you
Amor que eu tanto procurei
Love that I searched so much for
Ah, quem me dera eu pudesse ser
Oh, how I wish I could be
A tua primavera
Your spring
E depois morrer
And then die
Contributed by London L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
さとうようこ
32年ぶりに聴きました。感激