Video: I’ve been very fortunate to have such experiences, because that has enriched my life: Brazilian music legend Sérgio Mendes dies at 83: Photos

Sérgio Mendes, a musician who emerged with Brazil’s bossa nova movement in the 1960s and became an ambassador for that country’s music around the world, died Thursday in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. According to his family, the 83-year-old had been suffering from long COVID in recent months.

A composer, pianist, producer and singer, Mendes had a prolific career spanning over 60 years, collaborating with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire to the Black Eyed Peas. In a 2020 interview with NPR, he said these “incredible encounters” with musical peers began after his first visit to the United States, in 1962, when he performed alongside other bossa nova greats in a historic concert at Carnegie Hall. After that event, he was stunned to receive an invitation from Cannonball Adderley to work on his album.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have such experiences, because that has enriched my life,” Mendes told Weekend Edition Sunday. “Working with different people from different countries, from different cultures, I think it just helps you grow and learn new things. … I love that because you don’t program that. It’s about the magical encounter.”

In his native Brazil and beyond, artists and celebrities have been paying tribute to Mendes on social media. The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am shared a picture of him and Mendes walking together, calling theirs “a timeless friendship.” Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento recalled how much fun they had when Mendes attended his concert in Los Angeles in 2022: “We had many years of friendship, partnership and music, and he will be with me forever in my heart.” Herb Alpert, who produced Mendes’ first international albums, mourned the loss of his “brother from another country,” saying: “He was a true friend and extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its iterations to the entire world with elegance and joy.”

Mendes was born in the city of Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro state. When the military dictatorship began in Brazil in 1964, he decided to escape and settle in the United States — a decision that would change his style as well, giving it an international twist. He invited two American singers to join the band he had formed, renaming it Brasil ’66. Their first record, helmed by Alpert, produced “Mas Que Nada,” a modern Brazilian classic and Mendes’ best-known song (though it was originally composerd by another Brazilian icon, Jorge Ben Jor). In 2006, a new version of the song recorded by The Black Eyed Peas in collaboration with Mendes revived the hit — and Mendes’ fame — for new generations.

Mendes held his last performances last year, staging sold-out concerts in Paris, London and Barcelona. In a statement, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva praised Mendes’ career achievements, which include landing the most songs in the US Top 100 of any Brazilian artist — 14 in total — and receiving a Grammy for the album Brasileiro in 1992. Wrote Lula, “Sérgio Mendes was one of the greatest exponents and promoters of our music and culture in the world.”

As a composer, producer, keyboardist and vocalist, Sergio Mendes helped pioneer the bossa nova movement and popularize Brazilian music globally with his band, Brasil 66. In his over 60-year career, Mendes has been one of the most explorative collaborators in world music, working with everyone from the Black Eyed Peas to jazz great Cannonball Adderley. His new album, In The Key Of Joy, is out now.

The record features the international range of collaborators that has become typical of his work: Everyone from American rappers like Common and Buddy to Colombian pop stars like Cali y El Dandee join Mendes on the record, alongside mainstays like Gracinha Leporace, Mendes’ longtime partner in both music and marriage.

We spoke to Sergio Mendes about continuing to write joyful music after all these years, getting Joe Pizzulo and his daughter, Sophia, on the same album together and taking his time to enjoy each new release. (“I’m not a workaholic. I’m from Brazil,” he jokes.) Listen in the player above and read on for highlights from the interview.

It always starts with the melody. I wrote the melody with a friend of mine from Brazil, and recorded all the percussion — all the track was recorded in Brazil. When the song was ready, we had the lyrics and everything, I said “It would be great to have a great rapper, like Common.” And it so happened. We called him and he was very happy to be part of it, collaborating on this track. I think it added the diversity that I love about Brazilian music: the rhythms, the melody, the joy. Common is from Chicago. … He brings the joy from Chicago to the world, the same way we bring the joy from Brazil, so it was wonderful.

On staying relevant over the course of a long career…

I’ve been, always, very curious, since I was a kid, working with different guys in Brazil. Then when I came to the United States for the first time in 1962: at the Bossa Nova Festival at Carnegie Hall, Cannonball Adderley invited me to work on his album. And after that so many other incredible encounters in my life: Frank Sinatra, will.i.am. I’ve been very fortunate to have had such experiences because that has enriched my life. Working with different people from different countries, from different cultures, I think it just helps you grow and learn new things. … I love that because you don’t program that; it’s about the magical encounter. I think it’s a beautiful thing in life, meeting Gracinha and so many other people that I had the chance to work with.

That was the first time a song in Portuguese became a hit all over the world — not only here, but in Asia, Europe, everywhere. Then it was a hit again 40 years later with the Black Eyed Peas. So it’s something very magical about that chant; people love that song everywhere in the world. And after the recording with the Black Eyed Peas in 2006, there’s a whole generation that never heard this “Mas Que Nada” played, the sons and daughters of the people that loved the first one. So again, this is a wonderful feeling.