Sergio Mendes

The Swinger from Brazil. Favourites (Wrasse Records Wrass114)

If people have heard only two Brazilian songs they are likely to be ‘The Girl from Ipanema’, and ‘Mas Que Nada’ as played by Sergio Mendes and his band Brazil 66. Mendes largely invented what many have come to associate with the quintessentially Brazilian sound – upbeat, jazzy, lost in an eternal beachside summer and sung in a soft sensual female voice.

Alongside Getz and Gilberto, Mendes was the foremost of the early popularisers of Bossa Nova and Samba. The Brazil he created in his recordings owed as much to the California where he found his fame as it did to Rio. Most of the band members, including the women singers were American and the harmonies were strongly influenced by the Mamas and Papas and the Beach Boys. Much of the Mendes’s material, as showcased on this compilation consisted of Brazilianized recordings of Beatles and Burt Bacharach or cocktail bar jazz Bossa Nova instrumentals. These sound dated and tedious nowadays. But the Brazilian tracks, like ‘Mas Que Nada’, ‘Chove Chuva’, ‘Bim Bom’ and ‘So Danca Samba’ remain infectiously melodic and as timelessly 1960s as Lava Lamps or The Avengers. It’s a shame more of them aren’t included here. Some of the best recordings like ‘Tristeza’ and ‘Batucada’ are missing, as is anything respectable from Sergio Mendes’s later repertoire. More thoughtful compilations will come…. [Purchase a similar version of this CD].