Sergio Mendes & Brasil 65

1. So nice
2. Favela
3. Berimbau
4. Tristeza em mim
5. Aquarius
6. One note samba
7. She's a carioca
8. Muito a vontade
9. Let me
10. Con solacão
11. Reza

The child of a physician in Niterói, Brazil, Sergio 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 emerging. Mendes played with Antonio Carlos Jobim (regarded as a mentor) and many U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil.

Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded Dance Moderno in 1961. 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 Sergio Mendes & Brasil '65 group name with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records.

Sergio Mendes' group, Brasil '65, created some of the best jet set pop ever heard. For much of the last thirty years, Brasil '65 albums gathered dust in thrift store racks along side several million copies of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' Whipped Cream and Other Delights. Then, in the mid-1990s, the lounge music movement and compilations like In Flight Entertainment reminded us what wonderful sounds were locked up in these forgotten records.

Trained at the local conservatory in Niteroi, Mendes became a versatile pianist. Starting out as a professional musician just as the roots of bossa nova were beginning to emerge, Mendes embraced the hybrid of jazz and Latin music and was soon appearing alongside Jobim and Gilberto at Rio clubs. Leading a group known as the Bossa Nova Trio, he toured Europe in 1963, playing at numerous jazz festivals. With the huge interest in bossa nova in the U.S., Mendes moved to New York in 1964 and worked with Art Farmer, Bud Shank, vocalist Wanda de Sah, Jobim, and others on bossa nova recordings.