| Sergio
Mendes is the most internationally successful Brazilian artist of
all time. From the mid 1960s to the late ‘70s, Mendes established
his legend by taking numerous albums and singles, such as “Brasil
66,” “Mas Que Nada,” and “The Look of Love,”
to the top of the pop charts.
It was those
Sergio classics that won the heart and mind of evolving musical
legend will.i.am, chief producer and songwriter of the Black Eyed
Peas. One of the most successful rap acts of this decade, the band’s
2005 album, Monkey Business, is the urban pop crossover phenomenon
of the year. Will collaborates with Sergio on the iconic pianist’s
upcoming Concord Records/Starbucks Hear Music album, Timeless, Mendes’
first new release in eight years. For Will (who claims Mendes’
“Slow Hot Wind,” reworked on Timeless as “That
Heat,” is the first song he ever sampled while still an East
L.A. teen), working with Sergio Mendes has been a dream come true.
As Will states: “This album has been fourteen years in the
making.”
Things began
rolling when Will invited Sergio to play piano on the cut “Sexy”
from the Peas’ multi-platinum Elephunk album. Much to his
amazement, Will discovered A&M Record’s President could
arrange a meeting with his idol. The seed was planted. And the rest,
as they say, is history.
“He came
to my house with a lot of old vinyl that I recorded many years ago,”
remembers Sergio. “And I was so surprised. It was like, ‘Wow!’
He knew every song. He knows every Brazilian riff. I could just
feel his passion for the music. We talked and I said, ‘You
know what? You love Brazilian music. Why don’t we bring the
Brazilian music and melodies to the hip-hop urban world and put
them together? I think we can make something really different.’”
“It turned
into a wonderful marriage of rhythms,” Sergio continues, “because
it’s all African rhythms and haunting melodies. It’s
all about the same beats that we inherited from Africa. It’s
that same common denominator that brought the samba to Brazil and
brought jazz to America. We had a ball.”
“Hip-hop
is urban to America,” adds Will, “but samba and bossa
nova are urban to Brazil. It’s two urban cultures clashing
and fusing together beautifully, because they all share a lot of
the same qualities.”
Putting together
the project, Will and Sergio, of course, brought in the Black Eyed
Peas. They also recruited some of the biggest urban-pop artists
of the last several decades, each a Sergio fan, to contribute to
various tracks. Featured artists include Erykah Badu, Justin Timberlake,
India.Arie, Q-Tip, John Legend, Jill Scott, Stevie Wonder, and members
of The Roots and Jurassic 5.
The involvement
of Wonder (Mendes wrote Portuguese lyrics to one of Wonder’s
songs many years ago) was fortuitous.
“Perfect
timing,” says Will. “Me and Sergio had just finished
in the studio at the Record Plant. Sergio left, and I was working
on stuff until four o’clock in the morning. Then Venus, my
partner, says ‘Hey, Stevie Wonder’s in the next hallway!’
So we went over and I said, ‘Mr. Wonder, I’m working
on the new Sergio Mendes project.’ Oh, I love Sergio!’
he says. ‘I haven’t seen Sergio in about 15 or 20 years.’
So I was like, ‘we’d love, love to have you play harmonica
or sing on one of the songs.’ He said, ‘Let me hear
what you guys got cooking up.’ So we walked over to the room,
played him ‘Consolacao.’ He says, ‘Let me get
a copy of that so I can take it home and learn the melody.’
And, then he came by two days later...”
“And it
was magic,” interjects Sergio.
“Pure
magic!” agrees Will.
It’s hardly surprising, though, that Mendes should also attract
the affection of younger superstars as well. You see, over the last
decade, despite his absence from the recording studio, Sergio Mendes
has recently become hip all over again. DJs have been sampling his
classic tracks in clubs. Japanese group Pizzicato Five have consistently
named him a major influence; same with Chicago hipsters, the Aluminum
Group.
Mendes’
music is so representative of his native Brazil, in fact, that the
aforementioned “Mas Que Nada,” his first hit, has become
synonymous with the country throughout the world. You’d almost
have to be a hermit to have never heard the track...and to not immediately
think of Brazil when you do. So it’s only fitting that a new
version of the song should be the song Sergio and Will agreed upon
to kickoff Timeless.
“From
the beginning, Will and I decided to revisit many of the classics
of the Brazilian songbook which I had recorded in the past,”
says Sergio. “The combination of those great melodies and
Will’s urban vision inspired me to bring those classics to
a new dimension and to the streets of the world. It was very challenging,
and I had a lot of fun with it.”
Among the album’s
15 tracks—which were recorded both in Brazil and at House
of Blues Studios in Encino, CA—is another rerecording of a
classic Mendes track, “The Frog,” featuring rapper Q-Tip.
Will notes that he had sampled jazzy, Latin samba rhythms as far
back as the early ‘90s on albums like Midnight Marauder, “so
we thought it would be a perfect match to hook him up with Sergio.”
Romantic R&B
crooner John Legend contributed vocals to a new song, “Please
Baby Don’t,” which Sergio recorded in Manhattan with
a band of New York-based Brazilian musicians, offering the same
type of classic melody here (and elsewhere throughout the entire
album) that made the pianist famous decades ago.
In many ways,
the guest vocalists’ involvement seemed to snowball as the
project evolved.
“I kept
wondering how I was going to get someone like Justin Timberlake
to like Brazilian music as much as I do,” explains Will. “But
then, lo and behold, all the things started to fall together. We
were making music and towards the end, Justin heard the India.Arie
song (which, incidentally, happened to be the album’s title
track). From that point on, he was like. ‘Yo! You gotta put
me on that Sergio Mendes project. That India.Arie track is just
crazy!’ And he ended up writing a song for Sergio and me.
So it just happened like, Woosh!’ That’s how a lot of
it actually came together.”
The young with
the legendary. Latin and African polyrhythms merged with American
urban music. More than 20 years after his last phenomenal hit, Sergio
Mendes has returned with an album that promises to be just as phenomenal
but even more revolutionary than his past smash accomplishments.
Will explains:
“In the ‘60s, there was hippie music and, you know,
soul music and rock, blues, jazz. And, then here comes Sergio Mendes
saying, ‘Hey, have you heard Brazilian music?’ And he
brought it to America. He imported it. You know what I mean? I’ve
worked with James Brown, and he’s the one who brought funk
to America. And now I’ve worked with Sergio Mendes, and he’s
also responsible for bringing a whole genre of music to the United
States. It’s like, you know, Earth, Wind & Fire wouldn’t
be Earth, Wind & Fire if Sergio Mendes hadn’t brought
samba and bossa nova to America.”
“But the
only reason that you can call Timeless a ‘Brazilian record’
is because of Sergio Mendes’ blood. He comes from Brazil so
therefore it’s a Brazilian record,” he adds.
“The melodies
are of Brazilian descent,” says Will. “But this album
is a universal album.”
“The melody
is always there,” says Sergio. “It comes in and makes
you dream. You can dance. And it’s a romantic thing. I think
people are going to find melodies to take home, to remember, to
get romantic to, to dance to, to drive to, and to dream to.
“But,
overall, yes, this is very universal.”
And, of course,
timeless.
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