Brazilian music legend Sergio Mendes is dead at age 88, his family announced Friday.
The Grammy-winning pianist, songwriter and arranger died in Los Angeles on Thursday with Gracinha Leporace Mendes, his wife and musical partner of 54 years, and his children by his side. Mendes last performed in November 2023, his family said, and had been battling health issues from the effects of long Covid.
Mendes first rose to fame with his 1960s hit, “Mas que Nada,” and popularized the bossa nova music genre worldwide. He gave the song a hip-hop update in 2006 for his “Timeless” album, produced by will.i.am and featuring collaborations with the Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, Erykah Badu and Stevie Wonder.
Mendes’ credits also included “Magalenha,” “The Look of Love,” “The Fool on the Hill,” and “Never Gonna Let You Go,” plus contributions to the “Rio” movie soundtracks, producing the James Bond theme song “Never Say Never Again” (performed by Lani Hall), appearing as himself in the John Travolta movie “Be Cool” (a sequel to “Get Shorty”), and composing the score for the film “Pelé,” about the Brazil soccer legend. Mendes won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for “Brasileiro” in 1992 and was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for his original song “Real in Rio,” from the Blue Sky Studios animated film “Rio.”
His global sound, which also included elements of pop, funk and jazz music, was one of the highlights of the 2008 Syracuse Jazz Fest. Mendes headlined opening night of the festival with his backing band, Brasil 2008, in front of an estimated 7,000 fans on the Onondaga Community College campus, according to The Post-Standard archives.
“Mendes let the crowd experience a dash of his old sound and a heaping helping of his pop pushed into the new world,” a concert review said.
will.i.am mourned the loss with a photo of Mendes on Instagram Stories, captioned “A timeless friendship.”
Trumpet player Herb Alpert called Mendes “my brother from another country.”
“He was a true friend and extremely gifted musician who brought Brazilian music in all its iterations to the entire world with elegance,” Alpert wrote on Facebook.