Sérgio Mendes Dies: Brazilian Pop Pioneer, Hit Maker & Herb Alpert Collaborator Was 83
deadline.comSérgio Mendes, the Brazilian composer, arranger and pianist whose melding of his native country’s traditional music with ’60s-vintage American pop, bossa nova, samba, funk and hints of cool jazz became one of the decade’s most beloved and popular sounds, died peacefully Thursday in Los Angeles.
He was 83. His death was announced by his family to the Guardian news organization. According to a family statement, Mendes died following several months of ill health caused by the effects of long-term Covid. “His wife and musical partner for the past 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his side, as were his loving children,” reads the family statement.
According to the family, Mendes last performed in November 2023 to sold out “and wildly enthusiastic houses” in Paris, London and Barcelona.
One of Brazil’s most influential crossover artists beginning in the 1960s, Mendes, often in association with his friend and collaborator Herb Alpert, scored a string of lilting, jazzy, Burt Bacharach-style hits, most notably in his covers of Beatles songs “All My Loving,” “Day Tripper” and “With A Little Help From My Friends.” Perhaps most lost cover arrived in 1968 with “The Look of Love,” the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song first made famous by Dusty Springfield.
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