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Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - 1966-72 - Masquerade (1980)
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk. Mendes is married to Gracinha Leporace who regularly performs vocals for her husband and can also be heard on his 2006 version of the Jorge Ben Jor song "Mas Que Nada" with Black Eyed Peas. The original lineup of Brasil '66 was Mendes (piano), vocalists Lani Hall and Janis Hansen (singer), Bob Matthews (bass), José Soares (percussion) and João Palma (drums). John Pisano guested as guitarist. This line-up recorded three albums between 1966-1968 (including the best-selling Look Around LP), before there was a major personnel change for their fourth album Fool on the Hill. Karen Philipp replaced Hansen as the second female vocalist, while veteran drummer Dom Um Romão teamed with Rubens Bassini to assume percussionist duties.Claudio Slon was to join the group as drummer in 1969, and played with Mendes for nearly a decade. Sebastiao Neto was the new bassist and Oscar Castro-Neves the guitarist. This line up had a more orchestrated and big band sound than their predecessors. Most significantly, in the early 1970s, lead singer Hall pursued a solo career and became Alpert's second wife. Some accounts claim that Mendes was upset with Alpert for years for "stealing" Hall away from his group. Though his early singles with Brasil '66 (most notably "Mas Que Nada") met with some success, Mendes really burst into mainstream prominence when he performed the Oscar-nominated Burt Bacharach and Hal David song "The Look of Love" on the Academy Awards telecast in April 1968. Brasil '66's version of the song quickly shot into the top 10, peaking at #4 and eclipsing Dusty Springfield's version from the soundtrack of the movie, Casino Royale. Mendes spent the rest of 1968 enjoying consecutive top 10 and top 20 hits with his follow-up singles, "The Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair." From 1968 on, Mendes was arguably the biggest Brazilian star in the world, enjoying immense popularity worldwide and performing in venues as varied as stadium arenas and the White House, where he gave concerts for both Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. The Brasil '66 group appeared at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan in June 1970. Disc 1 01 - Wichita Lineman 02 - Norwegian Wood 03 - Look Who's Mine 04 - Masquerade 05 - Prety World 06 - Dois Dias 07 - You Stepped Out Of A Dream 08 - Crystal Illusions (Memorias De Marta Sare) Disc 2 01 - (Sittin' On)The Dock Of The Bay 02 - Viola Enluarda 03 - Song Of No Regrets 04 - Salt Sea 05 - Empty Faces 06 - Ye-Me-Le 07 - Easy To Be Hard 08 - Where Are You Coming From 09 - Sometime Ago 10 - What The World Needs Now LINK
