Sergio Mendes back for concert on April 24

MANILA, Philippines - Here’s a piece of good news for millions of local music fans, especially those who go for bossa nova and jazz tunes.

For one special evening next month, the concert scene featuring foreign acts will be swept by the delightful and captivating sound of bossa nova from one of its greatest masters when Sergio Mendes returns with his band for a major concert on April 24 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 2012 Live In Manila!, to be mounted by Ovation Productions, will feature the bossa nova sensation from Brazil as he showcases his wonderful and easy-listening sound and style that has made him the most popular musician in South America and an international star in the past 50 years.

Sergio will take concert-goers through a breathtaking array of bossa nova hits, such as Mas Que Nada, Constant Rain (Chove Chuba), For Me, Night And Day, The Look Of Love, Fool On The Hill, Scarborough Fair, Pretty World, Never Gonna Let You Go, Rainbow’s End, Olympia and Alibis.

His other hit songs are The Trouble With Hello Is Goodbye, What Do We Mean To Each Other, Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing, If I Ever Lose This Heaven, Going Out Of My Head, Put A Little Love Away, Waiting For Love, Waters Of March, Please Baby Don’t, So Many Stars, Voce Abuso, Night And Day, Like A Lover, Love City, Bridges, Funky Bahia, and many more.

Sergio showed his musical interest as a young boy when he attended the local conservatory of music in his native Niteroi, Brazil with the hopes of becoming a classical pianist until he switched at 15 to bossa nova when the popular craze for the jazz-infected derivative of samba swept Rio de Janeiro in the mid-to-late-’50s.

After forming his own group, Sexteto Bossa Rio and recording Dance Moderno on the Philips Record label, Sergio moved in 1964 to the US, where he organized Brasil ’65 and recorded for Capitol Records. 

It was as Brasil ’66 that his band achieved instant success with the release on A&M Records of its self-titled debut album that featured a mix of light jazz, a bossa nova beat and contemporary soft pop melodies. The LP rose to No. 6 nationally on account of the strong performance of the single, Mas Que Nada. 

Other chart-topping albums followed, including Equinox, which churned a trio of hits — Night And Day, Constant Rain (Chove Chuva) and For Me — and Look Around, which climbed to No. 5 behind a No. 3 single of the group’s cover of The Beatles’ Fool On The Hill and an accompanying hit with Scarborough Fair, based on the Simon & Garfunkel version of the folk song.

The 1969 release, Crystal Illusions, featured a version of Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay and the hit single, Pretty World.

While his early singles with Brasil ’66 were quite impressive, Sergio really attained 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 rendition of the song quickly shot into the Top 10, peaking at No. 4 and surpassing Dusty Springfield’s version from the soundtrack of the hit James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

From 1968 onwards, Sergio was concededly the biggest star in the world of music, riding on a wave of immense international popularity and performing on a variety of venues, from stadium arenas to the White House, where he gave concerts for both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

After an absence of five year, Sergio returned to the music and entertainment scene in 1982, celebrating the event with his 1983 self-titled comeback album — his first Top 40 album in nearly a decade and a half — accompanied by his biggest chart single ever, Never Gonna Let You Go, which hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In 1984, he recorded Confetti, an album that featured the hit songs, Olympia, which was also used as a theme song for the Olympic Games held that year in Los Angeles, and Alibis.

By the time Sergio released his 1992 Grammy-winning album, Brasileiro, he was recognized as the undisputed master of pop-infected Brazilian jazz. During the same period, he performed with a new group, Brasil ’99 and more recently Brasil 2000 and has been integrating  the sounds of Bahian hip-hop into his music.

In 2006, Concord Records released Timeless, his first album of newly-recorded materials in eight years, and which featured a catalogue of neo-soul and alternative hip-hop guitarists, most prominent of which was will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas.

The album was followed by Encanto in 2008 and Bom Tempo in 2010.

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 2012 Live In Manila! is presented by Ovation Productions in association with Imarflex, Philippine Airlines, 2nd Avenue, Diva Universal, Talk TV, Universal Channel, Edsa Shangri-La Manila and RJ 100.3 FM.

It is also supported by The Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, BusinessWorld, Crossover 101.5, Monster Radio RX 93.1, Rock High 105.9 FM, Mellow 94.7, 97.9 Home Radio, The Rockwell Club, OptimaSignsolutions and ABS-CBN.

(Tickets are priced at P4,500, P4,000, P3,500, P2,500, P1,500 and P700 and are available at Ticketnet outlets located at SM Department Stores and at the Smart Araneta Coliseum ticket office. For details, call 911-5555.)