Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Greatest Hits

This 1983 reissue of the best selling 1970 "Sergio Mendes & Brasil'66-Greatest Hits", while being a perfectly a enjoyable compilation of Mendes and Brazil'66 is a marginal collection. It's not even an adequate snapshot of Brazil'66 music for a casual or novice fan.

A thorny issue with Mendes fans is a great deal of his music from his native Brazil is conspicuously absent from this album. "Greatest Hits" contains the sublime "Mais Que Nada" but excludes the rest of their tropicale repetoire that covered Brazilian composers like Jorge Ben, Joao Gilberto and Antonio Jobim. Since Sergio Mendes was largely responsible for making Americans aware of Brazilian songwriters, the omisson is bewildering.

The primary complaint is the 12 song, the less than 30 minute runtime of "Greatest Hits." It's an embarrasingly thin compilation of any artist, particularly since Mendes was prolific at the height of his career.

Apparently A&M producer and owner, Herb Alpert's miserly "chop shop" approach to packaging "selected hits" is a highly successful retail strategy. This "Greatest Hits" title is far and away the best selling title in the entire back catalog of Brazil'66 music. A&M continues to milk the licensing rights and have leased the music Brazil'66 to third parties for an additional 23 inferior Sergio Mendes collections. This marketing strategy maximizes profits but erodes the artistic value of an artist by flooding the market with less than flattering productions of his collected works. A&M has treated Brazil'66 legacy as a cash cow to be butchered into prime cuts and sold to the highest bidder. Mendes and Brazil'66 deserve better treatment.

Two other A&M Brazil'66 collections, "Four Sider" and "Classics Vol. 18" have more songs, and a better sampling of their Brazil tropicale music. "Four Sider" retails at the same price as "Greatest Hits" and has nearly twice as much music. Unfortunely, even these meatier collections of Brazil'66 fall short of being definitive. Surely Herb Alpert can afford to spring for 70 minute full content compact disc collection of Brazil'66. 30 minutes, by today's digital runtime standards,is less than a half an album.

The critical re-assesment of Mendes' significance as worldbeat innovator is long been overdue. His music is no longer marginalized by critics as frothy easy-listening lightweight fare. Sergio Mendes visionary fusion of popular music, Brazilian music and jazz, had anticipated the rise of worldbeat music by almost 20 years. Frist rate jazz musicians like guitarist John Pisano were in Brazil '66. It's gratifying to see that Mendes is finally becoming accepted on his own terms as a musical pioneer who played a pivotal role in bringing the joys of Brazilian music to the attention of people all over the world.

There are two kinds of people: those who know "Mais Que Nada" and those who do not. The former are much, much cooler people than the later. You can be cool too by buying and listening to "Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Greatest Hits."

To the uninitiated, the music at first listen may sound "cheesy." After awhile though, the cool, cool Latin sound seeps into you, and you realize that even the numerous Beatle's covers are really quite nice. You become enamoured with "Look of Love" and "Like a Lover." Soon this is one of your favorite albums.

In case you have trouble with the Portuguese, here are some lyrics to get you started so you can impress that young lady:

Oaria' raio^
Oba' Oba' Oba'
Mas que nada
Sai da minha frente
Eu quero passar
Pois o samba esta' animado
O que eu quero e' sambar
Este samba
Que e' misto de maracatu
E' samba de preto velho
Samba de preto tu
Mas que nada
Um samba como esse ta~o legal
Voce^ na~o vai querer
Que eu chegue no final

Enjoy your new-found suave-ness!

Many pleasing and delightful samba beats and colorings on this greatest hits collection. Cover tunes abound for this group as its interesting to hear Beatles tunes With A Little Help From My Friends, Day Tripper, and Fool On The Hill with the soothing latin jazz touches. Mais Que Nada is a delightful original composition that is worth mentioning as is the interpretation of Pretty World.

The soft singers real gently massage my soul and the keyboards are creative whether loud or soft. These guys did not blow you away with instrumental prowess or chart with enthusiasm like other acts of the day. However, the experience is pleasant enough so that any fan of Herb Alpert or samba stylings might want to gives this compilation an extensive listen.

This is one of the first albums I bought, after graduating high school and moving into my first apartment. I danced around that apt, in my newfound freedom, to the most uplifting and fun music! I usually had it on as I was getting ready to go out-Mais Que Nada is a song that begs a party. I just recently bought the CD (I lost my record collection years ago after many, many moves) and I love the memories it evokes. The sounds are as fresh and fun as when I bought the album way back in 1977. This copy isn't getting misplaced!

It's rare to find an album that can transport you through time and space, to be able to take you from where you are and drop you in the tropics decades ago, and make you delighted you arrived.

Sergio Mendes is a contemporary of Antonio Carlos Jobim, one of the greats from the Latin Jazz scene, Burt Bacharach, the legendary pop composer, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney, as well as singer/songwriter Paul Simon. Mendes was clever enough to use what he knew was good material (Cole Porter? Ok. That's not bad!) and got his group, headed by the beautiful voice of lead singer Lani Hall, and put the Brasil flavor on these familiar songs, completely reinventing them in a way that sounds fresh and exciting, even today!

Besides the group's signature song sung in Portuguese, "Mais Que Nada" (now very familiar to anyone who has seen the "Austin Powers" films), there are several songs written and co-written by Mendes, and the arrangements are top notch. They don't make records like this anymore.

I feel that the only notable imperfection in this album is the track order. When this collection first appeared on vinyl (!), the songs were stacked differently, and to my mind more correctly. But at least they're all here! Beatle fans, Bacharach fans, and Jazz fans will certainly embrace this disc. It is truly the easiest of "Easy Listening" music, and will make you think twice about that term being a pejorative!

Highly Recommended.