Record of the day: Sergio Mendes, “The Swinger from Rio”

Sergio Mendes
The Swinger from Rio (Cd Atlantic 8122754432)

The first of three albums made in the '60s for Atlantic by the great Brazilian arranger and pianist, “The Swinger from Rio” features a remarkable series of guests of honor including Antonio Carlos Jobim on guitar, Art Farmer on trumpet, Phil Woods on sax and Hubert Laws on flute. With names of this caliber the quality of the solos is assured, and despite Mendes' young age (when he recorded the album he was only 23 years old) the writing of the arrangements and the orchestrations demonstrate an enviable confidence, the same that in a short time he has led Mendes to be one of the leading figures within the Brazilian music scene.

Already a collaborator of Cannonball Adderley on the album “Cannonball's Bossa Nova”, Sergio had participated in the famous 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York together with musicians such as João Gilberto and Gary Burton, making himself noticed among his colleagues for his crystalline qualities as a pianist in capable of accompanying with notable harmonious taste and lightness of touch.
Thanks to his friendship with producer Nesuhi Ertegun, Mendes landed at the label that hosted John Coltrane and Charlie Mingus
bringing with him his wealth of jazz, pop, traditional Brazilian music combined with that taste for pop phrasing which will bring him numerous triumphs in the charts all over the world with Brasil '66, standard bearers of Brazilian lounge and still famous today.

This album is less aimed at the jukebox audience and provides robust injections of jazz flavor into classics such as
“Maria Moita”, “Uma Batida Differente” and “So Danco Samba”, revisited in a very different way from what was fashionable in those years, for example in the jazz-samba collections of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd. The musical texture is relaxed but not superficial, the themes are exposed clearly and subsequently embellished by instrumental interventions of absolute discretion and taste.

We are certainly far from the expressive variety of João Gilberto himself or Milton Nascimento, here we find ourselves in full luxury entertainment (almost a musical holiday for the magnificent soloists who participate) but the final result is never predictable and gives us a very pleasant listening experience ; even “The Girl from Ipanema” is revisited in a non-trivial way thanks to the flowing rhythm provided by Chico De Souza (drums) and Tiao Netto (bass).

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.