| Product Summary | | Label: Concord Records | | UPC: 00013431226321 | | Release Date: 2/14/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 202154804 | | Item#: M2SVJ3 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25079 | Format:  CD |
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(P) 2006 Concord Music Group, Inc
(C) 2006 Concord Music Group, Inc
| Sergio Mendes is one of the most enduring artists to hail from musically and culturally rich Brazil. His signature blending of Brazilian music with American pop - as epitomized by his Brazil '66 band and such mega-hits as "Mas Que Nada" - have made him one of the most popular and beloved Brazilian artists of all time. Time and time again, Mendes has proven that creative innovation and musical accessibility needn't be mutually exclusive. Rather, they can blend artfully in a celebratory musical style that invites everyone to the party. Speaking of innovation and inclusiveness, if there's anyone knows how make music that will get a party started it's Black Eyed Peas's refreshingly eclectic mastermind/rapper/producer Will.i.am. Here, at Sergio's party, the list of invited guests is A-list all the way: Will.i.am (as producer and performer), Black Eyed Peas, Q-Tip, Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott, John Legend, Erykah Badu, Justin Timberlake, Pharoahe Monch, Chali 2na, Black Thought (of The Roots), Marcelo D2, and others. Melding Sergio Mendes's classic, infectious mix of Brazilian bossa nova and samba rhythms, jazz, and pop music with the fresh-as-tomorrow, modern hip-hop production flavor of Will.i.am, this constantly grooving mix of classic and modern sounds is - in a word - Timeless.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | The phenomenon of legendary older musicians working with younger contemporary artists to broaden artistic and commercial possibilities had almost become its own genre by the mid-2000s. Sergio Mendes's 2006 release TIMELESS keeps that trend alive and kicking. In a full-scale collaboration with Black Eyed Peas, Mendes updates the Brazilian pop he mastered in the 1960s by infusing it with R&B and hip-hop. | | The synthesis should come as no surprise. Amid the reggaeton craze of the 2000s, who better to lay down Latin-flavored tracks for MCs than Mr. Brazil 66 himself? But the real clincher here is the roster of guest stars which includes Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, the Roots, and the aforementioned Black Eyed Peas, among many others. The odd, yet surprisingly successful combos (Timberlake and underground MC Pharoahe Monch anyone?) mix Mendes's bossa nova and samba with equal doses mainstream pop, funky soul, and hard-edged rap, revealing the polymorphous possibilities in the master's sound, and creating an album that is certainly timely, if not timeless. | | It's easy to think that since Santana made his big comeback using a lot of contemporary pop stars it would become the formula for the artists of yore to edge their way back into the limelight. Sergio Mendes, the best-selling Brazilian recording artist of all time, hasn't made a platter in eight years. He plays piano on a Black Eyed Peas track -- "Sexy" from Elephunk -- and the jam's a smash. Will.i.am of the Peas decides to hook up for a full-on collaboration with Mendes, because he's a huge fan. Being the hotshot producer of the moment, will.i.am recruited everyone from Q-Tip, Justin Timberlake, and John Legend to Jill Scott, Black Thought (the Roots), and Stevie Wonder (just to name a few) to sign on. Recorded in both Brazil and the House of Blues in Encino, the set revisits many Mendes and Brazilian songbook classics and reworks them in the modern beat-driven idiom. Needless to say, the end result is entertaining, if mixed. Let it be said that a cut like "Mas Que Nada" should never have been covered, let alone redone. But it is here with Black Eyed Peas and some backing vocals with, of course, Mendes playing that trademark piano riff. OK, "That Heat" is a reworking of "Slow Hot Wind," the Henry Mancini tune Mendes covered and is supposedly the first track will.i.am ever sampled at the ripe old age of 14. Here Erykah Badu croons in a sultry humid way as will.i.am goes down deep with the rap. Mendes' piano is what keeps the thing from falling completely apart. Better is the Baden Powell-Vinicius de Moraes medley of "Berimbau/Consolacao." Mendes' Rhodes offers the vamp that the elegant chorus singers -- Gracinha Leporace, Debi Nova, and Kleber Jorge -- and Mendes groove to. Will.i.am lays down some rather organic-sounding electronic percussion that sounds like palmas, and Wonder blows his harmonica over the entire proceeding as Jorge's guitar strides alongside Mendes' piano. This may be the best cut on the set. There is a fine case to be made for the humor in "The Frog," written by Joao Donato, and originally covered by Mendes. Q-Tip lays down a charming rhyme and Mendes' Wurlitzer work is killer. The cover of "Let Me" is stiff and Jill Scott, as fine a singer as she is, doesn't cut it here, and neither does the rhythm track. The smoother than smooth "Please Baby Don't," written and sung by John Legend, works because of Legend's understanding of Brazilian rhythm and Mendes' piano groove that carries the voice. "Samba da Bencao," with Marcelo D2 and guitars by the Maogani Quartet, is engaging; Mendes' acoustic piano solo is beautiful, as are the horn charts. The title track with India.Arie is simply beautiful. Aire, with backing vocals by Nova and Leporace and a slinky guitar part by Jorge, makes the tune simply float as Mendes decorates it with Rhodes and synth. Timeless is a mixed bag, but it's not because of Mendes. His own playing and arranging is utterly elegant. As a producer, will.i.am means well and in general does a fine job -- though he is, as would be expected, a tad overzealous in working with one of his idols. Timeless may not actually achieve that status, but for the moment it's a fine effort that doesn't reek of cloying commercial manipulation and feels like a true collaboration. ~ Thom Jurek |
Musical Guests | | Black Eyed Peas | | Erykah Badu | | Stevie Wonder | | Jill Scott | | Mr. Vegas | | John Legend | | India.Arie | | Justin Timberlake | | Q-Tip | | Will.I.Am | | Gracinha Leporace | | Marcelo D2 | | Pharoahe Monch | | Guinga | | Maogani Quartet | | Black Thought | | Debi Nova | | Chali 2NA |
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| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 02/14/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 2263 | | Label : Concord Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00013431226321 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.68)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he album relaxes halfway through with lush, newly written ballads....When TIMELESS succeeds, it's beautiful, boundary-breaking music."Entertainment Weekly (p.64)
- "[This] set of gentle samba-jazz-rap is a pleasant surprise..." -- Grade: B JazzTimes (p.78)
- "[I]t is Mendes who is the album's backbone -- his piano work forming the solid centerline that assuredly, passionately defines every joyous bump, crevice and curve." |
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| | Bio | | | Sergio Mendes Sergio Mendes is the most internationally successful Brazilian artist of all time. From the mid 1960's to the late ?70's, Mendes established his legend by taking numerous albums and singles, such as ?Brasil 66", ?Mas Que Nada,? and ?The Look of Love", to the top of the pop charts. Sergio Mendes has been recording since 1961, and he was playing the legendary NYC jazz club, Birdland, with his band by 1962. After signing to A&M Records in 1966, he immediately became the biggest Brazilian artist of the decade - which is really saying something when you consider that it was also the decade of the bossa nova and the huge hit, ?Girl From Ipanema,? both phenomenons. Sort of a Brazilian counterpart to A&M label head Herb Alpert?s own Tijuana Brass, Mendes? Brasil ?66 featuring two of the sexiest, most beautiful female vocalist of the era, including Lain Hall (who later married Herb Alpert) - reached the top of the Billboard singles charts with smashes like ?The Look of Love? (which immediately became a perennial standard upon release), covers of ?Scarborough Fair", and ?The Fool on the Hill", and, probably their signature song, ?Mas Que Nada.? Mendes? albums kept charting throughout the ?70s. In 1983, he scored one of the biggest hits of his career with the amazing ?Never Going to Let You Go,? which reached the top of the AC, Pop and Black Singles charts. In 1993 Mendes won a Grammy Award for his album Brasileiro. Mendes? music is so representative of his native Brazil, in fact, that the aforementioned ?Mas Que Nada", his first hit, has become synonymous with the country throughout the world. You?d almost have to be a hermit to have never heard the track...and to not immediately think of Brazil when you do. So it?s only fitting that a new version of the song should be the song Sergio and Will agreed upon to kickoff Timeless.
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