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Sergio Mendes in concert at the MACC tonight

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of his legendary group Brasil ’66, Grammy-winning Brazilian icon Sergio Mendes has been busy touring and recording.

Recently presenting “An Olympic Carnival” concert over two nights at the Hollywood Bowl, he also just performed at the Tokyo Jazz Festival. And in time for the Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Mendes released the horn-driven samba “Se Ligae,” teamed with Baby do Brasil and Rogerio Flausino.

So how does it feel to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Brasil ’66?

“It’s wonderful,” says the celebrated keyboardist/composer/bandleader. “I feel blessed and lucky to have had such a long career and do what I love to do. My wife (Gracinha Leporace, who has performed with him since the early 1970s) sings with the band, so we travel together. It’s been a great life.”

Acclaimed for ubiquitous, international hits like “Mas Que Nada,” “The Look of Love” and “Magalenha,” Mendes is the world’s most popular Brazilian musician. Over time he’s recorded with a host of leading musicians including Stevie Wonder, Antonio Carlos Jobim, will.i.am, John Legend, Milton Nascimento and India.Arie. Born in the Brazilian city of Niteroi, Mendes’ love for music began with classical piano. Then around the age of 12, a childhood friend introduced him to Dave Brubeck’s iconic “Take Five.”

“Somebody played me the Dave Brubeck record and it was a wakeup for me,” he recalls. “I had never heard jazz music before. I’m a big jazz fan and I was fortunate to record with Cannonball Adderley and so many great jazz musicians.”

Emerging from the cafes and clubs of Rio in the 1950s, the new sound of bossa nova would conquer the world. This musical style drew on samba, filtered through a cool Rio beach culture sensibility that epitomized Brazil. The bossa nova craze in the United States was sparked by a legendary concert at Carnegie Hall in 1962. Captured on the album “Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall,” it featured rising Brazilian music stars like Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Mendes, along with American jazz greats Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.

“It was amazing,” he emphasizes. “To be there with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie, for me it was like a dream happened.”

During this first New York visit, Mendes headed to the Birdland club to hear jazz legend Cannonball Adderley play and he ended up sitting in with him and subsequently recording “Cannonball’s Bossa Nova.”

After a move to the U.S., Mendes auditioned for trumpeter Herb Alpert, who had founded A&M Records after the success of his own group.

“He came to an audition and I was signed to A&M,” Mendes explains. “It was a perfect moment. He married my singer Lani Hall. The two of them were my guests at the Hollywood Bowl in L.A. and performed a couple of songs with me. It was wonderful.”

To win over American audiences it was suggested that Mendes hire two female vocalists who could sing in English and Portuguese, and that they cover U.S. hit records, and thus Brasil ’66 was born.

Alpert produced the new band’s first single, the eminently catchy “Mas Que Nada,” which would become a hit internationally and be the first and only song sung in Portuguese to crack the U.S. pop charts.

“It was one of those magical melodies,” he recalls. “It was the only time a song in Portuguese became a hit all over the world. It became like the national anthem of Japan.”

Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor wrote the liner notes for Brasil ’66’s debut album. “I cannot see how substantial international achievement can elude this group who have marketed, with considerable taste, a delicately-mixed blend of pianistic jazz, subtle Latin nuances, Lennon-McCartneyisms, a touch of Bacharach, cool, minor chords, danceable up-beat, gentle laughter and a little sex,” he wrote.

This iconic album, “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66,” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.

The hits continued with lightly samba-fied renditions of pop hits like “Fool on the Hill,” “The Look of Love” and “Scarborough Fair.”

After finding success with Brazilian-flavored versions of pop hits, Mendes would return to his nation’s rich heritage on wonderful albums like “Primal Roots” in 1972, which included traditional percussion instruments such as the agogo and atabaques hand drum, and the Afro-Brazilian masterpiece “Brasileiro,” which won the Best World Music Grammy in 1993, and featured the 15-member Bahian percussion group Vai Quem Vem and around 100 drummers from Rio’s top samba schools.

Like Santana, who revived his career playing with contemporary pop stars, in 2006 Mendes reached out to an array of musicians from Stevie Wonder, will.i.am and John Legend, to India.Arie and Justin Timberlake for “Timeless.” Opening with a hip-hop version of his classic “Mais Que Nada” with the Black Eyed Peas, it included terrific tracks like the Gracinha Leporace and Wonder duet on “Berimbau/Consolacao.”

“We’re thinking about ‘Timeless 2,’ ” says Mendes. “He’s (will.i.am) a wonderful musician, full of creativity and ideas, and a great collaborator in the studio. He’s 40 and I’m 75. He knows everything I’ve ever recorded, every song.”

When the creators of the hit animated “Rio” movies were looking for music for the soundtracks, they turned to Mendes. In addition to being the executive music producer for “Rio,” he also contributed five songs to the movie and the “Rio: Music from the Motion Picture” soundtrack, which included the Oscar-nominated “Real in Rio.”

The soundtrack for “Rio 2” was even more adventurous, showing the diversity of Brazilian music by including artists like Uakti, Babatuques, Carlinhos Brown, and the great Milton Nascimento.

“The film had the story like that with the birds traveling around Brazil,” he explains. “It was an incredible experience to work with director Carlos Saldanha.”

Nascimento and Brown were among the musicians contributing to Mendes’ most recent recording, “Magic,” which earned him a Grammy nomination in 2015 for Best World Music Album. Legend, will.i.am and Janelle Monae were also on board.

“I love to work with people from different cultures and different ages,” he says. I wrote a song and John Legend wrote the lyrics, so it was a great experience.”

Making his Maui debut tonight in the Castle Theater, the best-selling Brazilian recording artist of all time says he especially loves performing music of his native culture because of the joy it brings people.

“Brazilian music has characteristics that are appealing all over the world,” he concludes. “It’s romantic, the melodies are very catchy, it’s sunny, it’s very sexy, and you can dance to it.”

***

It was another successful Maui Jazz & Blues Festival on Saturday night at the Royal Lahaina Resort in Kaanapali.

Among the stars performing, brilliant trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis offered a lesson in jazz history exploring the music of Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. Making their Hawaii debut, accordionist Wayne Toups, guitarist Steve Riley and fiddle player Wilson Savoy immersed the crowd in joyful Cajun music.

Fusion guitar legend Larry Coryell teamed with saxophonist Javon Jackson for some fiery jazz, opening with Sonny Rollins’ classic “St. Thomas” and bringing back Marsalis for terrific versions of Miles Davis’ standard “All Blues” and Joe Zawinul’s soulful “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” And cranking up the heat, blues/rock guitar great Joe Louis Walker (got the audience dancing to vintage hits like Ike Turner’s “Rocket 88” and Fats Domino’s “I’m Ready.”

As usual, Maui jazz musicians like drummer Paul Marchetti, keyboardist Brian Cuomo and bassist Dave Graber were exemplary backing the legends; and special praise goes to guitarist Benny Uyetake, who seems to get better ever year.

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