Promotional image of the LP reissue of the album 'Herb Alpert presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil’66', released in 1966 Disclosure ? NEWS ? When the pianist, composer and arranger from Rio de Janeiro Sergio Mendes (February 11, 1941 – September 5, 2024) died at the age of 83 in Los Angeles (USA), almost two years ago, the artist's obituaries niteroiense highlighted Mendes' worldwide explosion in 1966. The explosion was with the album “Herb Alpert presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil’66”, released in 1966 by the record label A&M Records with an exuberant and generally extroverted sound that infected foreign ears. With this album, the pianist put his own sauce on Brazilian bossa and represented it to the United States – and consequently to the entire Western pop universe – two years after the release of “Garota de Ipanema” in the USA in 1964 in the voice of singer Astrud Gilberto (1940 – 2023) in a recording made for the anthological album by jazz saxophonist Stan Getz (1927 – 1991) with João Gilberto (1931 – 2019). With the group Brasil'66, Sergio Mendes gave a Latin touch to the national balance and seduced the North American people in an album that was triggered by the recording of “Mas que nada”, the samba that introduced author Jorge Ben to Brazil in 1963. Since then, Sergio Mendes' global sound has become the most complete translation of Brazilian bossa for foreign ears, including in Europe and Japan. The LP reissue of the album “Herb Alpert presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil’66” – with vinyl made in green in line with the tropical image on the cover – celebrates the 60th anniversary of the album that definitively put pianist Sergio Mendes’ name on the pop world map, two years after the Brazilian musician settled in the United States in 1964. With Mendes’ piano, drums by Rio de Janeiro rhythmist João Palma (1943 – 2016), bass by North-American Bob Matthews (1935 – 2022) and the percussion of José Soares, in addition to the voice of the American singer Lani Hall, the Brasil’66 ensemble set the Beatles (“Day tripper”) in the atmosphere of Latin jazz and revamped in expansive tones songs such as “O Pato” (Jayme Silva and Neuza Teixeira, 1960), “Samba de uma Nota Só” (Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, 1959, in English version “One note samba”) and “Água de bebe” (Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, 1961). Not to mention the pearl “Tim dom dom” (João Mello and Clodoaldo Brito, Codó da Bahia), a song released in 1962 by João Donato (1934 – 2023) on the album “Very comfortable” and rewound the following year by Jorge Ben on the same album “Samba schema novo” (1963) in which Sergio Mendes produced the samba “Mas que nada”, a lever from the 1966 LP. which became a landmark of Brazilian music in the world and which now returns to its original physical format in the wake of the revaluation of vinyl.