Encanto follows the highly acclaimed 2006 collaboration with will.i.am ‘Timeless’ and with this latest release, Sergio takes us even deeper into Brazil, having recorded all the basic tracks in Rio and Bahia and finally finishing up in Los Angeles.
For Encanto, Mendes has also enlisted the formidable and enchantingly diverse talents of an array of guest musicians who hail from the world over.
Latin superstar Juanes from Colombia and multi-talented Carlinhos Brown & Vanessa da Mata from Brazil jostle alongside the foremost Japanese pop group Dreams Come True, Belgium’s Zap Mama and Italian rapper Jovanotti.
This international cast is completed by the American stars Fergie, Ledisi, Natalie Cole and Herb Alpert who is accompanied by his wife, original Brasil ’66 singer, Lani Hall.
Encanto is classic Sergio Mendes, highlighting the maestro’s ear for enticing melodies and contagious rhythms.
On the new album, Mendes recorded four seminal Antonio Carlos Jobim compositions including a hip-hop version of Agua De Beber with Toninho Horta on guitar, Mendes' wife and longtime vocalist Gracinha Leporace, and the man himself showcasing his instrumental chops on a bewitching Rhodes piano solo.
Waters of March which features 2006 GRAMMY nominee Ledisi is also reprised in French by Afro-European vocal ensemble Zap Mama while Somewhere In The Hills features the inimitable vocals of Natalie Cole. Dreamer marks the first time that former mentor Herb Alpert has joined Sergio on record.
Perhaps the boldest cover on Encanto is a new version of Burt Bacharach's The Look Of Love which Mendes had originally transposed to bossa nova heaven in 1967.
This new interpretation, produced by Black Eyed Peas will.i.am, preserves the alluring melody of the original while bringing the song into the new millennium with crisp drum programming and a sexy rap by Fergie.
"Every time I make a new record, it’s a new adventure,' says Mendes. 'My main motivation is to record wonderful songs. In the process, I enjoy sharing with the world the diversity of Brazilian music, both in terms of rhythm and melody."
Mendes, who lived in Brazil during the historic era between the late '50s and the early '60s when the samba-based bossa nova was born, was one the first practitioners of the new genre. He established his legend by taking several albums and singles, such as Brasil 66, Mas Que Nada and his most successful hit The Look of Love to the top of the pop charts throughout the mid 1960s, right up to the late 1970s.