No more rumors, it’s official: Sergio Mendes is returning to the studio this summer to begin work on his next album. And as speculation begins to swirl around ‘Rio 3’, a featured documentary about the Bossa Master’s life is in the works, too.
Details are as muddled as a well-made caipirinha, but this article from Billboard’s Judy Cantor-Navas, continues: “Mendes is renowned as the man who put go-go boots on Brazilian music and brought it to the world with his evergreen hit “Mas Que Nada.”
“Of course my personal musical journey is related to a very important period of Brazilian music,” the 76-year-old Mendes said via an exuberant email from Brazil, where the film is in production…rehearsing with musicians for one of the documentary’s performance sequences. “When I began my life as a musician, it was the early days of bossa nova, which was the sound that would seduce and enchant the world, making Brazilian music internationally known! And the beauty of it is that, as I work today with a young generation of brilliant musicians such as will.i.am, John Legend, India Arie, Jill Scott, Justin Timberlake, etc., they are still seduced by those beautiful melodies and rhythms, which remain as magical and relevant as ever!”
The film will include archival footage and family photos, interviews with Mendes’ contemporaries and artists he influenced, and, of course, music from throughout his career.
A new album and documentary set for Sergio Mendes. Now that’s something worth waiting for.
