Sérgio Mendes despatched Brazil’s occasion spirit out into the world

Over many years he had grown accustomed to the issues they preferred to say. That his music was “lounge”, raise, airport, cruise-liner, burbling throughout the aisles as consumers debated what to purchase. That it had no focus, construction or that means, and was “straightforward listening” in a nutshell. Sérgio Mendes merely didn’t care. He took “straightforward” as a praise, that means the melodies had been robust, and would merely flash his sunny, barely buck-tooth smile and hunch at his piano to present them extra.