Trib talks with Brazilian music pioneer Sergio Mendes about new PBS documentary

The 1960s are remembered as a decade with dramatic cultural changes taking place to a rock music soundtrack.

But psychedelic rock wasn’t the only music shaking up the U.S. pop scene in the swinging ’60s.

Perhaps Eartha Kitt said it best when she introduced a pioneering Brazilian jazz musician and his unique fusion group singing songs in Portuguese on her syndicated television series.

“Tonight I’m proud to present a new look, a new sound, a new approach that certainly spells Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66,” she said.

To say it was a new approach was an understatement. On stage emerged a sextet including Mendes on piano, a stand-up bass player, drummer, another percussionist and two women, including the incomparable Lani Hall, doing simultaneous lead vocals. The four male members joined in as the chorus.

The look and sound of the band as it combined jazz with a bossa nova beat was as delicious as a fresh plate of homemade brigadeiros. The group opened with “Mas que Nada” from its first album “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66.” The song was a huge hit and propelled the album to platinum status.

That was 55 years ago and today, despite recently turning 80, Mendes is still going strong and has an upcoming concert planned in the Hollywood Bowl.

The three-time Grammy Award winner’s amazing musical legacy is brilliantly captured in a new public television special “Sergio Mendes & Friends: A Celebration.” It debuts on WQED-TV’s Showcase Channel (Ch. 13.4) as a pledge special on Wednesday at midnight and 4 p.m. and will be shown many more times in the month of June.

The program was created for PBS and is derived from the forthcoming feature documentary “Sergio Mendes: In the Key of Joy” by filmmaker John Scheinfeld.

Scheinfeld does a masterful job of telling Mendes’ life story — from his early childhood fascination with instruments and his classical piano training — to his discovery of jazz and desire to bring his unique sensibility to it as a composer and performer.

“It’s my journey, it’s the story of my life,” said Mendes in an interview with the Tribune-Review from his home in Los Angeles. “(Scheinfeld) did a great job and I’m very happy with it.”

Plenty of performance clips from nearly every phase of Mendes’ career are pulled from the archives, including ones from the famous “Brasil ’66” performance on Kitt’s show. Mendes speaks with pride of the role he played in popularizing Brazilian music around the world and having the first all-Portuguese pop hit in the U.S. with “Mas que Nada.”

“It was a big surprise. It became a big hit all over the world — in Japan, in France. It had a very catchy melody,” said Mendes. “You can’t forget that melody. You go to bed and it stays on your mind.”

“Sergio Mendes & Friends” shows how “Mas que Nada” became a hit again 40 years later when Mendes re-recorded the song with the Black Eyed Peas and added vocals by his wife, Gracinha Leporace, who was also a member of “Brasil ’66.”

While many older, established artists might balk at performing with hip-hop or rap performers, the show documents Mendes’ constant evolution as an artist who has embraced opportunities to perform with such luminaries as Common and will.i.am.

“When I met will.i.am, he knew all my songs and I liked him very much,” said Mendes. “He’s very musical, he’s very intuitive. And with Common, it just was a natural thing. It didn’t happen out of a master plan or anything. It just happened out of a great encounter between two musicians that love what we do. I love to work with musicians of different cultures, different ages.”

Other collaborators featured in “Sergio Mendes & Friends” are Quincy Jones, John Legend and trumpeter Herb Alpert, who produced the first “Brasil ’66” album and says of Mendes in the special, “He does it for the love of the art.”

For his part, Scheinfeld said Mendes was an irresistible subject for a film.

“Sergio’s warmth, humor and appreciation of life through all the senses made me feel a strong connection with him and I want others to feel the same way,” he said. “His life is an exceptional blend of encounters, spontaneity and serendipity.”