AOTW: Sergio Mendes & the New Brasil '77

What is your favorite track?

  • Love Me Tomorrow

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Love City

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mozambique

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • If You Leave Me Now

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • Peninsula

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • Why

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • The Real Thing

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • P-Ka-Boo

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Life

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6
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Harry

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Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77
SERGIO MENDES & THE NEW BRASIL '77

Elektra 7E-1102

NewBrasil77_2.jpg


Available on Elektra CD from Japan and Collectors Choice CD from the US.

Tracks:

Side One:
1. Love Me Tomorrow (David Paich) 3:25
2. Love City (Stevie Wonder-Marietta Waters) 3:31
3. Mozambique (Mendes-Sembello-Watts-Neto) 3:02
4. If You Leave Me Now (Peter Cetera) 3:42
5. Peninsula (Mendes-Neves) 2:11

Side Two:
6. Why (Sembello-Freeman) 3:29
7. The Real Thing (Stevie Wonder) 4:45
8. P-Ka-Boo (Hank Redd) 3:55
9. Life (Clifford Coulter) 3:49

Produced By Sergio Mendes
Assisted By Oscar Castro Neves
Recording Engineer: Geoff Gillette
Assistant Engineer: Michael Ebert
Recorded and Mastered at Kendun Recorders, Burbank
January / February 1977
Mastered By John Golden
"P-Ka-Boo" arranged by Hank Redd
"Why" arranged by Michael Sembello & Don Freeman
Art Direction and Design: Tony Lane
Photography: Reid Miles

Musicians:
Sergio Mendes: Keyboards
Oscar Castro Neves: Guitars
Donald Ballard: Bass
Ronald Ballard: Drums
David Hall: Drums
Chacal: Congas & Percussion
Testa, Bibiu, and Dico: Brazilian Percussion
Singers: Marietta Waters, Carol Rogers, Cruz Baca

Special participation:
Stevie Wonder (Clavinet and Piano)
David Grusin (Oberheimer Polyphonic Synthesizer
Ian Underwood (MiniMoog/Harp String)
Cliff Coulter (MiniMoog)
Don Freeman (Acoustic Piano)
Oscar Castro Neves (Fender Piano)
Bass: Nathan Watts, Michael McKinney, Anthony Jackson
Drums: Stephen Gadd
Guitars: Michael Sembello, Hank Redd
Horns:
Hank Redd (Alto/Tenor Sax)
Harry Kim (Trumpet/Flugelhorn)
David Stout (Trombone)
Percussion: Laudir Oliviera, Steve Foreman, Sebastian Neto
 
Another flop...! This time Sergio gets his own "band"... This time he also covers the pop-songs-of-the-day...

Too sing-song-y, and for the more "authenticity" he makes you think he actually invests, it sounds less, and less Brasilian...

I picked the re-make of Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now", which although not as impressive as the original, as dynaically dramatic as The Ray Conniff Singers (which is MY favorite version, of all time!) or as satirical as Jerry Butler & Thelma Houston's, at least seems more credible than the predictable "Love Me Tomorrow" by Boz Scaggs, or the rest of the tunes, making this the "Never Gonna Let You Go" of its time (though without the magic, or the majestic hooks, at least that song had more of than ANY album he'd done in this later period) which as a time filler, proves time, and time, again, that any "corporate conglomerate" pop, doesn't work...! :baah:


Dave
 
I bought this album, I must have it some where...Sergio was going another direction and my ears didn't lock into it.

I felt then and now Sergio should have kept 'Brazil 66' as the name and not gone into 77', 88', etc. I think there's something cool about '66'. Maybe because 1966 was an interesting year for me in music and because of the highway, 'Route 66'.

It's a good thing he didn't listen to me. I can't even make a car payment. :laugh: later................Jay
 
Disagree pretty much 100% with Dave. This was actually one of Sergio's best selling albums, in fact it may be his biggest seller on Elektra, I'd have to go check. This opened up a whole new vocabulary for Sergio, including some of those gorgeous Quarteto em Cy-esque harmonies he dabbled with in the intro to "It's Up to You" on Homecooking. I think "Why" is one of his strongest efforts of the 1970's, and the whole album just moves beautifully. My least favorite is the Boz Scaggs tune, which seems superfluous.
 
I don't have a favorite on this album, maybe because I could just never get into it. I didn't get the album when it was originally released and only bought it used many years later.

I think I listened to it a few times through and pretty much dismissed it as "not for me". There just wasn't anything that grabbed me, including everyone's apparent favorite of "The Real Thing". I fact, I think I prefer the latter day re-do on ENCANTO.

I guess if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the instrumental track "Peninsula".

Harry
 
I agree this is probably his best-selling effort on Elektra, since this is the only one that had anything resembling a hit single.

I like this album better than his self-titled Elektra debut; but that's still not saying too much. It's too poppy and continues the direction of Sergio's music sounding bland and overly commercial, which started with LOVE MUSIC and more or less continued (with occasional meanderings into inspired Brazilian sounds) until the BRASILEIRO album.

The high points for me are "Mozambique" and "Why." I thought at the time that "Why" would make a dynamite single and dance record, but it was not to be. "The Real Thing" is OK but nothing special to my ears -- like Harry, I enjoy the recent version more.

My least favorite song on the album is easy -- it's "P-Ka-Boo" which is probably one of my least favorite of Sergio's entire catalog. Well, I guess one song has to be my least favorite so it might as well be that one!
 
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