🎵 AotW Classics Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 LOOK AROUND SP-4137

[Harry]

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
LOOK AROUND
A&M SP-4137

Also released as mono LP-137 and several times on CD - in Japan POCM-1881 and in the US on Verve by Request 314 543 515-2

Tracks:

Side One
1. With A Little Help From My Friends (Lennon-McCartney) 2:33
2. Roda (Gilberto Gil-Joao Augusto) 2:22
3. Like A Lover* (D. Caymmi-N. Motta-A.&M. Bergman) 3:51
4. The Frog** (Joao Donato) 2:42
5. Tristeza (Goodbye Sadness) (H.Lobo-Niltinho-N.Gimbel) 2:52

Side Two
1. The Look Of Love** (Bacharach-David) 2:42
2. Pra Dizer Adeus (To Say Goodbye)* (E.Lobo-Torquato Netto-L.Hall) 3:03
3. Batucada (The Beat) (Marcos Valle-Paul Valle) 2:19
4. So Many Stars** (S. Mendes-A.&M. Bergman) 4:25
5. Look Around (S. Mendes-A.Mattos-A.&M. Bergman) 2:59

Credits:

Arrangers: Sergio Mendes / **Dave Grusin / *Dick Hazard
Engineers: Larry Levine, Henry Lewy
Studios: Sunset Sound, Western Recorders, Annex Studios
Guitar: John Pisano
Produced by: Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss
Album Design by Corporate Head
Art Director: Tom Wilkes
Photography by Guy Webster

Liner Notes:

Look around...the recording studio is small and like a room in a downtown hotel, drab, impersonal and functional...Instrument cases, paper coffee cups, a labyrinth of wires and cables and the inevitable Cyclops eye of a clock on the wall, all hermetically sealed to eliminate the sights and sounds of the outside.

Look around...the control booth is smaller still...like a cockpit with a panel full of dials, needles and levers. If the studio had wings, it could surely fly.

Look around...beyond the double glass wall, Sergio Mendes walks to the piano. The many weeks of perfection-seeking preparation are behind him. He's ready. His group is ready. In the booth, producer Herb Alpert, the engineer and the wheels of tape are ready. Sergio closes his eyes. He finds just the right tempo, "Um, dois, tres!"...the music starts...the magic begins. Suddenly the studio does have wings. Suddenly it flies. And what a flight! Smooth as glass. Like seagull kites over the warm sands of Copacabana beach...the joy of Carnival. The sight and sound of Brazil.

It's all here. Listen. Close your eyes...and look around.

Marilyn and Alan Bergman​

 

[Michael Hagerty]

This was my first Sergio album...and, come to think of it, the first A&M LP I purchased on my own (as mentioned in the NINTH thread, I'd asked my Mom to purchase that album on a business trip and I wound up with WHIPPED CREAM instead).

I was 11 when I bought this.

As such, I think I can probably credit this one with my A&M habit...it was such an impressive album that I was willing to take chances on A&M artists I hadn't heard on the radio simply because they were on A&M.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Dave]

The first "full-blown production" Sergio Mendes/Brasil '66 LP... I picked "The Look Of Love", though I probably should'a chosen "Like A Lover", but maybe because of the "different mix" of the latter on Family Portrait which I equally like, is the reason that I didn't... "

"Look Around", too, especially the way it punctuates the overall emotions of the group's collective effort, offering a "mini-summary" at the end of the album, is my 2nd pick...

(Or 3rd, after "Like A Lover"--maybe 4th after "Family Portrait-Like A Lover"...--Or vice-versa!)

Well, this LP is, in short: Flawless...!!!!!!



Dave

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

Yea, this one is pretty flawless from beginning to end.....great selection of songs. The up tunes (The Frog & Batucada esp.) have such a sense of fun....

 

[Mike Blakesley]

This album has one of my favorite liner notes. You can tell the Bergmans are songwriters from the notes.

The album is a killer. The only song on it I don't like too much is "Pradizer Adeus" but I can even listen to that in context of the rest of the record. Pretty much a flawless LP.

Favorite tune? That's a tough one. I would probably have to go with the title song, but I like "Batucada," "Roda," "The Look of Love" and "Like a Lover" too. I think I'll withhold my vote and think about it a while.

This is also my second favorite of all the B'66 album covers (#1 being STILLNESS).

 

[seashorepiano]

My favorite tune here is "So Many Stars" by a long shot. The arrangement and orchestration are great--one of the best string backings in jazz/pop--and Lani's singing is some of the best I've heard by her. I can pass on "Pradizer Adeus," and I've never liked "The Look of Love" (or most Bacharach) anyway.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

A&M SP 437 LOOK AROUND Stereo Jukebox Little LP

A&M SP 437 LOOK AROUND Stereo Jukebox Little LP
jukebox strips

A&M 910 With A Little Help From My Friends b/w Look Around
promo single

A&M 910 With A Little Help From My Friends b/w Look Around
promo single

A&M 924 The Look Of Love b/w Like A Lover single picture sleeve

A&M 924 The Look Of Love b/w Like A Lover

A&M 924 The Look Of Love b/w Like A Lover

A&M 961 So Many Stars b-side of Fool On The Hill

A&M 8520 The Look Of Love b/w Night And Day - Forget Me Nots
single re-issue

A&M 8521 With A Little Help From My Friends b/w The Fool On
The Hill - Forget Me Nots single re-issue

Recording Session Notes:
7/24/67 - T. T. G. - The Look Of Love, The Frog - Sergio Mendes - piano, Joao Donato - piano, Modesto Duran - conga, Nicholas Martinez - ?, Robert Matthews - bass, Joao Palma, percussion, John Pisano - guitar, Jose de Azerei Soares - percussion.

10/7/67 - Western Recorders - To Say Goodbye, So Many Stars, Like A Lover - Sergio Mendes - piano, Robert Matthews - bass, John Pisano - guitar, Jose Soares - percussion.

10/17/67 - Western Recorders - So Many Stars, Pra Dizer Adeus, Like A Lover - Sergio Mendes - piano, Robert Matthews - bass, Joao Palma - percussion, John Pisano - guitar, Jose Soares - percussion, Thelma Beach - violin, Joachim Chassman - violin, Bolice Dale - viola, Joseph DeFiore - viola, Alan Dinkin - viola, Adolph DiTullio - violin, Joseph DiTullio - cello, Maris Feris - cello, Sam Freed - violin, James Getzoff - violin, Anne Goodman - cello, Richard Hazard - ?, Robert Helfer - ?, Mort Herbert - violin, Nathan Kaproff - violin, Louis Kievman - viola, Lou Klass - violin, Carl LaMagna - violin, Marvin Limonick - violin, Joy Lyle - violin, Irma Neumann - violin, Joseph Reilich - viola, Dorothy Remsen - harp, Eleanor Slatkin - cello, Sanford Schonboach - viola, Joseph Stepansky - violin, Robert Sushel - violin.

Trivia: A&M SP 4137 LOOK AROUND was the first A&M album to have the logo with the symbol ® denoting registered trademark.

 

[JOv2]

My favorite tune here is "So Many Stars" by a long shot. The arrangement and orchestration are great--one of the best string backings in jazz/pop--and Lani's singing is some of the best I've heard by her. I can pass on "Pradizer Adeus," and I've never liked "The Look of Love" (or most Bacharach) anyway.

Agreee on all accounts (except the "most Bacharach" part...but that's another post).

So Many Stars and Like A Lover are my all-time fave Lani vocals; that they were both recorded the same day speaks volumes about capturing a mood. Pradizer...is one of the very few Edu Lobo pieces that is a major yawn; given that Sergio is an uninteresting singer makes this piece a loser from the first couple notes. The Look Of Love is given a moronic arrangement by Dave Grusin -- a man who apparently has little regard for the word "tactful". (I mean it's supposed to be a "look" of love between two people -- not between opposing sides of a football game.) At least he redeemed himself on So Many Stars.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the LP. Of course, it's a wonderful record; however, I prefer Brasil '66 being a combo -- at this point Grusin takes control with his engulfing arrangements...at the expense of the wonderful combo interplay.

I'd nearly give my first born to hear the non-orchestrated versions of Like A Lover and So Many Stars. (Anyone out there got access to the session tapes?)

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

I must say, it's the fashion to be bashin' Dave Grusin's arrangements on Sergio's albums....but I love it - it's very late 60s and over the top and kind of 'TV variety' sounding but I don't care, I love it. Sergio must have too, or else he wouldn't have hired him over and over and over.........IMHO.

 

[Harry]

Count me in as a fan of Dave Grusin's work too. I've never understood the bashing he takes here by some.

We'd heard the sample of Sergio's "tight little combo" sound on the two prior albums (not to mention the instrumental bossa stuff that preceded them), so branching out and adding more to the sound was quite in order, IMHO.

And you can't argue with success - "The Look Of Love" was the highest charting of all of the Brasil '66 singles, so it's hardly "moronic".

Harry

 

[Moritat]

Nice lp. Probably my third favorite Brasil 66 lp after Fool & Equniox. Two songs stand out for me, The Frog & Like A Lover. I'll give my vote to The Frog by a hair. Its an interesting tune, very simple with no bridge, just a repeating melody that keeps building and then fades at the end. Like A Lover is such a well written & pretty tune, I'm surprised there aren't a number of covers out there. Anyone know of any other artists who have recorded this?

 

[Harry]

Like A Lover is such a well written & pretty tune, I'm surprised there aren't a number of covers out there. Anyone know of any other artists who have recorded this?

The song was written by Dori Caymmi as "Cantador". The Bergmans wrote the English lyrics, probablt for this album.

Dori Caymmi has recorded the song on his 1988 self/titled album for Elektra/Musician (9 60790-2), which was produced by Sergio Mendes.

Harry

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

Nice lp. Probably my third favorite Brasil 66 lp after Fool & Equniox. Two songs stand out for me, The Frog & Like A Lover. I'll give my vote to The Frog by a hair. Its an interesting tune, very simple with no bridge, just a repeating melody that keeps building and then fades at the end. Like A Lover is such a well written & pretty tune, I'm surprised there aren't a number of covers out there. Anyone know of any other artists who have recorded this?

There's a zillion covers of this out there, aren't there? Just from Google, I found Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Andy Bey, Earl Klugh, Gene Harris, Emilie-Claire Barlow (whoever that is) and Jane Monheit.......

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

out of curiosity, I went on iTunes and typed in "Like A Lover" and discovered many covers, most of them by people I've never heard of....!
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
Jane Monheit
Will Downing & Gerald Albright
Matt Cusson
Dianne Reeves
The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra With Kurt Elling
Emilie-Claire Barlow
Betty Buckley
Earl Klugh
Hilary Kole
Carla Cook
Gretchen Barretto
Shelly Berg
Carmen McRae
Shirley Scott
Jiggs Whigham & Gene Bertoncini
Gene Harris
Roni Ben-Hur
La Tanya Hall
Danielle Blanchard
Lynn Bush
Karyn Uvezian
Roseanna Vitro
Lou Watson
Mady Kaye
Marco Bosco & Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
Marica Hiraga
Cris Barber
Barbara Montgomery
Jeff Hamilton Trio
Victoria Horne
Barbara Knight with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra
Cheryl Jones
Lillian Palmer
Nadine Chase
Steve Barta
Emilie-Claire Barlow
JOHN VANCE
Stan Davis
Dr Dingo
Michiko Yoshino
Barbara Leah Meyer
Tuck & Patti
Yoko Sikes
Atila
Tony Aiello
David Moody
KatieCat
Tina May
Irene and Her Latin Jazz Band
Sarah Vaughan
The Mac Chrupcala Trio

 

[Moritat]

Well I guess there have been plenty of covers! I'll have to check some of these out, as there's some interesting artists listed. Just never had this tune appear on my other cds, nor have I heard it on FM. Thanks for the info.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

This is probably my second favorite Brasil '66 album after the Herb Alpert Presents... album. I'm not a huge fan of some of the orchestrations that were on a few of Sergio's albums, but they work great here. My favorite track is "The Frog", which just has a great groove to it. I've even somewhat learned the syllabic vocals for this song (although it's not necessarily pleasing to hear me sing it...). "Like A Lover", "So Many Stars" and "Look Of Love" just seemed to be a perfect fit on this album. Solid all the way through.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Brasil_66_Fan]

Voted for The Frog, but 'For Me' it's virtually a toss-up with So Many Stars. Heard it first on WCAR (Detroit) AM jazz station & DJ didn't identify the song or the group, but I knew it was Brasil '66, even with the then-new Grusin orchestral backing - this was prior to album release. So Many Stars is one of those 'songs that bring tears to my eyes'; gotta get around to compiling my list of those sometime for that thread......

 

[Dave]

"So Many Stars" is one of those 'songs that bring tears to my eyes'; gotta get around to compiling my list of those sometime for that thread...

Yes, you should... Oh, this thread: http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4275...???

Well, yes, you should! Looking forward to it...!



Dave

 

[Rudy]

There's a zillion covers of this out there, aren't there? Just from Google, I found Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Andy Bey, Earl Klugh, Gene Harris, Emilie-Claire Barlow (whoever that is) and Jane Monheit.......

Have you heard Al Jarreau's version? I'm not sure if it made it to an official album, but it's the final track on the Warner "Best Of" CD from several years ago. It's not bad, but I find it hard to compare anything to the Brasil '66 version.

I'm hard pressed to pick any one favorite though--this is another album I like end-to-end. "Batucada" actually ranks among the highest for me, as does "Roda" and Lani Hall's two features. (There's a version of "Batucada" by Walter Wanderley, from his Chegança album on Verve, that really cooks.)

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

Never heard Jarreau's version....by the way, Diane Schuur covered "Look Around" a couple of years ago. I also know "So Many Stars" has been covered a whole lot - but THIS album still has the best versions of these songs - straightforward and classic......

 

[rickster]

Yeah, Like a Lover is one of my favorite tunes, OF ANY GENRE, ever. It is absolutely haunting, and sticks with you. And the Grusin chart does indeed work here, without a doubt. Like A Lover might be the best thing the group ever recorded. WHY was this not a hit ?? I know why -- It's too GOOD. And a little too long to have been a major hit single. But it's perfection, nonetheless.

 

[Harry]

Yeah, Like a Lover is one of my favorite tunes, OF ANY GENRE, ever. It is absolutely haunting, and sticks with you. And the Grusin chart does indeed work here, without a doubt.

...except that Dick Hazard arranged the track.

Like A Lover might be the best thing the group ever recorded. WHY was this not a hit ?? I know why -- It's too GOOD. And a little too long to have been a major hit single.

Well, someone recognized it for the fact that it SHOULD have been a hit - it appeared on the original GREATEST HITS album that A&M put out.

And boy was I happy about that fact when CDs were still a relatively new and rare commodity. While traveling in Europe back in '86, I found SERGIO MENDES & BRASIL '66 GREATEST HITS on CD - a European pressing by PolyGram - that I was thrilled to bring home. There was at that point virtually no Sergio Mendes on CD in the States (until the purple CLASSICS comps came out).

But I was thrilled that my favorite track, "Like A Lover" had made it to that album and CD. I should go post my vote for that track.

Harry

 

[seashorepiano]

As I remember, a few years ago we took up the "who arranged what?" about this album. We'd guessed that Hazard did the charts for "So Many Stars," because it lacked the... hazardousness of Grusin. Sorry, couldn't resist...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

You can almost always tell a Grusin arrangement because he just seems to use "more" orchestra than Hazard does -- more flourishes and fills.

That's not a slam, by the way, just a comment; I think the orchestrations on this album fit very nicely. It wasn't until CRYSTAL ILLUSIONS that they started to sort-of take over the sound for a couple of albums, then they were pared back where they belonged when STILLNESS came along.

 

[Rudy]

Never heard Jarreau's version....by the way, Diane Schuur covered "Look Around" a couple of years ago. I also know "So Many Stars" has been covered a whole lot - but THIS album still has the best versions of these songs - straightforward and classic......

Now that you mention it, Sarah Vaughn's Brazilian Romance album (produced by Sergio, no less) has a cover of "So Many Stars". Her voice isn't the greatest (it sounds "thick", compared to others I've heard by her), but Mendes did some great production on this album.

I agree though--I can't listen to other versions of either song without thinking that the Brasil '66 versions still top my list.

Can't say the same about "Mas Que Nada" though--there are so many varied versions, I like many of them without any clear favorite. Tamba Trio, Luiz Henrique and Brasil '66 tend to get the most play here, though. And yes, Al Jarreau covered this one also (on his Tenderness album).