will.i.am and Sérgio Mendes on how they made Mas Que Nada
‘I turned up at Sérgio’s house with every record he ever made and said: “Bro, I’m your biggest fan.” He started tearing up and replied: “This is too much!”’
At the turn of the 1960s I was working in clubs in Rio de Janeiro with trios, quartets and quintets. I became close friends with the great Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, who co-wrote The Girl from Ipanema, just as bossa nova was emerging. It was a progression from samba, but with haunting, more romantic melodies that the world fell in love with. In 1962, I went to the US for the first time for bossa nova shows at Carnegie Hall. I worked with so many great musicians including Jobim, João Gilberto, Stan Getz and Cannonball Adderley. It was a wonderful, incredible time.