Sérgio Mendes ; (born February 11, 1941 in Niterói, Brazil) is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk.
The child of a physician in Niterói, Brazil, Mendes attended the local conservatory with hopes of becoming a classical pianist. As his interest in jazz grew, he started playing in nightclubs in the late-1950s just as bossa nova, a jazz-inflected derivative of samba, was taking off. Mendes played with Antonio Carlos Jobim (regarded as a mentor) and many U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil.
Sergio Mendes is married to Gracinha Leporace who regularly performs vocals for her husband and can also be heard on his 2006 version of the song Mas Que Nada with Black Eyed Peas.