- Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66’s debut LP, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout this original A&M stereo pressing
- This side one is rich, full, open, and spacious, conveying a sense of the amazing performances of these great musicians, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
- The drums and percussion are powerful and punchy with lots of room around them, with plenty of WHOMP and good extension on the top end (particularly on side one)
- The toughest of the band’s albums to find with audiophile sound and surfaces, which is why it’s been years since our last shootout
- 4 1/2 stars: “The hit was Jorge Ben’s ‘Mas Que Nada,’ given a catchy, tight Bossa Nova arrangement with the voice of Lani Hall soaring above the swinging rhythm section. But other tracks leap out as well; the obvious rouser is the Brazilian go-go treatment of the Beatles’ ‘Day Tripper’…”
This is one of my favorite albums, one which certainly belongs in any audiophile’s collection. Better sound is hard to find — when you have the right pressing. Unfortunately those are pretty hard to come by. Most LPs are grainy, shrill, thin, veiled and full of compressor distortion in the louder parts: this is not a recipe for audiophile listening pleasure.
But we love this album here at Better Records, and have since day one. One of the first records I ever played for my good audio buddy Robert Pincus (Cisco Records) to demonstrate the sound of my system was Sergio’s syncopated version of “Day Tripper” off this album. That was decades ago, and I can honestly say I have never tired of this music in the intervening years.
This vintage A&M pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for —this sound.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.
What The Best Sides Of Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1966
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
That Big Bruce Botnick Bottom End
The music is of course wonderful, but what separates Sergio from practically all of his 60s contemporaries is the amazing sound of his recordings. The first album was recorded by the legendary Bruce Botnick, the man behind the superb recordings of The Doors, Love and others too numerous to mention. This, in my opinion, is his masterpiece. The Doors albums Bruce recorded represent some of his best work, but what Doors album sounds as good as Sergio’s debut? I can’t name one.
One reason you have to hand the tallest trophy to Bruce for this album is that the arrangements are dramatically more complex here than in any comparable rock recording of the era. There are so many elements to juggle in the densest parts of the mix, with multiple lead vocal parts, often double-tracked; background vocals by Sergio and the girls coming from every location; keyboards, bass and drums; tons of percussion popping out all over the place — this is a rich tapestry of instruments and voices, stretching across the soundstage from wall to wall, with huge amounts of depth and layering from front to back.
Only the better copies are sufficiently transparent to allow the listener the privilege of hearing all the elements laid out clearly, each occupying a real three-dimensional space within the soundfield. When you hear one of those copies, you have to give Botnick his due. The man knew what he was doing. (Larry Levine who recorded the subsequent albums was no slouch either. Stillness is one of the ten best sounding records I have ever played, and that’s no exaggeration.)
What We’re Listening For On Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
Side One
- Mais Que Nada (Ma-sh Kay Nada)
- One Note Samba / Spanish Flea
- The Joker
- Going Out Of My Head
- Tim Dom Dom (Chim Dome Dome)
Side Two
- Day Tripper
- Agua De Beber (Adwa Gee Beberr)
- Slow Hot Wind
- O Pato (O Pawtoo)
- Berimbau (Ber-im-bough)
AMG 4 1/2 Star Review
After bouncing around Philips, Atlantic, and Capitol playing Brazilian jazz or searching for an ideal blend of Brazilian and American pop, Sergio Mendes struck gold on his first try at A&M (then not much more than the home of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and the Baja Marimba Band). He came up with a marvelously sleek, sexy formula: dual American female voices singing in English and Portuguese over a nifty three-man bossa nova rhythm/vocal section and Mendes’ distinctly jazz-oriented piano, performing tight, infectious arrangements of carefully chosen tunes from Brazil, the U.S., and the U.K.
The hit was Jorge Ben’s “Mas Que Nada,” given a catchy, tight Bossa Nova arrangement with the voice of Lani Hall soaring above the swinging rhythm section. But other tracks leap out as well; the obvious rouser is the Brazilian go-go treatment of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” but the sultry treatment of Henry Mancini’s “Slow Hot Wind” and the rapid-fire “Tim Dom Dom” also deserve mention.
Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66 checks off many of our favorite boxes:
- It’s a personal favorite
- It’s a Masterpiece of rock and pop
- It’s a Demo Disc on big speakers that play at loud levels
- It’s part of the core collection of well recorded rock & pop albums
Want to find your own top quality copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.
Based on our experience, Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66 sounds its best: