Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Look Around

I can't say this was an album I'd heard when I was a kid. To be fair I was exposed to a lot of really cool music through my cousins Dean and Jeff and my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Lloyd. Heck I remember Jeff having a Wayne Newton record and really liked "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" which I am not making fun of at all. I'm just using that to show that despite my penchant for B.T.O. and Brownsville Station's "Smokin' in the Boys Room" I was exposed to a pretty wide range of music. I mean my favourite record in my dad's collection was the clear red vinyl version of South Pacific. Heck, I played my Aunt's 45 of "Hitchin a Ride" by Vanity Fair about a hundred times.

Okay, I've forgotten what I was doing. 

Right, Sergio Mendes. Yeah, as a kid, never heard of him.

As an adult, well that's another thing.

I went through a phase where I got a lot of Latin Jazz, and his 1966 album The Swinger from Rio (that was apparently recorded in 1964) is amazing, and that era of Brazilian Fusion (I'm not great with genres I'm just going to call it that) is a lot of fun, and it makes for especially good listening if you're having a dinner party. Then a number of years ago my wife brought home Encanto that had a new version of "The Look of Love" featuring Fergie on vocals. It's a great album. She still plays it quite a bit.

So when I came across Look Around in the dollar bin, and the copy looked decent and it also featured "The Look of Love" I couldn't pass this up. Reading the essay on the back cover is pure hype, and actually fittingly describes how I feel when I listen to his stuff, so hats off to Marilyn and Alan Bergman for capturing the essence of a Sergio Mendes session. 

It's interesting to note in the early days of A&M Mister Alpert and Mister Moss were pretty hands on, and produced Look Around. There aren't any credits to speak of with respect to the performers other than John Pisano on guitar.

The record has been cleaned and I'm ready to take a trip back in time. Let's see where this goes. Well, the record is showing its age a little, but right off this is what I was hoping for. The lead off track is a jazz infused reworking of the Lennon / McCartney penned "With a Little Help from my Friends" which had been released only a few months earlier so it's an interesting choice as far as covers go. The songs are all decent here and the songs just have a laid back sense of cool. They knew they were cool too, you can feel the confidence in the performances. 

The showstopper here is Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "The Look of Love" I know Dusty Springfield had her versions, but to me this is the definitive version. Dusty has her share of classics so I'm pretty sure she won't begrudge me on this one. 

This album is one of those feel good releases that has held up remarkably well. Maybe it hasn't, but all I know is when I put this one on I want to put on my suit and lounge around outside under a parasol drinking wine.