Encanto | 
| Artist: Sergio Mendes
Label: Concord Records
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $7.11
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Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 3540
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 30278
UPC: 888072302785
EAN: 0888072302785
ASIN: B0012RLWSY
Release Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: CD is absolutely BRAND NEW! Buy here with confidence!
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| Tracks:
| • | The Look of Love - featuring Fergie | | • | Funky Bahia - featuring will.i.am & Siedah Garrett | | • | Agua de Beber - featuring will.i.am | | • | Waters of March - featuring Ledisi | | • | Odo-Ya - featuring Carlinhos Brown | | • | Somewhere in the Hills (O Morro Nao Tem Vez) - featuring Natalie Cole | | • | Lugar Comum - featuring Jovanotti | | • | Morning in Rio | | • | Dreamer - featuring Lani Hall & Herb Alpert | | • | Y Vamos Ya (...Let's Go) - featuring Juanes | | • | Catavento (Catavento e Girassol) - featuring Gracinha Leporace | | • | Acode - featuring Vanessa da Mata |
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| Editorial Reviews:
People en Español
Given his 40-year career, it's difficult to imagine that Sergio Mendes is still able to reinvent himself and create a new sound. But the record-breaking Brazilian musician doesn't seem to have any limits. Two years ago he came out with Timeless, which distinguished itself from his usual bossa-nova sensibilities and featured a fantastic mix of hip-hop and Latin Jazz. For Encanto, Mendes and his band, Brasil '6--collaborating with Fergie and will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Natalie Cole, and Herb Alpert--have made the perfect lounge CD, which fans of Bebel Gilberto and Ceu will certainly appreciate. --Ernesto Sanchez (People en Espanol  ) Con mas de 40 anos de carrera, es dificil pensar que Sergio Mendes todavia tenga la capacidad de reinventarse y crear un sonido distinto. Pero pareciera que para el brasileno de mayores ventas en el mundo no hay limite. Si bien hace dos anos presento Timeless, un disco completamente distinto a su tradicional bossa-nova, con una espectacular mezcla de hip-hop y latin-jazz, en Encanto, Mendes y su banda, Brasil '66--acompanados de la mano de Fergie y will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Natalie Cole, y Herb Alpert--logra el disco perfecto de "lounge," que los fans de Bebel Gilberto y Ceu sabran apreciar. --Ernesto Sanchez (People en Espanol )
Album Description
Brazilian music legend Sergio Mendes spins his remarkable magic on his newest recording, a bona fide classic! This is a kaleidoscopic album that underscores the maestro's ear for addictive melodies, as well as his ability to cast incredibly talented singers and musicians from all over the world
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Summery and enchanting. June 14, 2008
jazzy modes (Vancouver, Canada.)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
"Encanto" follows the highly acclaimed 2006 collaboration with will.i.am Timeless and with this latest release, Sergio takes us even deeper into Brazil, having recorded all the basic tracks in Rio and Bahia and finally finishing up in in California, where the studio band included Alphonso Johnson.
For "Encanto" (in Spanish for Enchantment), Mendes has also enlisted the formidable and enchantingly diverse talents of an array of guest musicians who hail from the world over.
Latin superstar Juanes from Colombia and multi-talented Carlinhos Brown & Vanessa da Mata from Brazil jostle alongside the foremost Japanese pop group Dreams Come True, Belgium's Zap Mama and Italian rapper Jovanotti.
This international cast is completed by the American stars Fergie, Siedah Garrett and Herb Alpert who is accompanied by his wife, original Brasil '66 singer, Lani Hall.
Old smoothie Mendes gets jiggy on a selection of bossa-favourites with a raft of guest stars including the ubiquitous Will.i.am and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, Natalie Cole and Herb Alpert et all...
This new album essentially is a cross between Mendes' soft, salsa-tinged melodies and modern day R'n'B.
The opening track, "The Look of Love" with rap/vocals by Fergie, is a deliciously moreish funky-fusion, and for the first third or so, the combination of Sergio's Rhodes with the hip-hopped production style is terrific.
Perhaps this new version of Burt Bacharach's "The Look Of Love", which Mendes had originally transposed to bossa nova heaven in 1967 is the boldest track on "Encanto".
This new interpretation, produced by Black Eyed Peas will.i.am, preserves the alluring melody of the original while bringing the song into the new millennium with crisp drum programming and a sexy rap by Fergie.
Then it goes all smooth jazz on you. Not bad, though.
Whether you are a Sergio Mendes fan especially the earlier stuff, Brasil 66, Equinox, etc or a Black Eyed Peas fan, or indeed R&B then there's something on this album to please everyone.
I'd say for such a challenging album there are only a couple of songs that are just to heavy hip hop for me.
The rest is a joy to listen to, if you are open minded about remixes and love to see what Sergio has been up to.
This album is a grower. The more I listen to it, the better it gets.
You will like it.
Picks of the album: "The Look of Love", "Waters Of March", "Dreamer", and "Somewhere In The Hills (O Morro Nao Tem Vez)".
Equinox
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Greatest Hits
The Very Best of Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66
The album debuts at # 1 of Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz and at # 60 of The Billboard 200 (Issue Date: 2008-07-12).
 Don't buy unless you enjoy using your "skip" button July 19, 2008
Alexander S. Meyer (Laredo Texas)
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
Hip hop elements just don't belong in Sergios music! Guest performner Fergie is atrocious and makes we want to stick a fork in my ear. The only good track is by Lani Hall/Herb Alpert. The rest can be banished to short memory. I wish Sergio would have hired a producer that understood what it is that makes his music stellar. Instead we get Producer Will I Am and his grossly misguided contemporary "flava". I've already traded my copy for the Brasil 66 "Equinox" cd. Listen to that album and you'll thoroughly understand my review.
 Mendes proves that you can go home again! July 20, 2008
Reginald D. Garrard (Camilla, GA USA)
6 out of 18 found this review helpful
Two years ago Sergio Mendes came back into the mainstream with the Grammy-winning "Timeless" co-produced by wil.i.am with songs featuring Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott, John Legend, Justin Timberlake and several other international stars. That album, by virtue of its all-star pop line-up and co-producer had a more hip-hop "flava" to it.
Though wil.i.am returns on "Encanto," most of the new album sounds remarkably like Mendes's classic albums from the 60's and 70's with updated technology. It's like a trip back in time when Brasil '66 was heating up the pop charts.
Ledisi, Carlinhos Brown, Jovanotti, Juanes, Gracinha Leporace, and Vanessa da Mata, along with Siedah Garrett, Natalie Cole and wil.i.am possess the right vocalizations to match Mendes' sultry trademark keyboards.
The benchmark of the album, however, is "Dreamer," featuring the legends Lani Hall on vocals and Herb Alpert on trumpet. That song is worth the price of the whole release.
Fergie's contribution is pretty good on the update of "The Look of Love" but that one pales in comparison to the original classic.
Sergio does it again June 12, 2008
SoCal guy (Los Angeles, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Sergio Mendes's last album - Timeless - was soooooo good that I couldn't wait for a follow-up.
Encanto does the job. Natalie Cole, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall are all big treats here.
I've been a huge fan of the "Brasil '66" sound since it started. Can't get enough of this infectious beat. Glad that Sergio is still around to give it to us!
 a review for Brasil '66 fans June 25, 2008
artanis65 (Washington, DC)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's been around 40 years since Mendes reached an artistic and commercial peak with several classic albums that successfully mixed bossa nova, jazz, and pop music. Those albums still sound fresh today, thanks to the terrific songs, latin rhythms and some sparkling arrangements. Since then, Mendes has experimented with mixing his Brazilian sound with folk rock, funk, dance music, hip hop, and on "Encanto," some r&b. As someone who prefers the work he did with Brasil '66 to anything more recent, to my ears the album is pleasant though generally forgettable with the exception of a few wonderful tracks.
Unsurprisingly the best tracks are those with strong melodies by Antonio Carlos Jobim, in particular "Somewhere in the Hills" and "Dreamer," both of which are direct descendants of the sound of Brasil '66. "Dreamer" includes both Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, who sounds remarkably like she did when she was fronting Brasil '66. This is a genuinely stunning track and easily the best on the album. Natalie Cole sings "Somewhere in the Hills" which is appropriately jazzy and is one of Jobim's strongest melodies. Other Jobim tracks include "Waters of March" which Mendes has covered several times in the past. It's a singer's song, and sounds a little rhythmically stiff here, as it has in his previous efforts. "Morning in Rio" is also good, with a more Brazilian styled melody and a nice trombone solo.
The rest of the CD is listenable, but not such that I ever want to hear most of it again. "The Look of Love" is an unnecessary remake of a good song. What made the original great was a sensational big band arrangement which has been dropped in favor of a hip hop arrangement. I liked the Brazilian styled funk of "Odo-ya" and the mellow "Catavento" with Mendes' wife on lead vocals. On the other hand, "Funky Bahia" and "Lugar Comum," the latter of which features an Italian rapper doing a little snippet of "Volare," are disposable pop/hip hop songs.
If I could get into Mendes' head, I would try to convince him do an album of Jobim and Marcos Valle songs with Herb Alpert and Lani Hall and a small jazz/bossa combo. It might not sell a million copies, but it would be an artistic triumph. If you're an unreconstructed fan of Brasil '66 as I am, I can recommend this with reservations. You might be better off just downloading a handful of tracks. But "Dreamer" should not be missed.
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