The Sergio Mendes Band is doing what catalog owners, publishers and legacy-rights holders hope every enduring artist brand can do: keep the repertoire active, visible and commercially relevant long after the artist is gone. With a 2026 tour built around the 60th anniversary of Brasil ’66, the band is keeping Sergio Mendes’ music in front of audiences while reinforcing the value of a songbook that still travels.
Leporace fronts a legacy built to last
Sixty years after Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 helped globalize bossa nova with Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, the band is celebrating that milestone on the road. The album was a top 10 hit on the Billboard 200 and included the Billboard Hot 100 and international hit “Mas Que Nada.” Mendes died at 83 two years ago, but his longtime band is carrying the music forward with the anniversary tour.
Fronted by Gracinha Leporace, Mendes’ widow and musical partner of 54 years, the Sergio Mendes Band performed at Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, N.J., on Sunday night. Leporace led the show in a shimmering, sequined baby-blue dress, and the article says her voice remains astonishingly supple and strong.
Two voices, one signature sound
As with the original Brasil ’66 format, most of the songs on the tour are performed by two female vocalists in tandem. Leporace and Katie Hampton, an 18-year veteran of the band, were described as sounding closely joined both harmonically and rhythmically. They delivered “Roda,” “One Note Samba” and short solo turns with a bright, chic energy.
The rest of the eight-person band handled Mendes’ cool, easygoing rhythms and arrangements with equal confidence. The setlist leaned heavily on Brasil ’66 material but also included other selections, among them Mendes’ 1983 Hot 100 top 5 hit “Never Gonna Let You Go.”
A family band keeping the repertoire in motion
Leporace said the 60th anniversary tour is part of an effort to “continue Sergio’s legacy of music, of repertoire, of arrangement of rhythms.” She added that they hope to continue that work so “the next generations will be able to learn about his music.”
The article notes that guitarist Kleber Jorge is the longest-serving member aside from Leporace and played with Mendes for 25 years. All but one of the band members had played with Mendes for more than a decade before his death, giving the group a friends-and-family feel. Bassist Andre de Santanna is the grandson of the best man at Mendes’ wedding to his first wife.
The show also felt personal for Leporace, who said her son was in the audience with his girlfriend and that he lives in Brooklyn.
What comes next on the road
A buoyant performance of “Mas Que Nada” closed the night and served as the final punctuation mark on a concert meant to keep Mendes’ rhythms and spirit alive. Leporace thanked the crowd for joining the band on “this incredible journey” to keep Sergio’s legacy alive.
The Sergio Mendes Band’s tour rolls into Boston on Monday and continues through Sept. 4, when it wraps at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles.
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