Brazilian musician best known for his hit Mas Que Nada who popularised the bossa nova worldwide

Sérgio Mendes, who has died aged 83 after suffering from the effects of long Covid, was one of the most successful Brazilian artists of all time. A pianist, songwriter, arranger and bandleader, he enjoyed a lengthy career that began in the bossa nova boom of the early 1960s and continued for six decades – long after the bossa craze was over.

His success was based on his skill in matching Brazilian songs and rhythms against different western styles, from jazz and rock to funk and hip hop. In the 60s he recorded with the American jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and then notched up hits with covers of songs by the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.

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Flowers also featured on a string of classic rock hits, including those for David Bowie, T Rex, Bryan Ferry and Elton John

Tributes have been paid after the death of Herbie Flowers, the session musician whose instantly recognisable bassline on Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side is considered one of the greatest in pop music history.

Flowers, who also played bass for David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Paul McCartney, Bryan Ferry and Elton John, has died aged 86, family members confirmed on Facebook .

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A revealing new documentary could redefine our understanding of the pop icon. But you will probably never get to see it.

North London band Pushy Pushy Pushy have made it their personal mission to carve out space for mothers in the music industry

It’s a greyish Saturday afternoon in late August, and alongside other street party attenders, I’m watching two flamboyantly dressed women, one clutching a flute, backed by three male musicians while they shout out the lyrics to their new song, Kiddy Ska Party.

“I told you about my stitches / I told you about my stitches / Stop talking about my stitches / Stop talking about my stitches,” one is yelling. In the front, her almost-two-year-old daughter gestures towards her while an audience of adults, from old blokes with beers to young parents with prams, look alternately elated and amused. Somewhere near the jerk chicken stall my son runs up and down, having never played on a street without cars before. The scene is one of beautiful, eccentric mayhem.

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There must have been something in the air in 1964. Many of the people who shape our world are turning 60 this year

‘Magical,” “special,” a “total badass”: step forward Kamala Harris , the 59-year-old dynamo who has rebranded her country at lightning speed, offering it up as a nation synonymous with optimism, hope and patriotism. For the rest of us, Kamala’s gift is her joy and vibrancy – and the way she is smashing it just months away from her seventh decade, holding up 60 in all its power and glory. Welcome to the new golden age.

Hers is the vibrancy of a woman who owns her power, a woman who is manifesting her experience and expertise, a woman who knows her time has come. No more waiting in the wings while Sleepy Joe calls the shots – and blows them. No more hiding that smile, or keeping down the laughter. She’s here, she’s got the platform. What’s more, the VP now looks positively youthful when compared to 78-year-old Donald Trump and 81-year-old Joe Biden. Barack Obama may have been younger than Kamala by 12 years when he ran for president, but today Kamala’s 60 looks like the first blush of youth thanks to the energy-sapping Trump/Biden effect.

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A rousing duet with my little chanteuse daughter brings the house down at a family function

My daughter grabs the microphone. It sparkles intensely. It’s one of those karaoke mics studded with LED lights that masks its harshness with sheer volume. It’s the kind of thing gifted to children – once – and then hidden by most parents forever after. My sister, Dearbhaile, is not most parents, so it has remained in arm’s reach throughout our trip to West Sussex. We’re visiting her and another sister, Mairead, both of whom live with their families in Worthing. We, our partners and our combined six kids are relaxing after a barbecue when my little chanteuse grips the microphone and shows no intention of letting go.

Emboldened by her audience, she remembers her world-class rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and prods me in the stomach to get her started. She doesn’t perform this song solo, you understand, it is always a call-and-response duet between the two of us, in which I sing Twinkle Twinkle and she continues, couplet by couplet, til song’s end. Her ability to screech the last phrase of each verse to any song does not quite reach the level of musicality, but it would make her an excellent member of the Beastie Boys.

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The man who made bossa nova an international sensation has died at 83, after a 60-year, 35-album career that straddled musical genres and bridged generations

Bringing Brazilian music to the world and the world to Brazilian music: for decades, this was Sérgio Mendes’s mission and passion.

The artist died on Frida y at the age of 83, after a 60-year career that produced more than 35 albums.

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(Culture Shock)
The Trinidad-born musician and his 22-piece ensemble excel in all styles, from Benny Goodman and Eartha Kitt to Charles’s own Carib-flavoured compositions

“Wow! A big band record – a dream come true,” writes Trinidad-born trumpet player Etienne Charles in the cover notes to his 10th album. A gifted player and composer, Charles has been waiting for a stab at his grand opus for the past decade, since singer René Marie asked him to arrange big band parts for her. Since then he has become a celebrated arranger, collaborating with the New York Philharmonic and the Charleston Jazz Orchestra among others.

His command of his 22-piece Creole Orchestra proves impeccable and absolute, dovetailing elaborate woodwind and brass parts with finely wrought solos. There’s a nod to big bands past on Benny Goodman’s Stompin’ at the Savoy and Jimmy Forrest’s Night Train, but the standouts are Charles’s own. A torrent of horns and percussion opens the album on Old School, while the jaunty Douens, named after creatures of Trinidadian folklore, is one of several Carib flavours. Joe Henderson’s A Shade of Jade allows saxophonist Michael Thomas to parade his hard bop chops, while Poison refashions Bell Biv DeVoe’s 1990 R&B hit. Marie shines with feline charm on Eartha Kitt’s I Wanna Be Evil and her own sultry Take My Breath Away. A brilliant recasting of tradition – “sometimes it takes a village,” says Charles.

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The poet on the power of abstract art, Shakespeare in British Sign Language and the ‘articulated rage’ of James Baldwin

The British poet and educator Raymond Antrobus was born in east London in 1986. He gained an MA in spoken word education from Goldsmiths, University of London and published his first poetry pamphlet in 2012. His 2018 book The Perseverance won both the Ted Hughes award and the Rathbones Folio prize. He has also published two children’s picture books, Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses . Antrobus lives in Margate with his wife, Tabitha, a photographer and art conservator, and their son. His new poetry collection Signs, Music , exploring masculinity, race, deafness and fatherhood, is published by Picador on 12 September.

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