Passion or Profession: Musician

Period: 1941–

When Mendes began studying piano, his interest was mostly in classical music. However, his interests later shifted to jazz, and he became a major proponent of the jazz/samba style of music that came to be known as bossa nova. By the time he was 25, he had cut a major album in the United States, which went on to sell more than a million copies. Although he has never regained the popularity he enjoyed in the late 1960s, he has released more than 35 albums, and he won a Grammy Award as recently as 1993.