Faculty drummer Mike Shapiro must be expanding, since he has carved yet another notch into his ever-lengthening belt of professional achievements. His latest work can be heard in his gourmet performances on the new recording Timeless. At its core, this genre-bending album is the brainchild of two very different musicians: Legendary Brazilian pianist and band leader Sergio Mendes, and rapper will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who are steadily approaching hip hop infamy with Will at the production helm. Song writing, instrumental and vocal performances, arranging instincts and production skills all combine into a tastefully organized collage of famous guest artists — including Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and Justin Timberlake — and top-shelf session players. Mike Shapiro, a rhythmic anchor of much of the album, serves us a generous description of how Timeless came together.

To be completely honest, I was pretty unfamiliar with his music before I started working with him years ago. I didn't know all that much about Brazilian music, and I didn't know that much about him. I was only really aware of him through the big hit he had in the early 80s, 'Never Gonna Let You Go,' which is a pop tune and isn't really related to Brazilian music at all. I think what is striking about him and very rare in this industry is that he's celebrating 40 years of his band Brazil '66 and this is like his 37th or 38th album. He's worked with a lot of artists in a lot of different genres; he played with Cannonball Adderly and some of the kind of post-bop guys, and has worked with a lot of great pop artists, and a lot of great Brazilian musicians. So, I just think that is very telling, especially if you take a sampling of the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Most of the people — if you've even heard of them — they've been around for a couple records, and probably most of them won't be around too much longer. So, it's to his credit that he's been able to have such longevity, which in this business is very rare.

Well, the concept was basically will.i.am's. And how it came about was that before the Black Eyed Peas really broke through [with their second album Elephunk, 2003], Will went to executive producer Ron Fair at Interscope and said, "Hey, I want to do this song, and I want to get Sergio Mendes to play piano on it." The song was called 'Sexy,' and it was featured in a movie called Be Cool. Ron called Sergio and said, "Would you mind if this kid that's really into hip hop and rap comes over to your house and talks to you about this concept?" And Sergio said okay. So, Will went there and they kind of hit it off. Will had all his records, and said "I've been a huge fan of yours since I was a kid. I know all your songs." Will is almost like a historian. He knows like every song ever recorded. Sergio was very impressed by that and very moved that somebody coming from a completely different genre and generation was so in touch with his music, especially since so much of it was recorded before Will was even born. So they did this song about 3 years ago, and then Sergio said, "Hey, maybe we ought to think about doing a record together," and Will liked the idea. Sergio loved that they both come from two very different but sort of comparable urban environments: Rio, which is steeped in Sousa Carnaval and Brazilian music, and LA, which is so steeped in hip hop, and why couldn't they fuse? So the concept was really both of theirs. Sergio was very instrumental in picking the songs and deciding about casting, and then Will had additional ideas about casting and ideas for guest artists that Sergio would have probably never thought of in a million years. So it was a collective effort. Sergio doesn't really do things he doesn't want to do. If he's not feeling strong about the concept — whether he thinks it'll sell or not — if he's not feeling strong about it musically, he won't do it.

I've been in Sergio's band on and off for 17 years. So, when he makes records he usually has me participate in them. And that's not always how it works; some people have their road band, their touring band, and then they use session musicians to play on their records. This is a case where I kind of do both: I spend a good deal of time in the studio on other projects with Sergio, I have some experience doing that, as well as being a long-standing member of his group, and I'm the current musical director. I think whenever you make a record it's nice to have people around you that make you feel comfortable musically. And I know for myself, when I'm producing projects, I like to have musicians I know so I'm familiar with their musicality and I know what makes them tick artistically. That to me is maybe more important than just calling a professional musician in to play a part. To have that level of support around you when you're doing something that's so purging, it's so important… you know Sergio's not a guy that makes a record every year. In fact, he hasn't made a record in 10 years, so it's a very important event for him in his musical life. I'd like to think that he likes having me around also as just sort of his support team.

As far as this record, I play on most of it. I play drums and percussion, and bass on some songs. In terms of arranging, I think if you put a band in a room, you have musicians that are working together and firing together on all cylinders, and there's always a certain amount of arranging that happens on the spot. Of course, most of it was left to the hands of Will and Sergio. I was certainly around for a lot of it, and unlike some records where you go and you do a couple of sessions and then you're out of there, I was around for the bulk of the project, and it was really a nice experience. We had a lot of fun. And we didn't labor. Everything kind of happened real naturally. The whole record was entertaining because it was just worlds colliding. Every day we would be recording, we'd be laying down this beautiful harmonic little glimpse of genius into the music of, say, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and then Will would walk in and throw a loop on it and all of a sudden it would have just a completely different complexity. Then he'd rap some freestyle lyric over it and we'd kind of all be looking at each other, going, "I guess this kind of works." To me, that in itself could have gone one of two ways: it could have been very unentertaining to try to blend these worlds and not have there be such a synchronistic event happening. Or, it could've been like "Wow, these elements don't fit at all but here we are stuck in this studio, making a record that has to work." So, every day was kind of a joy like that, and there were a lot of laughs. It was a fun project. Lots of people ended up on this record because Will would play them tracks — like Will played a track for Justin Timberlake, who was like, "Man, I want to be on this record." People were hearing it going, "I want to be on this record because what I've heard is so great." So word kind of spread that this was happening, and a lot of people kind of started hitting Will on the cell phone saying, "Hey, you got something for me to do on Sergio's record? Because we want to be part of this." The project was entertaining and it was a joy.

Working with Sergio is kind of like working with an older brother. In the years I've been in his band, this is the third record of his that I've worked on, and I've done a lot of other projects with him. With Will, I had no idea what that would be like. I was really not familiar with his music at all, and I had never met him until we started working on this record. And in that environment, when you're in a recording studio, everybody is there for a common goal. Will's a very nice guy, a very hard worker, and he's really good at what he does. It was really nice to meet him. A lot of the other guests that played on the record I didn't actually meet while we were recording, but I met them at the Black Eyed Peas' Peapod Charity Concert, which we played at. So I will have played on a track with india.arie without ever meeting her until performing together at the show, and she's delightful. Everybody was great. A lot of the people that participated in the record were at this concert, like Erykah Badu, and John Legend, and a great rapper and incredible lyricist named Pharoahe Monch. Everybody that I've met I've enjoyed spending time with both musically and just personally. They're all really genuinely nice people.

I've been working a little bit with Justin Timberlake separately from the Sergio project doing some tracks for his record. I've played on a few songs and I've done a little bit of writing with him, but I don't necessarily know where that will lead. I don't know what will make the cut on the next album and what won't. He's working with a lot of different producers and, until the record comes out, it's very hard to say. Regardless, what I did was a lot of fun. Justin's got a great work ethic and he's very good at what he does. I like being in the studio with him because he's got so much direction, and he's really good at taking one very small idea and cultivating it into something that works musically. As for any gigs I got working on Timeless, Will has a lot of artists that he works with as a producer, so I got a chance to work with a bunch of people this last year that maybe normally, considering the kind of circles that I do travel in musically, I wouldn't have had the chance to work with. I ended up participating quite a bit — both playing and writing — on Macy Gray's next record, which Will has been working on with her [she is signed to his new will.i.am Group label]. Again, I don't know to what extent any tracks that I worked on will make it, but in recording, and especially in pop music, you just don't know until the record comes out what your contributions will be. But it was really fun, and she's a great artist who was really a blast to work with.

Well, I don't have an easy answer for that. Sure, all of the old clichés can apply, like "Practice Makes Perfect," and even though we know it never really does in art, we can still strive for it. So, you know, practicing and developing at a young enough age to where it sinks in, and having a good work ethic, a regimen, a plan for yourself… I think if you take care of yourself in that way, it kind of rubs off on people; it's infectious. And I think in our business it's important to be around people who are positive and love what they do, and are good at what they do. But all those things kind of have to work together. I don't think simply being good at what you do is enough; there's a lot of other things that come into play, especially when you're in a studio situation or even on the road. You're part of a team, and you've got to be a good teammate. You have to be able to take criticism and suggestion, to be able to offer it in a way that people can hear it, and to be honest and sincere about what it is that you do. That's the advice that's hit the hardest with me. It's not as much about luck as a lot of people would like to believe it is. It's really about hard work and perseverance, and being good.

For more information about the new album Timeless, visit: www.sergiomendestimeless.com