JAZZ CHILL : Herb Alpert

Friday, September 20, 2024

Herb Alpert | 50

Legendary musician, artist, record label executive, and philanthropist Herb Alpert marked an extraordinary milestone today in his storied six-decade music career with the release of his 50th studio album titled 50. Available everywhere, the album also commemorates another significant landmark as it celebrates 50 years of marriage to his wife, collaborator, and touring partner, Lani Hall, their golden anniversary.

Alpert sat down with The New York Times earlier this week at his home in Malibu and discussed 50, his iconic career, his marriage to Lani, touring, and his work as an artist/sculptor. Of the new album, they raved “The sound he got from his instrument - clean in tone, tidy in arrangement and joyous in character - also speaks of consistency. From the first note of the opening track, ‘Dancing Down 50th Street,’ his playing evokes the brisk and flirty mood of his ‘60s hits, from ‘A Taste of Honey’ to ‘Spanish Flea,’ a sound that represents midcentury modern culture as eloquently as an Eames chair or an Ossie Clark frock.”

50 distills everything that makes a great Herb Alpert release, combining evocative originals and ingenious covers from throughout pop music history, with Alpert’s unmistakable trumpet melodies leading the action. Many of the songs on 50 date back to the 1950s, including pop-vocal, rock’n’roll, and jazz favorites. It was the decade when Alpert got his start in the record industry, still a few years out from his career-making success with the Tijuana Brass, the young songwriter was learning lessons that helped him shape his signature musical voice. Integrating modern techniques into retakes of older songs is one of Alpert’s signatures. His tasteful adaptability is part of what has helped keep him at the front of the cultural consciousness for nearly seven decades.

Alpert has continued to follow the innovations of newer artists while refining his unmistakable “less is more” style of trumpet playing and arranging. His recent work combines acoustic and electronic sounds while revisiting music across disparate eras of pop, including ‘20s and ‘30s jazz standards, Beatles favorites, and more, with periodic turns from his wife Lani on vocals. This combination of the vintage and the au courant continues to resonate with audiences; Alpert’s last two LPs, 2022’s On the Sunny Side of Street and 2023's Wish Upon A Star, peaked at #5 and #1, respectively, on the jazz charts.

Alternately playful and contemplative, 50 continues in the spirit of these releases, with Alpert offering his take on everything from bossa nova (“Corcovado”), Broadway-born standards (“Baubles, Bangles, & Beads”), surf-rock mood pieces (“Sleep Walk”), hard-bop tunes (“Jeannine”) and Elvis hits (“Are You Lonesome Tonight?”). The originals scattered throughout 50 sit comfortably up against these indelible melodies from bygone eras, reminding us how many generations of pop Alpert’s own compositional sound has endured through. In addition to “Dancing Down 50th Street,” there’s the bluesy and stylish “Where Do We Go From Here,” as well as “Morning Mist,” a dreamy ballad fit for a beach sunrise.

For almost three-quarters-of-a-century, Alpert has always had the rare gift of being able to reach the greatest possible group of people through inhabiting an inimitable artistic voice. He has maintained and reshaped his sound through constant practice, recording, and performing (he continues to tour internationally, playing dozens of shows every year). With his eye invariably set on the future, Alpert is already turning over ideas for multiple upcoming albums. The sentiment crystalizes how one of popular music’s truest originals continues to find ways to connect and reconnect with himself and his audience. It is through his love of artistic kernels of inspiration—a couple of bars, a chord, a suggestive brushstroke—that seem to cut across time.

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