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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Herb Alpert |
| Address |
, California , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
March 31, 1935
(89 years)
|
| Contributor | Eric |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Apr 30, 2024 06:23pm |
| Tags |
Jewish - Judaism -
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| Info | Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935 in Los Angeles, California) is a Jewish-American musician most associated with the Tijuana Brass, a now-defunct brass band of which he was leader. He is also famous as a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records.
Early life and career
He began trumpet lessons at about the age of 8 and played at dances as a teenager. After graduating from Fairfax High School in 1955, he joined the U.S. Army and frequently performed at military ceremonies. After his service to the Army, he tried his hand at acting, but decided to pursue a career in music. While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950s, he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for 2 years.
At the dawn of his music career, Alpert co-wrote (along with Lou Adler) early rock and roll hits such as "Wonderful World." His recording career began at RCA under the name of Dore Alpert. He also produced Dante & the Evergreens hit "Alley Oop" and Jan & Dean. In 1962, Alpert and his business partner Jerry Moss founded their record label, A&M Records.
The Tijuana Brass Years
Alpert set up a small recording studio in his garage and was playing around with overdubbing with a tune called "Twinkle Star" when he happened to hear a mariachi band in Tijuana. Alpert adopted the trumpet style to the tune and mixed in crowd cheers and other noises to suggest a bull fight, and renamed the tune, "The Lonely Bull." He paid out of his own pocket to press the record as a single, and it spread through radio DJs until it caught on and became a Top Ten hit in 1963. He followed up quickly with an album of "The Lonely Bull" and other titles.
Alpert released his debut album, "The Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass." The Tijuana Brass were studio musicians. The title cut reached #6 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart. This was also A&M's first album (the original number was 101), but was recorded at Conway Records.
By the end of 1964, a growing demand for live appearances by the Tijuana Brass, Alpert auditioned and hired a team of crack session men. No one in Alpert's band (or Wechter's) was actually Hispanic. Alpert used to tell his audiences that his group consisted of "Three pastramis, two bagels, and an American cheese": John Pisano (electric guitar); Lou Pagani (piano); Nick Ceroli (drums); Pat Senatore (bass guitar); Tonni Kalash (trumpet); Herb Alpert (trumpet and vocal); Bob Edmondson (trombone). The band debuted in 1965 and quickly became one of the highest-paid acts then performing, having put together a complete revue that included choreographed moves and comic routines written by Bill ("Jose Jimenez") Dana.
The Tijuana Brass's success helped spawn other Latin acts, notably Julius Wechter (long-time friend of Alpert's and the marimba player for the Brass) and the Baja Marimba Band, and the profits allowed A&M begin building a repertoire of artists like Chris Montez and The Sandpipers.
What Now My Love
An album or two each year would be released throughout the 1960s. The fortune of Alpert's style began with the national exposure The Clark Gum Company gave one of his tunes in 1964, titled The Mexican Shuffle (which was retitled The Teaberry Shuffle for the television ads). In 1965, Alpert released two albums, "Whipped Cream" and "Going Places." "Whipped Cream" sold over 6 million copies in the United States and the album cover of Whipped Cream is considered a classic. It featured model (Dolores Erickson) wearing chiffon and shaving cream. In concerts, when about to play the song, Alpert would tell the audience, "Sorry, we can't play the cover for you!" The art was parodied by several groups including once A&M band Soul Asylum. The singles included the title cut, Lollipops and Roses, and "A Taste of Honey", the latter won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Going Places produced four more singles "Tijuana Taxi", "Spanish Flea", "Third Man Theme", and "Zorba the Greek".
Many of the tracks from Whipped Cream and Going Places received a great deal of airplay, and still do at least on the Game Show Network due to their frequent use as incidental music in The Dating Game, notably Whipped Cream, Spanish Flea and Lollipops and Roses which were staples on the TV show The Dating Game. While it is easy to mention singles, Alpert's albums outsold and outperformed his singles on the charts.
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass won six Grammy awards and 15 of their albums went gold, 14 platinum. In 1966, his music outsold The Beatles by two to one--over 13 million recordings. That same year the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record--placing five albums simultaneously on the Pop Album Chart in Billboard. That accomplishment has never been repeated. In April of that year, four of those albums were in the Top 10 simultaneously.
Alpert's only Number One single with the Brass was "This Guy's in Love With You", featuring a rare vocal. Alpert's vocal skills were limited, but this song also had a limited range, and it worked for him. The song debuted in April 1968, and topped the charts for four weeks. Alpert's version was a cover of this Burt Bacharach and Hal David song.
Life after the Brass
Alpert disbanded the Tijuana Brass in 1969, but released another album by the group in 1971. In 1973, with some of the original Tijuana Brass members and some new members he formed a group called the T.J.B. This new version of the Brass released two albums in 1974 and 1975 and toured. Alpert reconvened a third version of the Brass in 1984 after being invited to perform for the Olympic athletes at the Los Angeles Summer Games. The invitation led to the Bullish album and tour.
In the 1970's, 80's and 90's Alpert enjoyed a successful solo career. He had his biggest instrumental hit, "Rise" (from the album of the same name), which went number one in October of 1979 and won a Grammy Award and was later sampled in the 1997 rap song 'Hypnotize' by the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. It also made him the only artist ever to hit #1 on the Billboard charts with both vocal and instrumental pieces.
From 1962 through 1992 Alpert signed artists to A&M and produced records. Among the notable artists he worked with personally are Chris Montez, The Carpenters, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, Bill Medley, Lani Hall (Alpert's wife), and Janet Jackson (featured vocalist on his 1987 hit single "Diamonds").
Alpert and A&M Records partner Jerry Moss received a Grammy Trustees Award in 1997 for their lifetime achievements in the recording industry as executives.
For his contribution to the recording industry, Herb Alpert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6929 Hollywood Blvd. Moss also has a star on the Walk of Fame.
Alpert and Jerry Moss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006 as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M.
Today
Alpert continues to play his trumpet and devotes time to his second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with shows around the country, as a Broadway theater producer. His production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America won a Tony award.
In the 1980s he created The Herb Alpert Foundation and The Alpert Awards in the Artists with Cal State. The Foundation supports youth and arts education as well as environmental issues.
Although he has not released an album of new material since 1999's "Colours", he is actively overseeing the reissue of his music catalog. In 2000, Alpert bought back the rights to his music from Universal Music (current owners of A&M Records), and began remixing and remastering his albums for CD reissue. In 2005, Shout! Factory began distributing digitally remastered versions of Alpert's A&M output, including a new album consisting of unreleased material from Alpert's Tijuana Brass.
He continues to be a guest artist for friends like Gato Barbieri, Rita Coolidge, Jim Brickman, Brian Culbertson and David Lanz.
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