a question about the Alpert/Hall tour

[Rudy]

Hey Marty!

No, we didn't meet up there, but we were closer to the door, about half a dozen seats down from where you were at. We were also over talking to Bill Cantos for awhile by the inside door. I wished I had brought a couple of things to sign, but just about all of my stuff is still in storage.

Didn't you feel like we were among the youngest ones in the room?

I agree, 200 miles is no big deal--earlier this year, I was at an outside sales job and it wasn't uncommon to put 1000 miles per week onto the car, since we worked out of Livonia and I covered a large area, going to Ann Arbor and the Brighton/Howell area regularly, and up to Oxford occasionally. No tunes--we had a night without kids, so we got a chance to just relax and talk in relative peace and quiet. Since it can get noisy here at the house, I usually have my Zune going several hours a day, with a set of Grado in-ear monitors that block out the noise.

 

[Rudy]

BTW, what was playing over the monitors before the concert at the other concerts?

In E. Lansing, they were playing Wes Montgomery's A&M tracks through the sound system both before and after the gig. That was a great mood setter!

One other thing: Herb did get on the well-deserved soapbox for a moment during the show about the arts, children and education in school. That's something we spoke with him about after the show during the meet-and-greet. For any of us with school-aged children, especially in Michigan where our governor hacks away at the school budgets yearly, it really hit home. I know times are tough, but certain cuts are stifling childrens' futures. How can we have singers like Lani, or musicians, sculptor or painters like Herb if they are not allowed to learn and express themselves artistically?

I'm hopefully gathering up my stray thoughts later on today and working on a formal review of the gig. Will post a link here when ready!

 

[Hurrikane]

Hey Rudy! My friends and I were commenting before the show that we are among the young ones here. I'm no spring chicken at 54. I was 9 when first turned on to the Brass. It was somewhat of a geriatric crowd.

I kind of enjoyed the Q and A sessions Herb held between songs. I wanted to ask Herb, other than himself, who was his favorite A & M artist? Then when I met him I was star struck and forgot to ask him. Go figure.

 

[Rudy]

I meant to ask him if he could pay Hussain a few more dollars so he could buy the rest of the upright bass.

We were about five rows from the stage, slightly off to the right. To my immediate right, an older lady was actually crocheting before the show started! Our other Corner pal Rim K. (with his wife and daughter) was a few rows in front of us, more off to the left. He brought his Chicago Benge trumpet for Herb to autograph. If he checks in here soon, he can tell us more about it.

 

[Harry]

BTW, what was playing over the monitors before the concert at the other concerts?

In E. Lansing, they were playing Wes Montgomery's A&M tracks through the sound system both before and after the gig. That was a great mood setter!

Yep. The Wes Montgomery tracks were playing at the Philly date too, both before and after the concert.

Harry

 

[Mr Bill]

Well, that may, in part, answer Marty Hurricane's question. Wes Montgomery is probably one of Herb's favorite A&M acts... But then I doubt it would be appropriate to play Styx, Supertramp or the Police before a Herb Concert!

--Mr Bill

 

[Hurrikane]

I never realized that Wes Montgomery was on the A & M Label. All the Wes records I have are from the old CTI or Creed Taylor Inc Label. CTI was a great old Jazz label.

Mr Bill you are correct in saying Styx playing Snowblind or Mr. Roboto before and after the show would be at best a curious choice.

I could see Herb choosing music he enjoys or an artist that may have influenced him in the past!!

 

[Rudy]

I never realized that Wes Montgomery was on the A & M Label. All the Wes records I have are from the old CTI or Creed Taylor Inc Label. CTI was a great old Jazz label.

Wes was actually A&M/CTi, for his last three (?) albums. It sounds like they were either playing tracks from these at random, or from a compilation disc.

Creed Taylor actually produced Wes's albums at Verve before he had his own CTi label at A&M, and there was a lot of great music recorded there as well.

 

[CherryStreet]

So glad to hear you did in fact get to go Rudy!

How about a setlist and report fellas?

 

[Rudy]

So glad to hear you did in fact get to go Rudy!

How about a setlist and report fellas?

I'm going to hammer out a review hopefully later tonight (got a backlog of paying jobs...for once!), but I didn't jot down a set list. Pretty much typical of the tour, though. (Marty, did you get a set list, or no?)

I actually don't have the new CD yet. It's kind of nice this way: it will be like having a memento of the concert tour. I actually had it shipped to a friend of mine in Canada (ordered via Amazon.ca), but they haven't come over to Port Huron in a few weeks.

 

[Hurrikane]

Rudy! Like you, I did not jot down a set list. As I can recall though at least half of the tracks from Anything Goes were part of the show. The Brass tracks that were touched on but not played in full were...Spanish Flea...This Guy's...If I were A Rich Man...and..What Now My Love. The show was a showcase of Classic Standards all with a new and exciting Alpert jazz twist, complete with an informal and sometimes humorous Q & A between all the tracks. As I recall Lani sang just about every other track. Does that pretty much sum it up Rudy?

 

[Rudy]

Lani touched on a handful of songs she performed with Brasil '66, like "O Pato", "One Note Samba" (where they threw in "Spanish Flea" like they did on the Brasil '66 version), and Edu Lobo's "Viola Fora de Moda" (which had several bars of Lobo's "Zanzibar" in the middle).

I didn't catch "This Guy's..." though!

 

[Hurrikane]

Rudy! After further investigation of the new album and recalling memories of the show, the only songs that were not performed from the the new Anything Goes album were The Trolly Song and Dinorah (Gee-no-rah) /Morning.

BTW This Guy's...was at the end of I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face, but only the trumpet part!