Herb Alpert & The TJB - WARM Comments + Reviews

[Harry]

The long awaited WARM album in the Herb Alpert Signature Series has been officially re-released in the USA as a download-only album available from iTunes. Tell us your favorite track, how you think the remastered album sounds, and give us your overall opinion.

Please do not use this thread to comment on the fact that the album isn't available on CD, but rather keep your comments about the actual sound of the album and the music contained within it.

 

[Tom Wallace]

I'm completely thrilled to have this in digital format. I downloaded it tonight, burned it to CD and cranked it on my vintage 1988 Technics CD player, hooked to my vintage 1978 Technics receiver, and it sounds wonderful (through my vintage EPI speakers--OK, enough of that), even with the occasional hiss.

I've always been rather cool to "Warm," if you'll pardon the expression, but I think that may be due to less-than-ideal vinyl that always got in the way of my enjoyment. I don't think I'll ever love this album as much as I do, say, "SRO" (I died and went to heaven when that came out on CD), but there is some truly wonderful stuff here.

"Sandbox" continues to be my favorite, and it always sounded lousiest on my vinyl, so having a clean copy of that is worth the price of admission. I got a new-found respect for "Girl Talk" after hearing it a couple of times tonight. It's really nicely arranged, with that country-western guitar and the flute. It's a nice tune, and it ought to remain an instrumental, as the words (Chris Montez sings 'em on "Foolin' Around") are sexist and horrific.

I know there's been some controversy about this record this week, but I have to say, I'm very happy to have it in digital format, and I'm impressed with how it sounds.

"The Brass Are Comin'" is next--it's all downloaded and ready to burn. Luckily I have a Japanese "Volume 2."

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I had this album on an 8-track when it was a new release. I managed to record a few of the songs onto a cassette compilation I made many years ago, but the original tape disappeared somewhere, so I listened to my favorite couple of tunes as fuzzy third-generation tapes for years.

Not long before discovering A&M Corner, I got a flyer in the mail from a record-searching service. I figured, why not use them to try to find WARM? It cost me $35, and the record had a lot of ticks and pops, but finally I had the whole album again.

Several years later, I met Harry here on the Corner and we combined efforts to create a good-sounding needle drop CD of the album from a clean copy he'd found at a thrift store. The rest is history. Even after all that time, I still sometimes "hear" the original clicks'n'pops from my original vinyl, because I played that thing so much.

The downloaded WARN sounds almost as good as I hoped it would. The first song, "The Sea Is My Soil," has more tape hiss in the quiet parts than our needle version, but the rest of the tracks sound fine.

I've said many times that "The Sea is My Soil" is my favorite TJB song and that hasn't changed. The thing can still give me a chill when the first fast part kicks in. I also like the choir and the orchestra. There'd been lots of orchestras on previous TJB songs, but this is the grandest sounding one in my opinion. Kudos to the arranger, Shorty Rogers.

There is really a lot to like on this album. My early favorite back when it came out was "Ob La Di, Ob-La-Da," and I still like it a lot. To me Herb's playing (in a rather careless, almost rehearsal style) really shows the mood of the song.

My other favorite song on the album is "Marjorine." For some reason, I didn't really "discover" this song until probably three or four years ago, but now it's a favorite. I love the way the band swings on this one.

Probably the catchiest song on the record, to my ears, is "The Continental." I love the percussion sound on the song, and the melody just always sticks in my head long after I hear it. I wonder if that's Julius Wechter playing steel drums.

"Zazuiera" is great for its singing. I think I hear Lani Hall somewhere in the mass of vocals, but it's hard to say. (But she was probably hanging with Herb by this time!)

The slow songs are probably my least favorites on the album, but I still like them. I suppose if I had to pick a least favorite, it would be "Without Her," which is probably one of my least favorite Herb vocals....but still, on a scale of 1 to 10 with "This Guy's In Love With You" being a 10, this rates a solid 5 or 6 with me.

"Sandbox" is a great conclusion. The guitar riffs (I didn't know what created that sound until asking the question here at the Corner) are cool, and again the orchestration on the choruses is first rate.

One big change on this album is the reduced presence of Julius Wechter. He's there, but not a constant on most every song like on previous albums. Maybe he's doing percussion instead of marimba on some songs.

All in all - an album that's definitely a departure for the Tijuana Brass, but a beautiful musical statement and a worthy addition to the catalog. I can see why it wasn't a hot seller...after all, the exuberant innocence of the '60s was pretty well faded by then and the singer-songwriter era was beginning. But it's still a great album, even if the public didn't get it.

 

[NYCDguy]

I had never heard "Warm" until a couple of days ago. Before finding this forum I only knew it as the album that broke the TJB's long streak of Top Ten chart placements, barely breaking into the top 30 (but still managing to go gold). Once I came here and saw how much all the hardcore fans were clamoring for its reissue, my curiosity was piqued. And, several listens in, I must say I'm blown away by "Warm."

"The Beat Of The Brass," released the previous year, sounds to me like Herb was exhausted, largely devoid of new ideas (save for "This Guy's In Love With You"), and more or less running on autopilot. "Warm" sounds like he took a step back and rethought his approach, and the results are stunning -- this doesn't sound like any other '60s TJB album. I love the Brazilian influence on tracks like "Zazueira" and "The Sea Is My Soil." And even the more typical Alpert-sounding tracks, like "The Continental" or "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da," sound reinvigorated somehow, more sprightly and "together" than most of his work since "Sounds Like."

I think that no matter how good this record was -- and it's very, very good -- and how much Herb's sound had evolved, "Warm" wasn't going to be a big seller. The TJB was simply out of fashion by 1969, and any record with their name on it would have trouble reaching anyone beyond their dwindling core of fans. Which is a real shame. Hopefully the non-appearance of this album on CD, which is the subject of another thread, won't dissuade the curious from checking it out, because it's a fascinating chapter in Herb Alpert's long career.

 

[lswilson99]

I am in total agreement with you and have long held the belief that if Warm had been released in say 1966 it would have out sold every TJB Album with the exception of Whipped Cream.

Len

 

[Harry]

WARM has, from day one, been an impressive album to me, and has always remained perhaps my favorite of all of the Tijuana Brass albums - and that's saying a lot. I was HUGE into this group with their core albums of GOING PLACES, WHIPPED CREAM, WHAT NOW MY LOVE and all of the rest. With Herb having a number one hit with "This Guy's In Love With You" it seemed he could do no wrong.

I remember my dad coming home from work and telling me he'd heard a new Herb Alpert song on the radio, another vocal like "This Guy's In Love With You". I didn't know at the time that he was referring to "To Wait For Love", but that's what the new song was. I kept listening to the radio in hopes of hearing it and, yes, taping it. I recall catching the tail end of it once, so I now had a feel for what it sounded like - it had that Bacharach syncopation to it, so that's what I focused on when trying to capture it. At that very time in history, another Bacharach record was very popular, Dionne Warwick's "Who Is Gonna Love Me", and I got fooled every time that one started into thinking it was the "new Herb". Eventually I recorded it, and ultimately bought the single and played it to death.

From my perspective of hearing the song on the radio, it seemed as big a hit as Herb's prior vocal hit, so I actually had no idea at the time that the song only made it up the charts to number 51. But the song served as my first taste of what was to be WARM.

A few months later, "Zazuiera" came out and we played the same game. My dad heard it first on the radio at work, and I attempted to capture it on my reel-to-reel tape recorder. And once again I bought the single. This one had a strange Brazilian flare to it, sounding like it should have belonged to the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 repertoire, and curiously, Brasil '66's current hit at the time was "Pretty World" which sounded like it should have been in the Tijuana Brass' canon. "Zazueira" came and went with little fanfare, but again I was thrilled to have it and not the least bit concerned with chart position, and I now had my second taste of what was to become the WARM album.

"Without Her" was the next song to figure in this pattern. Yes, there were three singles from WARM BEFORE the album itself was released. This one had a soft vocal from Herb that exploded every minute or so in huge orchestral crash. It must have played hell with radio processing units, as later we learned that A&M released a special compressed version to radio stations. Again I bought the 45 after grabbing a copy off of the radio, and this 45 actually had another WARM track on its flip side, "Sandbox". So now, I owned more than a quarter of whatever the new album would be.

And then came WARM, with four comfortable and familiar songs, along with a joyous opening track, and looky there, Herb DID DO "Pretty World" after all.

Again, with the album in hand, and from my perspective at the time, Herb was at the top of his game, and the album was yet another great achievement. With no charts to look at, I just assumed it was as big, if not bigger than what preceded it. I played that record to death, literally wearing out ther grooves. It was fun to hear a different vocal take on "To Wait For Love", and all of the singles had been in mono, so the stereo album was yet another treat.

"The Sea Is My Soil" remains probably my favorite of all Herb Alpert tracks, and it's not even close. It still produces goosebumps after all these years, and it leads to the rest of the great album, WARM.

Harry
...more thoughts later on the iTunes version, online...

 

[Stephen Vakil]

Warm has always been one of my favourite TJB albums and I'm so thrilled to have it (through a very kind soul) in a clean digital format. It's so conistsent, that there's only one track I could do without - "Ob-La-Di...".

It's difficult to pick the best track, but I went for Warm. Yhe other standouts for me are Girl Talk, Zazuiera, The Contiental, The Sea is my Soil, Marjorine, Without Her and Sandbox.

Until now, I have had a couple of scartchy old LPs (obtained almost 30 years ago!) of this which I burned to CD. I now have a clean copy!!

Stephen

 

[happycamper]

I had never heard the music on this album before downloading it from iTunes. There is some stunning work done here. My favorites are:

Marjorine
The Sea is My Soul (Soil?)
Warm
Sandbox

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Soul (Soil?)

"Soil" is indeed correct. I'm hoping that our friends at Shout!Factory see this and get a correction in place. (FWIW, there are a lot of this kind of small error in iTunes.)

 

[manifan]

When Warm first came out I played "To Wait for Love" to death. Herb and the Bacharach sound were an irresistible combination.

There are so many good songs on this album.... "The Sea is My Soil," "Girl Talk," "Pretty World," "The Continental" -- it's hard to pick a favorite. Probably I would have to say for me it's a tie between "The Sea is My Soil," and "Sandbox," which is also one that captured me immediately upon first hearing it years ago.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

[Incidental humor alert!]

It took me a long time to warm up to this album. It wasn't until a few years ago when many folks here started talking about it that I started listening to it more. This isn't my favorite by a long shot. I always thought this was too much on the "easy listening" train, and worse yet, it featured two vocals by Herb (whose singing I don't care for). I also didn't like his trumpet sound on this album.

With that said, I have learned to enjoy this album more. My favorite tune is "Marjorine". I loved the swinging big band feel on this tune. I also love the horn voicings on "Girl Talk". "Zazueira" has also become a favorite. I used to really like "Warm" until I heard the BMB version (titled "Baja Nova") which I like even more.

The down side for me was "Pretty World", which just drags to me. I prefer the uptempo versions of this song. "Ob-La-Di" is pointless IMHO, even though it's more upbeat than the other tunes. Even though I don't like Herb's singing, "Without Her" isn't all that bad. I really like the bass part. On the other hand "To Wait For Love" is almost agonizing. I actually prefer the 45 version, where Herb's singing is a bit more lively.

As for the iTunes version, I was surprised that this sounds better than I expected. On "The Sea Is My Soil" the bass trombone part during the first upbeat chorus is more audible. Yeah, there's some noises going on, but most of these reissues have had some noise weirdness at some point. The highs are little more pronounced on some tunes (like "Girl Talk") than on any of my LPs. This has always been a hard LP for me to clean up and make a CD of because the background of this album is pretty quiet. So this version is actually pretty decent (other than the compressed sound). For $9.99 it's a bargain.




Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

Well, with all the talk about THIS album being such "Essential Herb", it was sure (along with Rise) about ALL the Alpert I had in my collection, until Definitive Hits came along, as well as a few '45's...

I could'a also have had a STILL-SEALED copy of this, which I kept putting off buying, so, yes, I guess I got what DESERVED, missing-out on being the "first person" to buy, open up and give "first play" to his own "new" copy when that New one which kept staring back at me at the used record store finally SOLD...!

What "The Sea Is My Soil" is to a lot of you, "Sandbox" definitely is to me, though the way they each bookend this album, they are equally good songs... "Without Her" and "To Wait For Love" really should've made the same impact on the Charts of "This Guy's In Love With You" did; Herb singing AND blowing, should have been an "extension" of his career as "Trumpeter and VOCALIST"...!!!

I agree, "Pretty World" should've been more upbeat, though slowed down like this really adds a very good "dimension", while "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and even "Zazueira" seem to have a good, wild-sounding "Old-Time TjB flare", while "Warm", especially with the vocalesé, makes for Herb's pleasant Easy Listening Bravado...! "Girl Talk" is also more than just "muzak" here, too--I mean the tremolo guitar and oboe, and Herb's double-tracked horn really make "Melody and Musicianship" such a really cool thing...! Ditto for "Marjorine" and "The Continental"...!

Not an album I would easily give FIVE-Stars (*****) to, but surely in my book, definitely earns FOUR-And-a-HALF...!!! (****-1/2) artyhat:



Dave

 

[Rudy]

This is the album that broke the TJB mold. Who, back then, would expect a TJB album to start off with....a slow solo acoustic guitar??

I'm lucky to have a DG-pressed copy of this album on LP. While it might be a generation away from the US tape, the surfaces are dead quiet. I found this one sealed, about a decade ago. Such luck!

 

[PartyRico]

I too wet my feet with "Warm" by buying and loving the 45 rpm single of "To Wait For Love". I've always loved Burt Bacharach's music, plus Herb's singing. I feel Herb does "more with less" as far as his voice is concerned. What he lacks in vocal range, he more than makes up with in timing, and picking the right notes, and leaving the right spaces/blanks. Herb Alpert seems to be a very sensitive, and soft spoken person, and this comes across in his singing, and often in his ballad playing.
When "Warm" came out, I bought it in LP format, then in pre-recorded "Open Reel Tape". It's still one of my favorite Herb Alpert recordings. The reason is simple. I adore Brazilian music, and Herb also fell in love with it, in part due to Sergio having introduced him to those sounds. Herb was in Rio De Janeiro shortly before "Warm" was recorded, and it seems to have stirred him to record an album with a heavier "Brazilian palette". Dori Caymmi wrote "The Sea Is My Soil" and Sergio Mendes also recorded it in his 67 Atantic album: "My Favorite Things", a fine album. The late great trumpeter, composer, and arranger, Mr. Shorty Rodgers has worked with Herb on several projects including the excellent "Christmas Album", "My Abstract Heart", and "Warm". By the way, some of you have complained that you don't care for the sound of Herb's trumpet on "Warm". This may be due to the fact that Herb used mostly a fluegelhorn, in place of a trumpet to get a softer, mellower tone. I happen to like the flugelhorn, even over the wonderful trumpet. I used to play trumpet, and took two years of classes, but I've read that the flugelhorn is harder to control and dominate. Well
guess what? Mr. Alpert has the "bull by the horns" yet again, I get the impression Herb practiced endless hours for this spectacular impeccable album.
"The Sea Is My Soil" is a musical "tour-de-force". It has to be among the top five Herb Alpert performances.
"Without Her" by Nillson is beautiful in my view. I don't like the fact that when I listen to it, my "finger has to be on the volume control". Those crescendos sound spectacular on CD, but they are too exagerated in my view. It's a small technical glitch, that in my opinion ruined a potential big hit. The sensitive guitar, percussion, and piano licks are stunning.
Herb sang his heart out on this one. He had recently divorced, and I think this sort of comes through in the emotional spectrum one hears in his singing. I'd like to hear a different arrangement or remix track that is bared down as far as the loud orchestration. (crescendo)
Marjorine is outstanding. I'm reminded of Herb's love for Dixieland, ala "Wall St. Rag." Great, great tune. One of the highlights of this lp
Ob-La-Di-Obla-Da is my least favorite track on this record, but it's not bad! We can hear "political correctness" at work when instead of the word "bra" they sing "hey!" Another example of this is when Karen Carpenters sings on "Superstar":"Be with you", instead of "sleep with you" as Rita Coolidge sang in the Mad Dogs and Englishmen lp. (two excellent recordings by the way).
"Zazuiera" is the other monster track on "Warm". It's composed by the great Brazilian artist "Jorge Ben" a.k.a. Jorge Benjor. He also wrote "Mais Que Nada", and many other hits. It's a gorgeous samba, and the chorus nails it! Shorty Rodgers arrangement is a standout here. One of Herb's best tracks, the chorus will linger, and haunt your neurons, and synapsis, long after the final fadeout.
"Girl Talk"is another favorite of mine from "Warm". Herb's double tracked flugelhorn is gorgeous. The laid back arrangement is the best I've heard, this is the definitive version of Bobby Hebbs tune.
Sandbox is another outstanding tune. John Pisano's supporting guitar is haunting as are the gentle string flourishes. Beautiful composition.
"The Continental" is done here as a gorgeous samba, with steel drums. The electric guitar support adds much to the arrangement. Herb nails it with his hypnotic catchy horn. This one is a winning track, in a winning album. This album was born for the CD format, so I do relate to some of you here who are unhappy about that not being reality just yet.
One last comment about this Masterpiece Record. I think if A&M had used the back cover that shows Herb Alpert in a bright red shirt, grey slacks, black boots, atop a beautiful black horse, at Malibu (?) beach, and had made that the FRONT cover, the album would have fared much better! As a photographer, and darkroom technician, I must say that the front image used is slightly out of focus or "soft" as we say. Add to that the fact that it's a "close up" does not help matters. Herb looks great on that cover, as he is very photogenic, but there is a subliminal "rejection" to that photo cover. It's one of A&Ms few faulty cover choices in my opinion. Needless to say, on a smaller CD cover or cassette cover, that front cover image fares much better, as the defects are proportionally reduced in size.
I suppose you all can guess that this album is near and dear to many hearts round these parts, and for good reasons.... If it's true that less can be more... It's also true that "Warm" can be "Caliente"! (Hot!) Please add Bernie Medina to the list of "Warm" lovers...

 

[martin]

Having just recieved a CD copy of the Itunes download,I must say that I am very pleased with the sound quality. Warm is a very good album, if a bit uneven. I think the Brazilian inspiration is what makes it really special. Many of the tracks have this lovely summer mood in them. So "Warm" is indeed a suiting title. It is also a departure from earlier TJB albums and I think Summertime is the obvious continuation of the new ideas introduced on Warm. It is sad that it did not get the commercial success it deserved, but then that's almost bound to happen after so many successful years. After all it did go gold!

- greetings from the slightly warmer north -
Martin

 

[Rudy]

IAs a photographer, and darkroom technician, I must say that the front image used is slightly out of focus or "soft" as we say. Add to that the fact that it's a "close up" does not help matters. Herb looks great on that cover, as he is very photogenic, but there is a subliminal "rejection" to that photo cover. It's one of A&Ms few faulty cover choices in my opinion.

Good points. I don't know if it was a conscious decision to promote a "message" from that picture, but it reminds me of a similar situation with Phil Collins' solo albums. On "Face Value", Phil's face IS the entire cover, looking directly into his eyes. On his video in the Classic Albums DVD series, he mentions that he wanted to convey the idea that it is a very simple, direct album that was completely his. IOW, the photo would be similar to seeing directly into his soul. The songs in "Face Value" had a lot to do with hurt, sadness, rejection, etc., as it was his "divorce" album. No nonsense, just his soul laid bare on some of those tracks.

Maybe with "Warm", the cover art theme works on the same lines. Here's what I'm thinking. Showing only Herb in close-up, but in soft-focus, tells us that the album is different from the business-like TJB albums that preceded it. IOW, we should expect a softer, warmer, perhaps more romantic album than we're used to. And being somewhat larger than life, it has the same effect as Collins' solo album covers--you're getting Herb and only Herb, no TJB, as honest and direct as you've ever heard him.

I believe the TJB moniker on the cover was there in name only. Yes, he used some of the TJB musicians, but musically it is a departure. For what it's worth, The Brass Are Comin' should have followed Beat Of The Brass, with Warm and Summertime following those, perhaps dropping the TJB name in the process.

 

[Harry]

Random thought:

Suppose Herb wanted to do a remixed version of WARM. Would he call it RE-WARMED?

...never mind...

Harry

 

[Captaindave]

Maybe with "Warm", the cover art theme works on the same lines. Here's what I'm thinking. Showing only Herb in close-up, but in soft-focus, tells us that the album is different from the business-like TJB albums that preceded it. IOW, we should expect a softer, warmer, perhaps more romantic album than we're used to. And being somewhat larger than life, it has the same effect as Collins' solo album covers--you're getting Herb and only Herb, no TJB, as honest and direct as you've ever heard him.

I believe the TJB moniker on the cover was there in name only. Yes, he used some of the TJB musicians, but musically it is a departure. For what it's worth, The Brass Are Comin' should have followed Beat Of The Brass, with Warm and Summertime following those, perhaps dropping the TJB name in the process.

This makes a lot of sense to me...a gradual disappearance of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass to simply Herb Alpert...a phase out. That sequence would have provided a less abrupt change, IMHO.

 

[Rudy]

Random thought:

Suppose Herb wanted to do a remixed version of WARM. Would he call it RE-WARMED?

...never mind...

Harry

Their future gigs got canceled after their last TV special. Headline: "The Brass Aren't Comin'."

[/rimshot]

 

[Larry]

My original LP, that I had purchased in the summer of 1969, was trashed by my mother. She had taken it to work , along with TBAC, where it was stacked with other LP's and played on a portable stereo record player. I bought it because I liked the tune "Warm". I don't think I listened to the album that much because it had disappeared from my collection and my music tastes had changed. In the 90's my music taste for the TJB returned. It was my goal to obtain the first 13 LP's that I had, on CD, even if it meant using an LP to CD service. A fellow that had contacted me through this forum offered to do the transferring and cleaning up of several of my TJB LP's for a fee. I ended up of with transfers of "Herb Alpert's Ninth", "Warm", and "Summertime". They were very good transfers, he even took out the tracking distortion that was very evident on the inner groove tracks. I have been enjoying "Warm" and the rest of them for the last 7 years.
I voted for "Girl Talk" as my favorite track with "Warm" coming in a close second. I did download the iTunes version and transferred it to CD. The iTunes version sounds pretty good to me. I was quite impressed in how well it does sound and how quickly I had a copy!

 

[audiofile]

I think this is a very beautiful record. It was very well put together. I seem to be into the more commercially unsuccessful albums, then the more successful ones. My favorites from this are The Sea Is My Soil, Ob La Di Ob La Da, Warm, Pretty World, and Sandbox. 5 stars!

 

[john taulton jr]

i has any one heard if shoutfactory going to release next three herb alpert and the tijuana brass albums on cd.it cost much money to down load off itunes.i hope herb alpert will release the next three tijuana brass albums on cd.

 

[Dave]

Please do not use this thread to comment on the fact that the album isn't available on CD, but rather keep your comments about the actual sound of the album and the music contained within it.

inkshield:

i has any one heard if shoutfactory going to release next three herb alpert and the tijuana brass albums on cd.it cost much money to down load off itunes.i hope herb alpert will release the next three tijuana brass albums on cd.

Uh, well...????



Dave

 

[Harry]

Stuck keyboard?

Harry

 

[audiofile]

So is it Tom or john??