Check your local TV listings (9/22) for Herb & Lani's appearance on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS. Depending on your local PBS station, the show may air over the next several nights or early a.m. hours.
Herb & Lani On Tavis Smiley - PBS
- Thread starter Steve Sidoruk
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CherryStreet
Member
You can watch some of the show now HERE:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200909/20090922.html
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200909/20090922.html
Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
trumpet player
New Member
Hi, I just saw Herb Alpert and Lani Hall on the Tavis Smiley tonight here in Cleveland,Ohio on WVIZ 25 11:30PM to 12:00AM and that was a great interview. and they both look great. and I taped it as well.I heard Herb mention that he was doing a concert and he said you would have some fans call out play Spanish Flea or Tijuana Taxi. I heard somewhere that Herb does not like to play the old TJB tunes is this true. I mean that is what the fans that paid to go to see there concert. the fans expect to hear some of the old tunes like the beach boys would do or the rolling stones. Because it is us old TJB fans that gave him those Gold and Plantium records. does anyone know why he does not play any of the old tunes.?
bob
bob
thetijuanataxi
Well-Known Member
Herb does play the old tunes when he's in the mood to. If you have his 1996 Montreaux DVD, you can see this. He also has been playing a newly arranged TJB medley which unfortunately, I am yet to hear. But his focus is clearly on this new project and so he doesn't want the concerts turning into trips down memory lane. I don't know which concerts he plays the TJB medley at, but I know that he does, at his discretion, throw a few evergreens into some of his concerts. The TJB songs are quite different in style from the current project and he likes his audience to appreciate what he's doing now. So you can understand why he doesn't want a lot of requests for TJB tunes. BTW, "The Trolley Song" which was originally on 9th is one of the songs on the new CD. So in some way or other, he does do tunes that he did with the TJB from time to time, but his heart is not with that style anymore.
David
David
Marty
Nick Ceroli taught drummer
I guess at his age he can play what he wants,but I for one would have loved a few more bars of the tijuana brass standards weaved into the new songs on the DVD.The concert @ Joes pub last year had a perfect mix of old & new.I just wish some of those cuts would have made it to the album. As Tavis pointed out,there are about 26 songs left to put on a follow up CD....
I think it was Woody Herman who said never record a song that you don't like, if you're very unlucky, it'll become a hit and you'll be playing it every night for the rest of your life. He said Woodchoppers Ball was very hip the first 50,000 times he played it, then it got stale.
I can understand why Herb likes to move on. If he didn't, every record would've sounded just like The Lonely Bull and we'd never have SRO, Sounds Like, Ninth, etc.
I can understand why Herb likes to move on. If he didn't, every record would've sounded just like The Lonely Bull and we'd never have SRO, Sounds Like, Ninth, etc.
I can see this, but at the same time I know there is a 'rush' when you play something familiar and the audience roars its approval. I used to run a DJ business and got to where I absolutely hated the song "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol -- I just got sick of hearing it. But it still felt great every time I would play it and the crowd would go nuts.
As for Herb's situation -- I can't imagine why anyone would go into those shows thinking they were going to hear the old hits, especially with the sparse instrumentation.
Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
I agree. Herb isn't touring with the Tijuana Brass, he's touring with Lani Hall. So why would you expect to hear TJB tunes? And anyone who watched the Tavis Smiley show would've heard Herb say that he just wanted to have some fun playing these old standards and Brazilian tunes in a new way and in smaller venues - something he didn't get to do with the Brass because of the huge success he had back at the time. People need to deal with the fact that the TJB is over with. It will never happen again. It's simply not a direction that Herb wants to go anymore. Enjoy the CDs that have been reissued and whatever memories you have of the group, because that's probably all you'll ever have from now on.
I like this quote. Can you imagine what would've happened if "Mexican Drummer Man" would've been a huge hit? The TJB may have had girl singers in the band from that point. That would've changed everything.
Capt. Bacardi
I like this quote. Can you imagine what would've happened if "Mexican Drummer Man" would've been a huge hit? The TJB may have had girl singers in the band from that point. That would've changed everything.
Capt. Bacardi
Plus: It took five albums before Herb was able to put a touring band together. By then he had a nice full book of tunes to play on the road. It was all made possible by radio airplay. That built an audience and made it possible to fill those big venues.
If somehow that could be repeated, I'd bet HA would give it one more go. But how in the world would that music find a young audience without something like what AM radio was back then? I don't see any way that could happen.
I was lucky to have seen the original brass twice, and each re-formed group once. Tha's gonna have to do.
If somehow that could be repeated, I'd bet HA would give it one more go. But how in the world would that music find a young audience without something like what AM radio was back then? I don't see any way that could happen.
I was lucky to have seen the original brass twice, and each re-formed group once. Tha's gonna have to do.
Nathan Strum
Well-Known Member
The full interview is now up on the show's website. Great stuff! (I attempted to DVR it, but got David Duchovny instead. 
)
)
CherryStreet
Member
Here's a link to download an Audio version of the interview:
http://feeds.pbs.org/~r/pbs/kcet/tavissmiley-audio/~3/4ryg0IXA5X8/tavissmiley_20090922a.mp3
http://feeds.pbs.org/~r/pbs/kcet/tavissmiley-audio/~3/4ryg0IXA5X8/tavissmiley_20090922a.mp3
I am impressed with the probing, personal questions that go beyond the superficial surface that would be asked on a prime time network. I also am impressed with the willingness by Herb and Lani to answer Tavis Smileys questions with honesty and what appears to be a humble attitude. Herb was right; it does appear to be a couples therapy session! I thought it was a great interview and an opportunity to get to know two special people I will likely never meet a little better.
DAN BOLTON
Well-Known Member
Steve Sidoruk said:
Finally, my local PBS station is getting it's act together! The Tavis Smiley show listed for Dec 28 is the Herb/Lani interview. I have the Tivo set up, and barring a natural disaster, will FINALLY be able to see the show.
Now, I can finally have a Merry Christmas...
Dan
Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar
Member
toeknee4bz
Well-Known Member
trumpet player said:
Special thanks to Steve Sidoruk for the heads up. I barely caught it in time on Dec 28!
Herb looked pretty good for being in his early seventies (74), and Lani really looked great. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that Lani was born in 1948. That would make her about 60 or 61, depending on when her birthday falls. Yeah, I know... TV, makeup galore, the whole nine... Regardless, after all these years, she still has a great smile, a charming disposition, plus a beautiful speaking voice as well as her singing voice. As for the length of time Herb spent on the chase? I'd say it was worth it. They're both happy after some 40 years. GO HERB!!!
Another thing that impresses me about both of them is their nearly perfect enounciation. I can't count the number of [supposedly educated] celebrities I've heard over the years mumbling, mis-pronouncing, and using too much slang for an intelligent conversation. Herb and Lani know when enough is enough, and their conversation is absolutely delightful.
As for the TJB hits, which [I know] have been addressed already, I'll add this: If we were discussing any other musician, and what one would expect to hear at a concert, I would agree. Whatever else gets played, you paid to hear the hits. You expect to hear the hits. But Herb is NOT your average musician. He has changed musical directions on more than a few occasions. To expect him to switch from the ANYTHING GOES format to that of the 1960s simply would not blend very well. And unfortunately, segue in a concert does matter.
Then, there's also the age difference. Imagine for a moment that you were a child who just happened to get filmed singing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in 1st grade, and the person with that camera actually brought you national recognition. Suppose your rendition was really good too. But thirty or forty years later, after you've attained stellar success in your chosen field of opera, Broadway, rock or whatever, someone blurts out "SING 'MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB'!!!", even though it's the last thing in the world you want to sing. I would hypothesize that this is how Herb feels about it.
Tony
gameenjoyer
Member
While I hate to see this thread drift off into another debate about Herb's choice of material for this tour, I will offer this thought: Any big fan of the TJB hits would be severely disappointed of Herb played them on this tour, because he's only got one trumpet, a singer, a drummer, bass and piano up there. No marimba, no guitar, no trombone, no second trumpet, not to mention no maracas! The majority of the elements of the TJB sound just aren't available in the format he's chosen. So any rendition of the TJB hits would sound pretty sparse, I would think. Of course he could always "rewhip" them into his new jazzy format, but if "you paid to hear the hits," that could be a disappointment too...look at the reaction the REWHIPPED album got from some longtime fans.
what Mike said!Stephen Vakil
Well-Known Member
One of Herb's strengths is that he keeps reinventing his music even though, as someone else once said, you hear a few notes and you know it's him. While it's nice to revisit the earlier music I like to hear the way his style has evolved. And one of the things that a lot of the early TJB lacked (and I do love that too) is improvisation. The album and the concerts have that in abundance and I, for one, am grateful for that.
Stephen
Stephen
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