Herb Alpert is cool. Who knew?
BY DEVIN GRANT
Special to The Post and Courier
HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS -- "THE LONELY BULL/SOUTH OF THE BORDER/LOST TREASURES" -- (SHOUT!FACTORY)
Back in the '60s, there were three truly cool musical acts. I'm guessing that you can name the first two, The Beatles and Bob Dylan, fairly easily. But when it comes to the third defining music superpower of that decade, there are all kinds of contenders for the post: Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The WHO, The Grateful Dead. All of these are good choices, but allow me to throw one more act into the mix — Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.
All right, you can stop laughing. Lumping Alpert with the likes of Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend might be exaggerating things a bit, but before you start to denounce the work of Alpert as pop-jazz-fluff, allow me to throw out a few facts.
Alpert, who began his music career by co-writing "Wonderful World" with Lou Adler and Sam Cooke, has won seven Grammy Awards and watched with pride while one of his albums with The Tijuana Brass, "The Lonely Bull," sat on the charts for more than three years. As one of the founders of A&M Records, Alpert was instrumental (pardon the pun) in signing acts such as The Police, Joe Jackson, The Carpenters, Barry White, Bryan Adams, Soundgarden and Sheryl Crow.
Now Shout!Factory has seen fit to team up with Alpert to re-release his music library, beginning with two classic TJB albums, as well as another CD of songs, many previously unreleased. Both "South of the Border" and "The Lonely Bull" sound just like fans remember, with Alpert's signature trumpet sound punctuated by bursts of marimba.
The sound is best described as Dixieland jazz on a tequila bender, and many of the tracks on those two classic albums, including "Mexican Shuffle," "El Presidente" and "Struttin' with Maria," follow that formula. The third CD in the series, "Lost Treasures," features a number of tracks that Alpert himself admits he forgot he recorded during the TJB's heyday. Classics such as "Tennessee Waltz," "Flowers on the Wall," "Killing Me Softly" and "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" are well represented here. There are even covers of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and The Beatles' "And I Love Her."
All of the CDs feature extensive liner notes, including a brief message in each from Alpert himself. It's an overdue recognition to one of the biggest musical acts of the '60s (75 million albums sold), even if Alpert's act's music elicits snickers these days.
Sure, keep laughing at me, but when Quentin Tarantino slaps a TJB track on the soundtrack to his next hipster film, I'm going to look like a genius. All three albums: (B+)
[edited to clarify the thread title]
BY DEVIN GRANT
Special to The Post and Courier
HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS -- "THE LONELY BULL/SOUTH OF THE BORDER/LOST TREASURES" -- (SHOUT!FACTORY)
Back in the '60s, there were three truly cool musical acts. I'm guessing that you can name the first two, The Beatles and Bob Dylan, fairly easily. But when it comes to the third defining music superpower of that decade, there are all kinds of contenders for the post: Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The WHO, The Grateful Dead. All of these are good choices, but allow me to throw one more act into the mix — Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.
All right, you can stop laughing. Lumping Alpert with the likes of Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend might be exaggerating things a bit, but before you start to denounce the work of Alpert as pop-jazz-fluff, allow me to throw out a few facts.
Alpert, who began his music career by co-writing "Wonderful World" with Lou Adler and Sam Cooke, has won seven Grammy Awards and watched with pride while one of his albums with The Tijuana Brass, "The Lonely Bull," sat on the charts for more than three years. As one of the founders of A&M Records, Alpert was instrumental (pardon the pun) in signing acts such as The Police, Joe Jackson, The Carpenters, Barry White, Bryan Adams, Soundgarden and Sheryl Crow.
Now Shout!Factory has seen fit to team up with Alpert to re-release his music library, beginning with two classic TJB albums, as well as another CD of songs, many previously unreleased. Both "South of the Border" and "The Lonely Bull" sound just like fans remember, with Alpert's signature trumpet sound punctuated by bursts of marimba.
The sound is best described as Dixieland jazz on a tequila bender, and many of the tracks on those two classic albums, including "Mexican Shuffle," "El Presidente" and "Struttin' with Maria," follow that formula. The third CD in the series, "Lost Treasures," features a number of tracks that Alpert himself admits he forgot he recorded during the TJB's heyday. Classics such as "Tennessee Waltz," "Flowers on the Wall," "Killing Me Softly" and "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" are well represented here. There are even covers of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and The Beatles' "And I Love Her."
All of the CDs feature extensive liner notes, including a brief message in each from Alpert himself. It's an overdue recognition to one of the biggest musical acts of the '60s (75 million albums sold), even if Alpert's act's music elicits snickers these days.
Sure, keep laughing at me, but when Quentin Tarantino slaps a TJB track on the soundtrack to his next hipster film, I'm going to look like a genius. All three albums: (B+)
[edited to clarify the thread title]