🎵 AotW AOTW: Herb Alpert - BEYOND (SP-3717)

[Captain Bacardi]

Herb Alpert
BEYOND
A&M SP-3717

Released 1980 (Peaked at #6 on Jazz Album charts, #26 on the R&B Album charts and #28 on the Top 200 Album chart)

Format: Vinyl/Cassette/CD (Japan only)

Produced by Herb Alpert, Randy Badazz & Andy Armer

Songs & Musicians:

• 1. Kamali(Dana Barry) - 4:48
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpet, Vocal, Arp 2600 & Percussion
    Manolo Badrena - Drums
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Kevin Calhoun - Drums
    Tim May - Guitar
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Dana Barry - Guitar
    Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Guitar
    Mike Lang - Acoustic Piano
    Andy Armer - Electric Piano, Clavinet & Synthesizer
    Julius Wechter - Marimba
    Ernie Watts - Tenor Sax
    Don Hahn, Don Koldon & Steve Mitchell - Engineers
  
  2. The Continental(Andy Armer/Randy Badazz) - 3:58
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpets
    Randy Badazz - Drums, Bongos, Lamb & Artillery
    Andy Armer - Piano, Electric Piano, Clavinet & Synthesizers
    Steve Gadd - Hi Hats
    Steve Schaeffer - Drums
    Robert Russell - Bass
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Tim May - Guitar
    Bob Findley - Trumpet on Fanfare
    Bill Reichenbach - Trombone on Fanfare
    Don Hahn, Don Koldon & Steve Katz - Engineers
  
  3. Reach For The Stars(Ruben Rada/Andy Armer) - 5:11
  • Herb Alpert - Flugelhorn and Trumpet
    Steve Schaeffer - Drums
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Tim May - Lead Guitar
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Guitar Solo
    Mike Lang - Piano
    Andy Armer - Electric Piano
    Don Hahn & Don Koldon - Engineers
  
  4. Interlude (For Erica)(Andy Armer) - 3:30
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpet
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Andy Armer - Piano
    Tim May - Acoustic Guitar
    Randy Badazz - Bongos
    Don Hahn - Engineer
  
  5. Red Hot(Howard Massey) - 3:37
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpet, Piano, Vocals & Percussion
    Steve Gadd - Drums
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Tommy Tedesco - Guitar
    Randy Badazz - Lead Vocal, Tambourine & Spirit
    Mike Lang - Electric and Tack Piano
    Andy Armer - Prophet 5
    Tom Tom "84" - String Orchestration
    Don Hahn & Don Koldon - Engineers
  
  6. Beyond(Richard Hewston) - 6:00
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpets
    Steve Gadd - Drums
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Tim May - Guitar
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Andy Armer - Piano & Synthesizers
    Michael Boddicker - Vocoder & Synthesizer Programmer
    Kevin Calhoun - Congas
    Don Hahn & Don Koldon - Engineers
  
  7. That's The Way Of The World(Maurice White/Verdine White/Charles Stepney) - 4:29
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpet
    Steve Schaeffer - Drums
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Tim May - Guitar
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Mike Lang - Acoustic Piano
    Andy Armer - Electric Piano, Clavinet & Synthesizers
    Johnny "Guitar" Watson - Lead Guitar
    Michael Boddicker - Vocoder
    Don Hahn - Engineer
  
  8. Keep It Goin'(Les McCann/Andy Armer/Randy Badazz) - 4:00
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpet & Percussion
    Abraham Laboriel - Bass
    Chris Pinnick - Guitar
    Andy Armer - Electric Piano, Acoustic Piano & Percussion
    Randy Badazz - Percussion
    Don Hahn - Engineer
  
  9. The Factory(Andy Armer/Randy Badazz) - 5:25
  • Herb Alpert - Trumpet & Mouthpiece
    Randy Badazz - Bongos, Drums, Chains, Pipes, Voices, Harmonized Artillery & African Talking Drum
    Andy Armer - Piano & Moog Bass
    Peter Frampton - Guitar Solo
    Don Hahn - Steel Girders
    Don Hahn & Don Koldon - Engineers

The Clap Section:
Herb Alpert, Randy Badazz, Andy Armer, Bill Morgan, Ken Dean, Steve Katz, Dore Alpert, Mike Glick, Wendy Barry, Rise Snyder, Tyrone Griffin, Effie Griffin, Paul "Hands" McKenna, Dayle Gloria, Bill Earl, Ron Ensminger, Don Koldon, Don Hahn, Ellis Sorkin and Mike Medina

Recorded at A&M Recording Studios
Additional Assistant Engineers - Dan Haverty, Paul McKenna & Jim Cassell
Remix Engineer - Don Hahn
Mastered at A&M Recording Studios by Bernie Grundman

Art Direction & Design - Chuck Beeson
Photography - Norman Seeff

Capt. Bacardi

 

[seashorepiano]

A vocoder is used on this, eh? Does it work well?

 

[Dave]

Clearly a follow-up to Rise and some notable moments that are clearly a "reinvention" of Herb and his prescence in the Jazz/Pop Instrumental Music Market... A decent cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's "That's The Way Of The World", "The Continental", "Red Hot" and "Beyond" being the Radio-Ready Hit Craft, though trailing the better-known success of the Singles from Alpert's predecessor, yet, "Continental" being a good "version 2" of the same song from Warm and gaining the long-overdue recognition there... "Kamali" and "Reach For The Stars" are the album-filler which are just as enjoyed as the Hits and "Interlude (for Erica)" serves as a"minimalist" transitional piece... The real "classic-cut" is Peter Frampton's appearance the last track, "The Factory" with the sound effects done with the steel girders, pipes & chains and "harminized artillary", much like how you'd expect to have heard an early TjB single to have been recorded, long ago...

**** (4) Stars!



Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

A good but slightly uneven album. The title tune is one of my all time favorite Herb Alpert records. "Kamali" and "That's the Way of the World" and "Red Hot" are my other favorites on this one.

I always thought if you could combine the best tracks from this album with the best tracks from MAGIC MAN, you'd have one killer album.

Overall, this ranks in my top five favorites of Herb's solo years. 3 out of 5 stars for me.

 

[Mr Bill]

"Beyond" and "The Factory" are my favorite cuts. A worthy follow up to Rise. However, with the exception of Fandango and Keep Your Eye On Me I would find each successive Herb Solo LP from here on out was less enjoyable then the previous one, though there was (almost) always at least one track that hooked me...

--Mr Bill

 

[martin]

I remember being very excited over "Beyond" when I first saw it in the summer of 1980. On a visit to London I also noticed that it was very heavily advertised, with big posters even on the familiar red double decker buses. Commercially, it must have been a disappointment to A & M though, quite unable to follow the success of Rise. "The Continental" is (Dave) ,however, not the same song as on the Warm album, but a new song with the same title written by the Armer/Badazz team.

- greetings from the north -
Martin

 

[Stephen Vakil]

Hi Martin

I remember those advertisements on the upper corner of double deckers too. They used the picture from the back of the album, didn't they...

Stephen

 

[phantomoftheparadise]

I've always enjoyed this album, though I think the remix of "Red Hot" on "Blow Your Own Horn" is better than the original here. "Reach for the Stars" is probably my favorite track from this album.

 

[Mr Bill]

I think the remix of "Red Hot" on "Blow Your Own Horn" is better than the original here.

I've listened to both back to back many times and quite frankly I hear little to no difference...

--Mr Bill

 

[Harry]

There is a difference in the two mixes of "Red Hot", but I never thought it was enough of a difference to actually be placed on another album as another track. It always sounded to me like it should have been included as one of the mixes on a 12" single, or something like that. But I suppose the whole BLOW YOUR OWN HORN album was a hastily thrown-together project anyway. I still prefer that album in its NOCHE DE AMOR presentation.

Harry

 

[Dave]

OK, my bad for failing to recognize that BOTH "The Continental", here and on Warm are NOT the same song... (Guess Randy would'a been too young to write the former version, anyway!) aughalone:



Dave

 

[jazzdre]

i like,no LOVE this album!believe it or not,i still have this album,but in cassette form.this album holds a special place in my heart,because it was the FIRST herb alpert album i ever bought!on this album,it seems herb does it all! he plays jazz(both straight and contemporary)funk,reggae,discofied jazz,electronica,r&b,african,even rock!this album has been slept on long enough! i think a lot of jazz critics should go back and re-evaluate this record.i was wondering:did the album ever come out on cd?i've never seen it in this format.anybody who ever wondered if herb was 'creative'should check this album out!check it out!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

It had a brief CD release in Japan only. (so far!)

 

[Captain Bacardi]

While this album was not quite as powerful as Rise (and how could it be?) it still holds up well on its own. I really liked the bluesy-funk feel that Johnny "Guitar" Watson provided on a few cuts, especially "Reach For The Stars" (remember that Herb and Watson first met in the late 50's). "Kamali" is a favorite of mine, and seemed a perfect fit for pop-jazz radio of the time. One of the more underrated tracks for me is "Interlude", the sole all-acoustic song that had some neat interplay between piano and guitar. The opening synthesizer riff of "Beyond" used to be heard on a lot of sports sequences on TV back then. The melody is a bit on the tacky side, but the overall feel of the song is kind of exotic. I really like Herb's take of "That's The Way Of The World", which is a good song no matter how it's done. "Keep It Goin'" is a subdued reggae feel. "The Factory" is a sonic blast, where Peter Frampton's guitar gives it a rock-n-roll edge. Good thing Frampton just happened to be at the A&M studios when this was being recorded. This is a nice album to have. 4 stars.





Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

There is a difference in the two mixes of "Red Hot", but I never thought it was enough of a difference to actually be placed on another album as another track. It always sounded to me like it should have been included as one of the mixes on a 12" single, or something like that. But I suppose the whole BLOW YOUR OWN HORN album was a hastily thrown-together project anyway. I still prefer that album in its NOCHE DE AMOR presentation.

Harry

I agree: Blow Your Own Horn seemed like leftovers. A couple of new tracks, a few from the Fandango era (check the producer credits) and "Red Hot" gets another chance as a single.

I do hear the difference in the remix--the percussion is notched up a bit.

 

[Mae Yoon-Kyul]

The...Continental...is...the...best...song...on...this...excellent...recording...
Mr...Alpert...is...definitely...one...of...the...greatest...trumpeters...in...the...
United...States...
...Mae...Yoon...Kyul

[edited by moderator to insert line breaks to return the forum to normal width]

 

[PartyRico]

I've never heard this album, only the single "Beyond" Thanks for sharing the info relating to it.

 

[jazzdre]

before i became a herb alpert fan,i heard him without knowing who he was! when i was 14(in 1980) BEYOND(the song itself)was used in commercials to sell huffy bicycles! so three years later when i bought BEYOND,i said 'oh snap!that's the music they used for huufy bicycles!'

 

[alonely bull in paradise]

"Beyond " is an enjoyable album although I'd like to have an LP copy. I have a copy on 8-track