🎷 AotW: Horizon HERB ALPERT/HUGH MASEKELA (SP-728)

Horizon label releases.

How Would You Rate This Album?

  • ***** (Best)

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • ****

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • ***

    Votes: 2 15.4%
  • **

    Votes: 1 7.7%
  • * (Worst)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Never Heard This Album

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    13

Captain Bacardi

Well-Known Member
Herb Alpert & Hugh Masekela
HERB ALPERT/HUGH MASEKELA

A&M/Horizon SP-728

sp728.jpg

Released 1978
Peaked at #7 on the Jazz Album chart and #65 on the Pop Album chart (1978)

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette/CD

Produced by Stewart Levine, Herb Alpert & Caiphus Semenya
Associate Producer: Hugh Masekela

Songs:
  • 1. Skokiaan (P.D. This Arr. - Caiphus Semenya/Hugh Masekela/Herb Alpert) - 3:37
    2. Moonza (Caiphus Semenya/Herb Alpert) - 4:38
    3. Ring Bell (George Weiss/Jerry Ragovoy) - 3:24
    4. Happy Hanna (Hotep Cecil Barnard/Caiphus Semenya) - 4:58
    5. Lobo (Edu Lobo) - 7:20
    6. African Summer (Caiphus Semenya) - 3:20
    7. I'll Be There For You (Caiphus Semenya) - 7:05

    Arranged by Caiphus Semenya, Hugh Masekela, Stewart Levine and Herb Alpert

    Horns Arranged by Caiphus Semenya
    Orchestrations by Donald Cooke
    Strings Arranged by Jimmy Jones
    String Concert Master: Gerald Vinci

Musicians:
Herb Alpert - Trumpet and Flugelhorn
Hugh Masekela - Flugelhorn
James Gadson - Drums
Chuck Domanico - Bass
Lee Ritenour - Guitar
Freddie Harris - Guitar
Arthur Adams - Guitar, Solo (6)
Hotep Cecil Barnard - Piano
Paulinho Da Costa - Percussion
Caiphus Semenya - Piano
Ian Underwood - Synthesizers
Louis Johnson - Bass (1)
Craig Hindley - Synthesizer (4)
Carlos Vega - Drums (5)
Tommy Tedesco - Acoustic Guitar Solo (5)
Michael Boddicker - Synthesizer (6)
Spider Webb - Drums (6)
Trombones - Donald W. Cooke, George Bohanon, Maurice Spears
French Horns: Sidney Isaac Muldrow, Marilyn L. Robinson
Background Vocals: Letta Mbulu, Lani Hall, Caiphus Semenya, Hugh Masekela and Herb Alpert

Recorded at A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood, California
Engineered by Don Hahn
Assistant Engineers: John Beverly Jones and Derek Dunann
Mastered at A&M Recording Studios by Bernie Grundman

Art Direction: Roland Young
Design: Chuck Beeson
Photography: Roland Young (Front Cover and Inner Sleeve) and Bonnie Schiffman (Back Cover)



Capt. Bacardi
 
I snapped this up when it first came out, but not being a huge jazz fan, it didn't really hold my interest. I liked MAIN EVENT LIVE much better.

That said, "Skokiaan" is a killer tune.

Side note: I predict someday "LP" will vanish from the language to be replaced by "vinyl." Already, there's hardly a person under 40 who knows what "LP" stands for.
 
Good approach for Herb to find an ideal "duet partner" who probably could also stand a rejuvination for his career, too, as little has been heard from Masekela since "Grazin' In The Grass" and it was most notable in a version by Friends of Distinction with lyrics added...

Also an opportunity for each participant to exchange and explore different musical avenues... Herb becoming "Afrocentric" and Hugh discovering a more modern and less rootsy approach in the Jazz world... Herb plays the flugelhorn, too, --also Hugh's main instrument--, and there is ample duetting on that instrument, too, in addition to Herb's steady and stalwart blowing on his "main instrument", his Trumpet...

As for a Best Tune here, it's hard to beat the opening track, "Skokiaan", which I'm sure much was expected out of... "African Summer" isn't far behind while "Lobo", by Edu LOBO explores Afro/Mariachi-Brasilian Territory... This approach would be done much better Live, as the strings and synthesizers on a few of the songs tend to get in the way and threaten to botch things up a bit, as they don't seem to enhance much here as much as they contribute to the restrictive studio environment as opposed to robbing the sound as being more "natural", which is really all there is to be desired, at least... A still very formidable and admirable effort, in fact, a WINNER, by Alpert & Masekela, alike!

As for "vinyl" replacing "LP", would it replace "Single" and "45", too? Has it already replaced "Record"...??? I find myself frequently using those terms myself and to people Under-THIRTY!!!

Just to try not to over-elaborate or go too off-topic, one example of "someone who doesn't know what '45' stands for, that I know of", really thought I was buying a gun... Didn't help that I told her I had to raid my coin collection to buy it (whereas it was really $2 worth of Silver Dollars I had duplicates of to buy my "Without Her"/"Sandbox" Picture-Sleeve Herb Alpert FORTY-FIVE--an ideal example of how that term was ready to vanish from my vocabulary, there!)...



Dave
 
Funny you should mention the 45 confusion... My brother has always been an avid firearm fan. When we were teenagers, I once asked him "How much does a 45 cost?", and he replied "Oh, about $300."
As for the Alpert/Masekela debut, as well as Main Event, I would be every interested in finding CD copies. However, since my vinyl is pretty good, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg! Any info on possible sources with reasonable prices on these gems???

Thanks,
Tony
 
toeknee4bz said:
As for the Alpert/Masekela debut, as well as Main Event, I would be every interested in finding CD copies. However, since my vinyl is pretty good, I don't want to pay an arm and a leg! Any info on possible sources with reasonable prices on these gems???

That depends on on how you define "reasonable". The one copy of the ALPERT/MASEKELA album on CD that I see on eBay is listing for $105. While that's high for a CD that was originally $15 or so, it can command that kind of price because of its unavailability and desirability to fans.

MAIN EVENT LIVE has never been officially released on CD.

The HERB ALPERT / HUGH MASEKELA CD was the first one I ever saw in a digipak.

I recall being pretty happy with the album when it first came out, loving the "Lobo" track, and trying out my editing skills on that lengthy track to bring it in under 3:30. That was before I found the actual edited version. I still liked mine better.

Harry
 
By happy coincidence, I was digging through some racks of dollar CDs today and lucked out.

There was HERB & HUGH in all it's digi-pack glory!
A few scuffs on the disc, but it plays just great.

There's also a small rip on the front cover where I assume an old price sticker was carelessly removed.

Nevertheless, it's hard to complain when it's just a buck.
This one's been out of print a long time.

Now I can stop kicking myself for passing this up when it was new almost 20 years ago.

JB

PS: I'm thankful this store does not arrange its cutouts alphabetically or by type. They just dump them on racks or a roller cart. Otherwise this would have been snapped up long ago.
 
This is an album that I love to play in early spring when it's finally nice enough outside to kick back on the back patio. I remember when this album first came out I asked myself "What are these two guys doing together?". But it didn't take long to find out that this was a great musical match. There's a lot of joy on this album, and Herb sounds like he's finally having some fun playing the horn after a few bumpy years. "Skokiaan" just jumps up after you, as if daring you not to tap your feet. I had only heard of Spike Jones version before this one, so needless to say this is a little different. The guitar work is exquisite on this song, as it is on "Moonza". Some TJB harmonies appear on "Ring Bell" while "Happy Hanna" is a joyful jaunt. It seems everybody loves "Lobo", and for good reason. The rhythm section on this song is spot on, and you gotta love Tommy Tedesco's acoustic guitar work. Herb gets the feature on "African Summer" while Hugh is the star on the closer "I'll Be There For You". This is a nice dialogue between two hornmen that actually have a lot more in common than at first thought. 4 stars.




Capt. Bacardi
 
I found an old issue of DownBeat magazine (May 18, 1978 with Frank Zappa on the cover!) and they did a nice review of this album:

DownBeat said:
HERB ALPERT/HUGH MASEKELA (Horizon SP-728)

  • * * * *
Imagine if the president of your company invited you to a policy-making meeting. You'd go, wouldn't you?

A&M prexy Herb Alpert, unlike his brethren at other multicorporate holding companies, is at least as comfortable with an axe as with a balance sheet. And, if the rigors of label management are a bit overbearing at times, he always has the option of getting his yahs-yahs out on the bugle.

At initial glance, this combination is anything but natural; a melodic, lyrical player versus an emotively intense honker. Yet upon closer examination, the styles are a good deal more compatible than that. Alpert, for one, established his rep via a series of truncated, short-lived quarter and eighth notes, while Hugh, scarcely the Woody Shaw of South Africa, relied on the same timings, if indeed his colorations were a bit bluer.

While accomodation is more one of crafted convenience than the quiet fire of true creative ecumensim, enough pleasing moments thrust through to make this a most attractive package. Dealing in a series of nonadventuresome, staccato timbres, both players stick within their rather limited technical resources, opting for a sense of harmonically limited, rhythmic propulsion rather than aiming at a mad jam session.

The result is soothing fodder for the Lester Bowie haters of the world. Just about everything charms with a latently monotonous, yet oozingly snappy grace. "Skokiaan", a toe-tapping chant, and "Moonza", a fevered merging of styles, typify this approach, as does "Ring Bell", a melange of high-flying Masekela flugelhorn and Alpert trumpet lines.

Several of these songs are, in fact, chants. On occasion, tedium bubbles just underneath the surface; the calls and responses of "African Summer" are hardly as incendiary as "Ummmmmmmmm" by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Yet this is as close to the fire as most feet are willing to tread, and given the delectable snippets of melodic profile (highlighted by an elegant Tommy Tedesco ride on "Lobo") the offering is, as a whole, a good deal more palatable than your average summit meeting.

Russell Shaw



Capt. Bacardi
 
While searching for the above review, I also found another issue of DownBeat (April 20, 1978 with Dizzy Gillespie on the cover) that had a Blindfold Test with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. This test was conducted by Leonard Feather, and he played "Skokiaan" for Hubbard, and this was Freddie's response:

Freddie Hubbard said:
Yeah, I liked that! I liked that because Masekela was doing it. First of all, I can say that it's not what you would consider as jazz. It has a type of reggae beat to me, and I spent a lot of time in the Caribbean and I really liked that kind of music. I like it for dancing - it's a kind of party music when you want everybody to get up and dance.

What got me was the excitement when they first hit - a lot of excitement there. It kind of backed down in the middle of the solos; but I would say that Masekela - he's one of a kind. He's just the opposite of a Freddie Hubbard or a Miles Davis in that he doesn't know that much about contemporary licks and ideas, but he has a certain amount of excitement about him. I don't have any idea who the rest of the guys were. I liked the drummer - he was taking care of business with the beat.

That was a party record, and I like Masekela, so I'd give him four stars for the idea of what he was trying to do. I'm not judging it on a jazz basis.



Capt. Bacardi
 
This was the last Horizon LP with the yellow/orange label. Tommy LiPuma would take over Horizon and the label went blue.



Capt. Bacardi
 
I was just thinking about this album recently. On our recent long plane flights to the west coast and then Hawaii and back, I got to listen to a lot of music on the MP3 player. This was one of the albums I chose to listen to straight through, and it still sounds great after all these years.

There isn't a bad track on the whole album, but "Lobo" remains my favorite.

I still recall the time back when I first got the album and heard the soaring "Lobo". A Herb Alpert track hadn't really moved me like that since "The Sea Is My Soil". Yet, being new in radio, I felt compelled to come up with what a shortened single version of the record would sound like.

So using my simple but crude editing tools of the day (splicing block, razor blade, splicing tape, and of course my reel-to-reel recorder) I set about making my own single edit.

It worked out pretty well as far as I was concerned, though my edit left in very little of the jazzy stuff and instead concentrated on the poppier sounding parts.

Later, when I obtained the single edits of three of the tracks on one 12" record, I got to compare my own edit with the "pros." I think mine was a bit over-simplified whereas the professional job left in some of the jazzier parts.

One of my prized albums and CDs.

Harry
 
Yes, as I recall, it was one of the first digi-pak packages. It sports an A&M Jazz label.

Harry
 
For me, I enjoy "Herb Alpert-Hugh Masekela" and "Main Event Live!" when I crank up the stereo a little louder than my norm. The extra loudness seems to bring out more of the nuances that really enhances these two LPs.

Mike
 
By far one of my favorite Herb Alpert (Non TJB) albums along with Main Event Live. I recently found the Herb Alpert-Hugh Masekela CD at a local used CD store and have been listening to it a lot. Moonza is my favorite track with Lobo a close second.
 
I think there's a couple of great things about this album. First of all, it sounds like Herb was having a lot of fun on this project, as there is a lot of excitement throughout this recording. Second, this was a great way to break out of the TJB mode that people kept wanting to put him in. I keep thinking that he realized that there was life after the Brass. I remember an interview he did where this album had been played on black radio stations, and it was the first time he thought his music was played on those stations. This was an important stepping stone to where he would eventually go.

As far as the music goes, it's simply great. "Skokiaan" is a perfect opener for the high flying horns. I really love the guitar work on this track and "Moonza". "Happy Hanna" is another fave of mine. But the true highlight is "Lobo" in all its glory (sorry Harry :wink: ). Love the bass solo, Tommy Tedesco's acoustic guitar and the drums and percussion work. This got a lot of airplay in its day.

Of course, "African Summer" is most likely all Herb, since it was the 'B' side of the "You In Me" single that was released in 1977. Just an excellent album all around. This should be near the top of Herb's solo reissues!



Capt. Bacardi
 
I still have this on my original LP and have not listened to it in years. My favorite song was "Skokiaan" and I remember not liking the rest so much, but I think if I listened again now, I might find more to like. Might have to get the old needle-drop machine fired up.
 
You see, this is one of the nice things about an AOTW thread, especially the Jazz AOTW; it reminds one of albums that perhaps they haven’t listened to in a long time. You read the initial post, and then you dig into the archive and dust off the LP, maybe even dust off the old turntable and give the record a spin. Then the music starts and one finds themself being transported back in time, old memories stirred, thoughts of old friends, girl friends, the time you went to a concert and heard the song live… it’s the miracle of music.

In this case, I didn’t need to dust off an old LP, I have the CD. But, it had been awhile since I listened to it. In fact, I listened to it at work and some people asked me if it was a new CD, and who was the band playing? I guess one could say that it’s really good jazz when it sounds fresh over 30 years after it was recorded.

Mike
 
Two pedigree musicians get together, reminding you of what made them great in the first place...!



Dave
 
I guess one could say that it’s really good jazz when it sounds fresh over 30 years after it was recorded.
I guess that's the coolest thing about jazz, it doesn't seem to "date" the way pop music does.
 
Captain Bacardi said:
But the true highlight is "Lobo" in all its glory (sorry Harry :wink: ).

No need to apologize - I like the full-blown, full-length version too. My aim back in the day was to create a "radio-ready" track. A 7+ minute track was almost never a consideration for a radio station, and I thought the "hooks" in that track were incredible (still do!).

But for sheer listening pleasure, give me the 7:24 version any day.

Harry
 
A CD? Wow; I looked everywhere for one and could not track one down. I just have the vinyl.

I love the recording... kind of a natural post-tjb kind of direction for Herb. Same good natured, exuberant approach, but with a different, kinda African/Caribbean groove. We do 3 of the tunes from the record in our TJB tribute band... Ring Bell, Happy Hanna, and Skokiaan. These tunes are a nice change of pace, but a natural fit in a concert of TJB music. Skokiaan is great in the middle of a concert... the guitar riff at the top gets everybody's energy level up a bit--including the band's :wink: . And there's room at the end to extend the trumpet solos a little bit (which is not really possible with the TJB tunes).

Incidentally, Skokiaan has a long and interesting history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skokiaan

Dan
 
Nice pic, Harry.

I wonder why "Main Event Live" wasn't released on CD. I think it's just as good (maybe a little better) as "Herb & Hugh".

Well, either way, I've got my needle drop of Main Event and it sounds great!

Mike
 
4haverstocks said:
A CD? Wow; I looked everywhere for one and could not track one down. I just have the vinyl.

I have only seen it once in the stores. I came across a used copy not long after it came out, and I bought it. It is none too common on CD.

4haverstocks said:
Incidentally, Skokiaan has a long and interesting history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skokiaan

That was good reading. Thanks! One version missing in the list (or I missed seeing it) was by Spike Jones on RCA, featuring vocals by Freddie Morgan. The Perez Prado version is from the Mambo Mania album, so I knew this song long before the Alpert/Masekela version came along.
 
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