🎵 AotW AOTW: Herb Alpert - RISE (SP-4790)

[Captain Bacardi]

Herb Alpert
RISE
A&M SP-4790

Released 1979
Peaked at #1 on the Jazz Album chart and #6 on the Pop Album chart (1979)

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette/CD

Produced by Herb Alpert and Randy Badazz
Associate Producer: Andy Armer

Songs:

• 1. 1980 (Herb Alpert) - 2:25
  2. Rise (Andy Armer/Randy Badazz) - 7:37
  3. Behind The Rain (Herb Alpert) - 5:34
  4. Rotation (Andy Armer/Randy Badazz) - 5:12
  5. Street Life (Joe Sample/Will Jennings) - 5:01
  6. Love Is (Bill Withers/Paul Smith) - 4:28
  7. Angelina (Pete Sinfield/Gary Brokker) - 4:13
  8. Aranjuez (Mon Amour) (Joaquin Rodrigo) - 6:42

Musicians:
Herb Alpert - Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Vocals, Orchestration (1, 8 )
Steve Schaeffer - Drums and Percussion
Harvey Mason - Drums
Abe Laboriel - Bass, Acoustic Guitar (8 )
James Jamerson, Jr. - Bass
Louis Johnson - Bass (6)
Jerry Knight - Bass (8 )
Tim May - Guitar
Chris Pinnick - Guitar
Carlos Rios - Guitar
Manolo Badrena - Percussion
Julius Wechter - Marimba
Andy Armer - Acoustic Piano, Rhodes, Clavinet and Synthesizers
Joe Sample - Acoustic Piano
Randy Badazz - Percussion, Tavia, Moog Drums, Drums and Insanities
Mike Lang - Fender Rhodes Piano
Michel Colombier - Piano (1, 8 ), Synthesized Bass (1), Orchestration (1)
Bob Magnusson - Acoustic Bass (1)
Bob Findley - Trumpet on 'fanfare' (1)
William Reichenbach - Alto Trombone on 'fanfare' (1)
Michael Boddicker - Synthesizer Program (1)
Tom-Tom 84 - Orchestrations (1, 8 )
Paul Shure - Concertmaster (1, 8 )
Ben Barrett - String Concertmaster (1, 8 )
Jay Dee Maness - Slide Steel Guitar (7)
Emil Richards - Percussion (8 )
John Bergamo - Percussion (8 )
Tom Tedesco - Lute and Balalaika (8 )
Tom Scott - Lyricon (8 )
Pete Jolly - Accordion (8 )
Gene Page - Orchestration (8 )
Harry Bluestone - Concertmaster (8 )

Recorded at A&M Recording Studios, Studio D, Hollywood, CA
Engineers: Don Hahn (1, 2, 8 )
Assisted by: Don Koldon
All Others Engineered by: Mark Smith
Assisted by: Skip Cottrell and Steve Katz
Re-mixed by: Don Hahn
Mastered by: Bernie Grundman

All tunes except "1980" were recorded on the 3M-32 track digital machine and transferred to analog for editing.

Art Direction: Roland Young
Design: Amy Nagasawa
Photography: Barry McKinley

Special Thanks...Bill "Rotation" Earl; Bob Findley and Bill Reichenbach for fanfare ideas on "1980" and to Don Ohlmeyer "NBC Sports" for the inspiration to write it.

Thanks to Randy and Andy for helping to show me another color in my rainbow. - Herb Alpert (I Love You Lani)



Capt. Bacardi

 

[toeknee4bz]

Oh, man! Here we go... with the review of [arguably] one of the best A&M albums ever, recorded by the master himself. I would think every moderator and long-time poster on the Corner will want to chime in on this one! Where do we begin??? I gave it a 4-star rating, largely because every track on it (even "Love Is" or "Angelina") is at least listenable, and the only thing keeping it from being a 5-star is the fact that FANDANGO takes that top honor, IMHO.

Tony

 

[jazzdre]

Man...Herb looks mad cool chillin' in the front(or back) of A&M Records headquarters wearin' a sports jacket,khaki pants, hand in both pockets, and leanin' casually against the wall of giant records. VERY COOL POSE, indeed.

Now on with the show! In the last year or so, there has been a lot of discussion of "Rise", because of the reissue last year, and we also had correspondence with one of the album's creators Randy "Badazz" Alpert(whom I will be eternally grateful for in personally and graciously answering my questions;thanks Randy, if you're reading-that meant a lot to me!), and also, it was the album of the week before, wasn't it?

What I am basically trying to say is: let's put some more Alpert solo albums up as Album Of The Week! I don't recall seeing a discussion of BEYOND, BLOW YOUR OWN HORN, WILD ROMANCE,UNDER A SPANISH MOON, MY ABSTRACT HEART, SECOND WIND, PASSION DANCE, or COLORS!

Let's get a talkin' about these other albums; RISE was great and very popular and was Herb's comeback, but now I want to talk about his other stuff! I hope while saying this, I haven't offended anybody.But the fact that it was no.1 on the jazz charts is VERY impressive for a guy that (at that time) was largely lambasted by the jazz community.

Like I said, I like the album, but let's move on to some other Alpert solo stuff!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Let's get a talkin' about these other albums;

Stay tuned...a parade of Alpert solo threads is in development, similar to the recent "Critique and Discussion" set of Sergio Mendes threads. Meanwhile, let's keep this thread on track with discussion about RISE.

Doing a search will turn up previous AOTW discussions on most of the solo albums and of course the TJB ones.

 

[Harry]

I'll repost my comments from a few years ago as it all still applies:

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This is one that "snuck up" on me. Though I was a huge TjB fan, had gone to concerts, had bought all the albums, I sort-of "lost touch" with Herb, Lani, Sergio, et al around this time of my life. This was "relationship" time for me, having met my future wife in late 1976, these particular few years were spent exploring what it was that she was interested in, artists like Simon & Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and even some harder-core "folkies" like Tom Rush, John Hartford, and Steve Gillette.

So, the fact that Herb even *released* RISE happened off the radar for me; our radio station was in its very soft period, so it didn't touch "Rise" at all. It was actually a co-worker, one who I'd met in high school, who first mentioned to me the song "Rise". He came forth with some wise-crack-like remark about "Rise" sounding like a disco version of "The Lonely Bull".

That remark stuck with me, and ultimately made me curious enough to go out and buy the album - though it happened a while afterwards - maybe as much as three years afterwards. My interest in Herb Alpert re-awakened in 1982 with the release of "Route 101" and the FANDANGO album. I'd heard our radio station playing that one, requested a copy of the album (but only got the four-song 12" sampler), and then I went on a buying spree.

In one day, I bought up all of the back-catalog of Herb Alpert that I'd missed, including RISE, BEYOND, MAGIC MAN, and the current FANDANGO. It took awhile to get around to listening to and absorbing these albums, but I had fun doing it. And it wasn't just those four albums in a vacuum, since this got me into reliving the TjB days as well, digging out the old '60s LPs, cleaning them up, buying a few replacements for the well-worn among them, and transferring the whole kit and kaboodle of them to cassette, for in-car listening!

So it was in that context of trying to "catch up" that I first heard RISE. I fell immediately in love with "1980", and began the "what-if" thoughts that other fans had regarding this track and the misbegotten 1980 Olympic Games. The title track I'd now at least heard a few times on radio, so it wasn't a total mystery, but I liked this longer album version.

Other songs that joined my "favorites" ranks were "Behind The Rain", "Rotation", and "Aranjuez", though there really isn't a bad track on the whole album. (I still maintain, though, that "Behind The Rain's" main melodic statement is too-close-for-comfort to Giogio Moroder's "Theme From Midnight Express".)

I remember being impressed to read that the album was largely recorded digitally - this was the newest thing back then, and quite impressive-sounding.

All-in-all, it's a terrific album, but one that I don't seem to play enough. It may have to do with the fact that I don't have any "live" memories or associations of it being a hit album or song, since I backtracked to find it and appreciate it. My loss...

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A couple of additional notes: I was fortunate enough in the mid-late '80s to grab a CD copy of RISE, and of course have updated it with the Shout! Factory release. I still prefer the LP's running order though, rather than the new CD's changed order - that's just the purist in me.

Harry

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I have to give this one 5 stars...to me, it belongs in a select grouping of Herb's most definitive albums like GOING PLACES and WHIPPED CREAM. Of the two, it has the most in common with GP, I think; it always reminded me of that album for some reason. There's a lot of variety in the song selection, club stuff like RISE and ARANJUEZ, BEHIND THE RAIN is a jazz number, ANGELINA is a southwestern bounce, ROTATION is a techno-club piece, LOVE IS is one of my favorite of Herb's vocals, and STREET LIFE is a great ballad. The album has a street-party feel to it, sort of in the same vein as VOLUME 2, only more hip. WCAOD and GP were the party albums of their day, and RISE was the '70's equivalent.

Dan

 

[martin]

I first saw the "Rise/Aranjuez" single in a store in Oslo while serving my military duty as a trombonist in the King's Guards Band in Norway. (my signature picture was taken that year). I remember enjoying especially the "TJB mood" of the B-side Aranjuez, but also "the lonely bull- feeling" combined with the funky groove in "Rise". Later I was astonished to find the "Rise" video being played on Norway's hippest pop show on the state TV channel (NRK). I got hold of the album after seeing the video and liked especially "Angelina" and "Rotation" in addition to the mentioned tracks.
Also up here, it turned a lot of new people on to Herb Alpert, and the old fans got an excuse to go to the record stores. It spent 8 weeks on the official Norwegian album chart, peaking at no 21.

- greetings from the north -
Martin

 

[Dave]

What can you say? Herb's "Real "official" Comeback"...! How 'bout the way "Rise" made an impact with play on Jazz and Pop radio? This is truly one of Alpert's best and surely as much a classic and definitive classic as his earlier works...

The start-off track, "1980"..., The boogie down the boulevard of "Street Life"..., The Herb Alpert vocal-sominated "Love Is" (A Bill Withers tune)..., The Country-Western of "Angelina"..., The aphoristic "Behind The Rain"..., The dance floor classic "Rise", which still sounds fresh and energetic and commands your full listening attention to this day..., and the dramatic coda of the renaissance-esque "Aronjuez (Mon Amor)"...! --They're ALL Good...! --Great...!



Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Obviously, this was a huge seller for Herb. More importantly it broke him out of the TJB mold and Herb started to become far more adventurous in both his trumpet playing and record making. We've already discussed this at length with last year's reissue, so I won't ramble on much. I've always thought of the original Side 1 as sort of a conceptual album since those four songs really flowed together well. "Rotation" has always been my favorite song, since I loved Herb's solo at the end. It also had a very 70's Miles Davis quality to it. His solos on both "Behind The Rain" and "Aranjuez" are also top notch. I think the Middle Eastern section on "Aranjuez" is incredibly hip. The only things I didn't care for was "Street Life", which I thought just went on too long (I prefer the shortened version done on the Classics CD), and as usual, I'm not a fan of Herb's vocals, so "Love Is" is not a fave of mine, even though it has a great groove. But those are minor glitches for an otherwise superb album. 4 & 1/2 stars.



Capt. Bacardi