🎵 AotW Herb Alpert: NORTH ON SOUTH ST. (A&M SP 5345)

LPJim

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1Jump Street4:47
2It's The Last Dance4:37
3Passion Lady4:47
4North On South St.3:37
5Paradise 254:21
6Na Na Na4:16
7Funky Reggae4:51
8Where's Tommy?4:01
9City Terrace4:11
10I Can't Stop Thinking About You5:09


Recorded at A&M Records - Studio C.
Remixed at Soundworks West.
Mastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios.

Released 1991
Also issued as CD 5345
Reissued by 'Herb Alpert Presents' in 2017

JB
 
I remember picking this one up on CD, bringing it home and skimming through it - and not finding anything appealing at all. And it sat on the shelf for a number of years afterwards, essentially unlistened to. The urban/street sounds that I heard were just not my taste.

Sometime around 1998 to 2000, I had a discussion with one of our members at that time, Paula. Somehow, she urged me to give NORTH ON SOUTH STREET a serious listen, and I did - and I found that I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. And it's now in fairly regular rotation when I'm looking for some rhythmic "Herb".

Favorite tracks are "Jump Street", "North On South Street", "It's The Last Dance", and "I Can't Stop Thinking About You". This is all far removed from the Tijuana Brass, but it's got a magic all its own.

Since those days, I've managed to pick up a promotional CD maxi-single of "Jump Street" with 5 different mixes. And as much as I like the "Jump Street" album mix, I really like the extended "Brighton Daze Mix".

And another promotional CD maxi-single came my way with seven mixes of "North On South Street". I like both the "Massive Sound" mix and the "Late Night Massive Sound Remix".

Factoid: this is perhaps the only Herb Alpert album with all tracks at least partially composed by Herb.

This is one of two Herb Alpert A&M albums that I do not own a vinyl version of the LP (the other is MIDNIGHT SUN).
 
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My vinyl copy has a gold promo stamp on the upper right back cover. This was the last Herb album on A&M issued on vinyl. MIDNIGHT SUN only came out on CD & cassette. I have never seen a non promo LP in the racks.
 

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This one's usually hit or miss with me. I'll play it when I'm in a certain mood and enjoy it, but it's not something I'd pick right away.
 
I remember at first being disappointed with Herb when this came out, because you see, after the artistry and beauty of UNDER A SPANISH MOON and the melding of big band jazz with rock/pop of MY ABSTRACT HEART, I felt that Herb would take it to the next level so to speak with his next effort. Well, what we got was NORTH ON SOUTH STREET. It felt like a return to his mid 80s techno funk stuff like BULLISH,WILD ROMANCE, and ultimately IMHO his weakest effort yet, the disappointing KEEP YOUR EYE ON ME.

However, with the passing of time, I've come to appreciate this gem of music.This "album"is cited by some musicologists as helping to spearhead the whole "acid jazz" movement which was somewhat the rage in the 90s to mid 2000s ;which was basically a melding of hip-hop, jazz, R&B, pop,house music and funk. It was also the first true melding of hip-hop and jazz(and this came out a year BEFORE Miles' hip-hop effort DOO BOP!) Yep, Herb couldn't help changing the world, even if he mightn't have been aware of it. As we all know, his earlier efforts have been sampled, but one in particular stands out for me is an acid jazz group(or producer) that sampled the TJB's version of "Summertime" for their own effort!(Anyone knows who this act was? Like I always say, would like to know!)

Anyway, Herb must have heard this, and whaddaya know? He also SAMPLED his own "Summertime" version and remade it as "Don't Cry" on his own 2014 cd IN THE MOOD! Really something, huh?My favorites are City Terrace(which everybody seems to like around here),I Can't Stop Thinking About You(another favorite around here again),and Funky Reggae.
 
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As we all know, his earlier efforts have been sampled, but one in particular stands out for me is an acid jazz group(or producer) that sampled the TJB's version of "Summertime" for their own effort!(Anyone knows who this act was? Like I always say, would like to know!)

Anyway, Herb must have heard this, and whaddaya know? He also SAMPLED his own "Summertime" version and remade it as "Don't Cry" on his own 2014 cd IN THE MOOD! Really something, huh?

I've assembled a trio of recordings that all use the "Summertime" groove. The third is called "Bar Rhumba" by Mo' Horizons.

 
Thanks, Harry for providing the music, all three versions of "Summertime"! that's the group that I remember; Mo Horizons. I heard this on the late, great jazz station that we had here in NY which was CD101.9 when they were going thru a "chill music" phase in the mid 2000s. The host of the chill show was none other than trumpeter Chris Botti! The show came on on Friday nights, and that's where I heard this. We all know that Herb's music has been famously sampled by Sean "Puffy"Combs and Biggie Smalls;using "Rise" for their tune "Hypnotize" and "Rise" was sampled by R&B singer Monica as well, but there was a one hit wonder R&B act called Koffee Brown that sampled "Rotation" for one of their songs; can't remember which one, though.
 
I remember picking this one up on CD, bringing it home and skimming through it - and not finding anything appealing at all. And it sat on the shelf for a number of years afterwards, essentially unlistened to. The urban/street sounds that I heard were just not my taste.

Sometime around 1998 to 2000, I had a discussion with one of our members at that time, Paula. Somehow, she urged me to give NORTH ON SOUTH STREET a serious listen, and I did - and I found that I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. And it's now in fairly regular rotation when I'm looking for some rhythmic "Herb".

Favorite tracks are "Jump Street", "North On South Street", "It's The Last Dance", and "I Can't Stop Thinking About You". This is all far removed from the Tijuana Brass, but it's got a magic all its own.

Since those days, I've managed to pick up a promotional CD maxi-single of "Jump Street" with 5 different mixes. And as much as I like the "Jump Street" album mix, I really like the extended "Brighton Daze Mix".

And another promotional CD maxi-single came my way with seven mixes of "North On South Street". I like both the "Massive Sound" mix and the "Late Night Massive Sound Remix".

Factoid: this is perhaps the only Herb Alpert album with all tracks at least partially composed by Herb.

This is one of two Herb Alpert A&M albums that I do not own a vinyl version of the LP (the other is MIDNIGHT SUN).
Dad obtained a promo CD copy of five different mixes of the title cut, as well as the entire album on CD, both E-Bay finds. I've never much cared for the album, so when he died, these items went by the wayside.
 
Have always liked “I Can’t Stop Thinkin’ About You”, and this version specifically. The rest of the album is not a favourite but I do play it from time to time .
 
The "Brighton Daze" remixes of "Jump Street" as well as the video feature Yvonne De La Vega. Here's a promotional photo I found on my computer of Herb and Yvonne. The Brighton Daze single mix is commonly found on the Canadian/UK VERY BEST OF HERB ALPERT CD.

YvonneDeLaVegaHerbAlpert.jpg
 
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