Herb's "Think About It" (1999)

AM Matt

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When I was working at Elder - Beerman in Midland, Michigan (which became Younkers but closed since November of last year), the song "Think About It" by Herb Alpert was playing (from 1999 "Colors"). Did that song get radio airplay back then?? Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
I don't know about other states, but I definitely know that this tune did not get any airplay here in NY.The smooth jazz station which was CD 101.9 here in NY only played Herb's version of "The Look Of Love" from this CD. (By the way, we here on this forum only talk about Herb's A&M work, but not his Almo Sounds stuff; which I thought was some of his best works. Let's have more of a discussion of the Almo Sounds years and these three highly underrated efforts from Herb.)
 
I was only lukewarm to SECOND WIND. Most on this forum pretty much hated COLORS. I thought there were some decent things there, but it was too bass-y.

The best of the three was PASSION DANCE, IMHO. I have that one on CD and on a DTS surround CD.
 
I heard the colors version of Magic man played on digital cable music channels like DMX ( Digital music express) and Music choice on their respective Jazz Channels I think Herb's Almo sounds output were equally as good as his A&M output and Passion Dance to me is a big Stand out in my opinion it's His Most Latin Flavored project Since Fandango i remember copying my CD to a Cassette and playing the heck out of it I still have all 3 Almo Cds and still pristine and playable like Everything else
 
Actually, I love COLORS! The members of the black rock group Living Colour(Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun) and the late great Bernie Worrell were the musicians on the album, and as Herb said in the liner notes they got together to try to make a"musical, honest and fun to listen to album". I honestly felt that they achieved that goal, and IMHO it's a great album. And also remember, Herb is a big bass man, so it would be only natural that it would be "bass-y".

I didn't know that there was a lot of dislike on the forum about this project, so I guess I'm one of the few that likes it. But at the end of the day, it's all about our individual opinions.

'Til next time take care all!
jazzdre

P.S.: Hey Bobberman didn't mean any slight with the "bass-y" remark; just wanted to make a point about Herb's preference for the bass, and it may have influenced the sound of the project. Again, no offense!
 
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I never did warm to Colors but really didn't give it much of a chance either. Second Wind and Passion Dance I played the you-know-what out of. :wink: Strangely an album may sit for a decade or two after setting it aside, and I find I start liking it quite a bit more when I listen with fresh ears.
 
I think that might be pretty common, at least it is with me. I have albums that have been filed away for years only to discover that I really like it nowadays. To some extent times and tastes change, but I think we all tend to gravitate toward what we liked as teenagers. Other music that may have been around at that time didn't do anything for us then, but now in retrospect, it sounds great.

I use the example of the Baja Marimba Band for myself. As much as I loved Herb and the Brass, I just couldn't get into the BMB. I viewed them as one of the many TJ-wannabees and pretty much dismissed them. I never investigated any of their albums, never looked at the credits, never really listened to any of their stuff. My fave radio station picked up on Julius' vocal, "I Don't Want To Walk Without You", and I liked that one. And once I got into radio and was picking up trash records, I grabbed a number of Baja Marimba Band albums just because they were on A&M. But with all of the other stuff I was picking up, these all just got filed under B and that was that.

It wasn't until logging onto the A&M Corner in the late 90s that I gave any thought to a Baja Marimba Band record - and I had a good chunk of them. Now they've been carefully needledropped, cleaned up nicely, and reside on CD-R. And I get great pleasure these days giving them a spin.

COLORS came out around the time of the early days of A&M Corner. I remember going to Borders on the morning of its release on my way to work. The bass just overwhelmed my car's CD player to the point of distortion. But I found that I liked some of the tracks. The opener "Libertango" was interesting to me in that it featured as a song in the movie "FRANTIC" with Harrison Ford. The film used Grace Jones' version, but I recognized the song. What's a slight bit of trivia is that that same movie had a scene that took place in a lounge/club where music was playing, and it was Chris Montez early A&M stuff, and it was dismissed by the young, hot actress in the movie as being old fart music.

I also liked that fact that after all those years, Herb finally got a turn on "The Look Of Love", a song which featured on so many different old A&M albums. And even Lani got a turn on that one.

Two songs on the album were re-dos of earlier Herb material, "Magic Man" and "The Lady In My Life" which had been a b-side to one of his A&M singles.

COLORS was the first new Herb music that was put out after a bunch of us started congregating on the A&M Corner, and I thought it would be better received, but I recall a lot of negative comments.

I don't play COLORS very often myself, but I'm giving it a spin as I type this, and while I still have to tame the bass, it's an OK listen. "Think About It" is one of the really good tracks.
 
My tastes change over time--I honestly haven't played a Baja album in a few years. I really don't listen to the old A&M stuff much anymore--I have too many other things to listen to and explore these days. I'll occasionally spin something but it's rare. I figure I'm not missing anything now because I've listened to some of those albums throughout my life. Although I do get on a roll lately where, instead of listening to something I know, I'll find something by the same artist I haven't yet heard, or in the case of a record label, I will find something else I haven't heard yet and explore that instead. (I've been in the process of getting into the CTi Records catalog post-A&M lately and discovered a lot of good music from the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine and Paul Desmond, just as one example.) Yet I still do gravitate towards music from my school years, expanding on that as well. One familiar Isaac Hayes dance track turned into my exploring similar albums of his from that late 70s/early 80s era.

It's all good though! Life's too short to not listen to music. :)
 
And also remember, Herb is a big bass man, so it would be only natural that it would be "bass-y".
jazzdre

Just my two cents' :

For me, it's not a matter of liking or disliking bass. After all, "Rise" was one of the most bass-laden tracks Herb ever did.

But with the Colors album, the bass was so intense that it literally over-vibrates the speakers (and I've played that CD on multiple sound systems with decent woofers). When I transferred those songs to my iTunes folder on my pc, I used the 'bass reducer' equalizer in order to cut down on the overbearing vibration. You shouldn't have to go out and buy a subwoofer in order to listen to a piece of music... even if it does feature heavier bass in the track. Too much is just too much.
 
A couple of tracks from Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo, and especially the title track, were way too heavy in bass. It was more a matter of turning the subwoofer way down in my car system to make it listenable. It would be one thing if it were consistent throughout the album but it's not. I also found Donald Fagen's Morph The Cat to lay it on too heavy. (That is why I'm glad I bought the vinyl version, it is more evenly balanced.) It's a trend in the digital era. Engineers and producers don't have to worry about being able to cut something into the grooves, so they can lay anything on as heavy as they want.
 
Too much Bass is not a good thing and thankfully on my system I'm able to make adjustments but when it distorts the whole mix it's very discouraging
 
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