I love Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass

[Alicia]

Their music is great! I love them. My mom and I were at best buy and I saw their CD with a trumpet on it, and since I'm a trumpet player I had to have it. I absolutely love Zorba the Greek! I wish I could play that fast. They're up there with Chris Botti for me! What's your favorite song?

 

[Mr Bill]

Welcome to the A&M Corner, Alicia. Pollution City, huh? You must be from Los Angeles. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley.

Sounds like you picked up Definitive Hits. That's just the tip of the iceberg as far as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass goes. Finding anything else on CD, though, will be an expensive endeavour as it's all Out Of Print and fetches ridiculously high prices on eBay. If your parents still have a turntable (what's that you ask?) your best bet would be to hit used record shops (if you're in Los Angeles I can recommend a few) and your corner thrift shop for vinyl versions, still reasonably priced in those locales.

You can see other Herb Alpert LPs at www.tijuanabrass.com, a "spin-off" of sorts of this site...

Again, welcome!

--Mr Bill
PS: looked at your weblog -- um, pretty bizarre!

 

[thetijuanataxi]

Welcome Alicia. Wow, a female trumpeter. How exciting!! I play too and have loved the TJB since 1966. As for wishing you could play as fast as Herb on "Zorba The Greek", if Herb were reading this he'd probably respond in typical Herb-Julius humor with "I wish I could play that fast too". My favorite TJB song? There are so many of them. But probably my very favorite, and the two that hooked me into the TJB are "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea". If you're looking for other TJB albums, I would suggest "GOING PLACES". in addition to "Taxi" and "Flea" it also contains "Zorba" and is in my opinion, their finest album. Though I believe you will find something great on all their albums.

David,
suddenly wishing he lived in Los Angeles.......

 

[Tom]

Alicia,

A great big welcome to A&M Corner. These are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet and they have a profound wealth of information on Herb Alpert, The Tijuana Brass, and Herb's historic A&M Records company. I too am a trumpet player and picked up the horn just a few months after I heard Herb play "The Lonely Bull" on radio when I was a little boy. My draw to Herb's sound accelerated when I heard the Whipped Cream and skyrocketed once I Herb added his permanent drummer, the late, great Nick Ceroli. Once I heard Nick, I learned how to play drums. Zorba is a great song and I understand it took Herb many sessions to get it the way he wanted it. It was the Whipped Cream album that I discovered the genius of Julius Wechter, Herb's marimba and percussion player extraordinare.

Favorite albums are Whipped Cream, Going Places, and SRO.

Tom

 

[Alicia]

Don't you know... 73% of the air pollution in California's valley is because of San Francisco. Hello... pollution city. I know... though, most people my age know nothing of them, and when I start humming the few songs that I have they have no clue. I wish we'd play them for jazz band. Yes, I am a female trumpeter... not a very good one at that. I mess up the sterotypes of trumpet players being cocky! I really enjoy tijuana taxi also! I'm always humming them at school. I want to go to Florida Institute of Technology!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Try to get your jazz band to play the TJB arrangement of "Walk Don't Run" (from the GOING PLACES album). You'll need a good drummer and a guitarist. What a killer arrangement. It knocks the original Ventures version out of the park.

That song alone is worth the price of that LP! And it's probably still available somewhere on import CD.

 

[Alicia]

Do you know where I could get the sheet music for "Walk Don't Run"? I'm interested like I am with lumpia.:goofygrin:

 

[Marty]

 

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

Hi Alicia. Have you ever heard "Baile Buffet" & "Jazz Pizzazz & Latino"? Later...............Jay

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Hi Alicia. Have you ever heard "Baile Buffet" & "Jazz Pizzazz & Latino"? Later...............Jay

You forgot "Covers"...



Dan

 

[Tom]

I agree that Herb and The TjB's version of "Walk, Don't Run" is the definitive performance. Drummer Nick Ceroli shines on this tune. To those of us who have had the privilege of seeing and hearing Nick perform live in concert, there are no words to describe just how great Nick was. He was one of a kind. As Lani Hall introduced him during the Bullish Tour at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City, "The Best!" Few performers inspire, thrill, and satisfy me...Nick was one of those few. Others are Herb, Julius, and John Pisano.

I learned to play "amateur" drums from "The" Best.

Tom

 

[Dave]

OK, so far the WARM album hasn't been mentioned. Still an all-time favorite of mine and hopefully everyone else's! Yours, Too??

After seeing SUMMERTIME as our last Herb Alpert & TjB AOTW, I would sure like to get ahold of a copy of that. :goofygrin:

Dave

 

[Alicia]

I've never heard of them. I've only been interested in them since last month. My mom bought the CD for me saying that it was good and that's it. So I really don't know anymore. Though my mom has all their records in the attic, we just don't have the right player.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

WARM is a great album too and (as regular readers know) contains my favorite HA&tTJB song, "The Sea Is My Soil." SUMMERTIME, I'd call good but not great. Those albums are kind of an acquired taste for many, where you'd just about have to be dead not to enjoy GOING PLACES, WHIPPED CREAM and some of the rest of the earlier works.

 

[Alicia]

I know already asked this in a different forum... but does anyone know how much an Olds Ambassador (sp?) is worth? I have one... and I want to see.

 

[venturenut]

Even though I'm a Ventures fan, I wholeheartedly agree that Herb's arrangement, with Nick's percussion and John's guitar, is spectacular, and brought a generally dull song to life. It's my favorite version and the only one I can still listen to with a thrill.

(Don't tell the guys on UF, though!)

I have the sheet music if someone needs it...

Dave

 

[Alicia]

I want it...