Music Volume 3 - Herb Alpert Reimagines the Tijuana Brass

[Rudy]

Not sure where I'll buy the hi-res from this time. I may sneak into Qobuz on a VPN (with a UK endpoint) and see if I can get it at a discount that way.

I'd like to have had a pre-release review up for everyone, but as usual, we never get anything re: promo materials, and we shouldn't have to beg either...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Amazon says my CD "has shipped!" (Yes I ordered a CD... I'll be damned if I'm going to buy 50 or 60 Herb Alpert albums and then have this one be "digital only!")

 

[Bobberman]

Amazon says my CD "has shipped!" (Yes I ordered a CD... I'll be damned if I'm going to buy 50 or 60 Herb Alpert albums and then have this one be "digital only!")

Understandable and when I get my CD I can rip it into my computer playlist so I won't need to buy the mp3 download of it

 

[Rudy]

CDs don't do high-res, so it's a download for me.

 

[Bobberman]

CDs don't do high-res, so it's a download for me.

I understand however I know the time will come when CDS will no longer be available and downloads will be eventually the only way to go but at least I'm prepared with a couple of good functional devices as a start

 

[jeff604]

I received my CD this morning. I really enjoyed the takes on all songs except for the Rise intro to Spanish Flea. That one just didn't work for me.

 

[martin]

As we are a few hours ahead of you here in Norway, I was able to listen to the album early this morning on Spotify. (I plan on picking up a CD when visiting California in early November.) I found it really entertaining and well produced. Most of the tracks are a mixture of samples from the original TJB versions, and new recordings. With a few exceptions, all of the recognisable hooks are in place, but especially the rhythm tracks are modernised, the grooves are heavier and sounding much more "today". The Rise/Spanish Flea track should have great possibilities to becoming a hit on the dance floors in my opinion.

- greetings from the north -
Martin

 

[Harry]

Mine's in the mail and I'm awaiting Mr. Postman to arrive with today's mail. I've always, everywhere I've ever lived, all of my life, been the absolute last to get mail on any given day.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Got mine but probably won't be able to listen until later tonight. I like the packaging - they included all the names of the touring and studio musicians who played on the TJB sessions. Nice touch!

 

[Harry]

Yes, mine came, but being retired, I HAVE ZERO TIME TO LISTEN!

 

[Captaindave]

Mine came today...it is a remarkable and amazing blending of the old and the new.

A remarkable "overlaying" of the old and new. Some very new sounds and ways of arranging and playing the old familiar songs. I hear the old familiar melodies and chord progressions given pretty much a total rebirth. The word re-imagine" is certainly a good descriptive word.

The old songs are alive again in completely new 21st century presentations. Amazing.

This overall sound didn't exist back when the originals were first recorded - at least, I don't think so. I"m really not sure if it was possible to make a record like this back then.

To me, it is uncanny to listen to this album and be so familiar with the original tunes, and at the same time, hear these new arrangements and sounds applied to those 50 and more year old original recordings.

Great songs dressed up in brand new clothing - I guess that's how I would describe it.

This album will get a lot of play here.

(My first post above got caught in the editing time limit so it could be deleted if possible).

 

[David S]

Received today. Smashed cd case as has been the case for the last three Herb cd “records” I have purchased. Wish they do something to make these cardboard cd cases sturdier.

As to the music, this isn't “Music, Volume 3”. It’s more like “Human Nature, Vol. 2”.

“Wade In the Water”, a classic as an original TJB take, is the outlier standout here. “Sentimental” is a close second.

While I do understand the desire, maybe even commercial need, to revisit past stuff, i’d prefer if someone does so like Dylan - totally different takes on tunes. Further, I’d rather “reimagine” a remastered Lani Hall album, “Blush”, and remastered Herb Alpert albums “Wild Romance”, “Under A Spanish Moon”, and “My Abstract Heart”, as well as the tune, “Noche de Amor”.

Maybe it will grow on me. But I said the same thing about “Human Nature”, and there were exactly three tracks from that album I liked and revisit. I suspect this will fall into the same category.

Ps - on “Rise”, I saw Mr Alpert on an interview play a bitnof “Rise” on the piano, which was and sounded fascinating. He ought to investigate that further.

 

[Captaindave]

Just one other comment...

I think it is probably a good idea to resist any temptation to make comparisons between this album and the originals. Since everyone knows these songs so well, that may be a temptation to do.

The songs are still the songs everyone knows, but this is a new and different approach to them. So it is a new album of essentially new songs - at least that's the way I see it.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Received today. Smashed cd case as has been the case for the last three Herb cd “records” I have purchased. Wish they do something to make these cardboard cd cases sturdier.

You should make a complaint. If you got yours from Amazon, they'll send you a new one and may even let you keep the damaged one. Regardless of where you bought it, they'll never realize there's a problem if they don't hear about it. (I personally wish the jewel case was still the default package.)

On to the music -- I've heard the first eight tracks (which is kind of cool, considering I first heard Herb Alpert right at the beginning of the "8-track" era) and I'm enjoying this a lot. It's kind of fun to hear the Whipped Cream tracks reimagined yet-again, comparing them in my mind to the Re-Whipped versions. I think the new version of "Green Peppers" might be my favorite version of this -- for one thing, I've always thought the original was too darn short!

More comments later after I've managed to hear the whole thing.

 

[David S]

You should make a complaint. If you got yours from Amazon, they'll send you a new one and may even let you keep the damaged one. Regardless of where you bought it, they'll never realize there's a problem if they don't hear about it.

I personally wish the jewel case was still the default package. It has its problems but it makes the package look its best, I think.

Agree completely about jewel cases. These cardboard things are hard to store.

 

[David S]

Got mine but probably won't be able to listen until later tonight. I like the packaging - they included all the names of the touring and studio musicians who played on the TJB sessions. Nice touch!

Yes, I did like this aspect of the package.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Just downloaded the whole album at Amazon. It is like eating after you have been starving. The Rise- Spansh Flea track is the ultimate nod to Julius. Welcome back Herb.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

On a couple of the songs, I don't know if I can describe this, but there is a feeling of Herb playing way on a new arrangement, with the original arrangement occasionally poking its head in and wanting to be heard. I liked this on "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," it is almost like the two arrangements are fighting it out!

I'm really curious if the trombone solo in that song is lifted from the original recording...it sure sounds like it, but who knows, these days.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

They used the actual original tracks to mix with the new - segments weave in and out depending on how the new version was "reimagined."

 

[Harry]

I've been through the new MUSIC VOLUME 3: HERB ALPERT REIMAGINES THE TIJUANA BRASS a few times now - and it was a bit of a rocky road toward really liking it. I'll explain.

With precious little time on Friday night, I opened the package, threw the disc in the computer and ripped the tracks to my usual Windows Media File compression. I use that compression scheme all the time and then copy those files over to my mp3 player(s) and/or my phone. This time I wanted it on the android phone so that maybe I could listen to it while I helped babysit our garage sale. There was a full-neighborhood garage sale going on Friday night for our neighbors and Saturday morning for the public. So we had to set up tables and put stuff out and then watch as folks strolled by and in.

OK, so the tracks ripped and I copied them to the phone. All seemed like it was going to work out, but then I started playing it using the VLC player on my android phone. The phone comes with a "Music" app, but it plays the files in alphabetical order, so I found that the VLC app allows for playing in album order. Well first up is "The Lonely Bull (re-imagined)" and the distortion was so bad that I thought I either got a bad CD or the computer did a bad rip.

With a bunch going on at the garage sale, I abandoned hope of listening to the album until I could figure out what went wrong.

After the yard sale on Saturday was over, I had a but of time to play with the disc and the rips to see what was going on. Examining the audio in Audacity, I was appalled to see so much loud maximization of the audio and reasoned that my problem was that the disc was simply mastered too loudly, a common problem among many modern discs. Dejectedly, I again put the whole thing away until later.

My next task was to use Audacity to at least reduce the volume of each track, hoping I could then use those on the phone's player without the awful distortion. That seemed to work pretty well for at least that application. All of this took place without my really listening to anything I was dubbing/transferring back and forth.

Meanwhile back on regular CD players, my car player, the computer's CD player, today, I've come to realize that this is not meant to be an audiophile experience. It's meant to be a set of tunes designed (re-imagined) with today's listeners in mind. The thumpy bass is SUPPOSED to by thumpy. It's noisy, it's gritty, and it's what was wanted for this particular album.

Somewhere back in these pages, I anticipated that MUSIC VOLUME 3: HERB ALPERT REIMAGINES THE TIJUANA BRASS was going to be something not too far distant from the REWHIPPED project. And I think I may have been right. While REWHIPPED was altered by other DJ-types/producers, REIMAGINES is all done with Herb's people in-house.

Comparing the sonics of REWHIPPED with REIMAGINED, I find it sounds similar with the thumpy bass and gritty, noisy atmosphere. So with that in mind, I've given the album a few run-throughs of just listening. And I like it. It's fun. The songs, as always, are infectious.

This afternoon, for fun, I took the reimagined "Green Peppers" and merged it with the rewhipped version to make a rather interesting 8+ minute version of the tune, always among the shortest on WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS. Tellingly, the two can be merged somewhat seamlessly.

I recall a lot of weeping and nashing of teeth when REWHIPPED came out. I suggest that if REMIAGINED is to your liking, that you give REWHIPPED another spin someday.

 

[Captaindave]

Having listened to the Music Volume 3 album a couple times now since I received it a couple days ago, I agree with the above pretty much completely.

First, I don't have any audiophile equipment these days. I used to have some of that kind of equipment, but I somehow got away from that level of gear over the years. So, what may be discernible on that type of gear, I most likely wouldn't hear on my more ordinary playback means. Computer, car system, iPod, small home shelf type system.

Second, as mentioned above, as far as this album being designed with "today's listeners in mind". I think that is correct - in fact, if my memory is correct, Herb mentions something about that in the cover notes that perhaps some new listeners who have never heard of the Tijuana Brass might be attracted to listen.

Now speaking for myself....I am an "old" listener - one who has the original, 1960s sound of Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass extremely and forever well entrenched in my mind and memory. The so-called "correct" versions of these songs will always be the original recordings - for me. The Tijuana Brass is a "constant" in time for me - and even though the sound and style changed some from 1962 - 1969, it was still essentially the original, 1960s Tijuana Brass. So, nothing is ever going to match or equal that original, pretty much all acoustic instrument sound of a band playing, in that unique sound and style, and those particular arrangements - at least for me.

I also do not warm up readily to sound effects, modern recording studio technologies, or what I will call "artificial" sound production as heard from keyboards and computers (maybe some of that actually started with The Beatles). I like real drums. I like a "balanced" sound - that means no one instrument being louder and being more predominant in the mix that it ought to be at the expense of the others. I am not a fan of sampling technology. I grew up on music that was produced by human beings who could actually play musical instruments with skill and talent, and in real time - that was the source of the sound. When I first heard the Tijuana Brass in concert back in the 1960s, I was amazed how they, as a band, could play together on acoustic instruments to a very high level of ability and produce the sound that they did on the stage.

So, to the extent that Music Volume 3 uses that kind of what I will call "high tech" sound production, I am somewhat disappointed. But, I also realize again that I am, as mentioned above, an "older" listener who is probably somewhat resistant to these changes in general anywhere they may be found.

With all that said, I do like the album. And I think the idea that newer (you can translate that as younger) listeners who may be more appreciative of the kind of sonic experience that this album provides may appreciate it more than me - even though again, I do like it overall and will play it often. But, probably not as often as the originals.

What would be "ideal" for me would be a group of session players to get together in the studio with Herb, and in "re-imagining" music like this, actually replay these songs re-vamped and re-arranged, and as a new band with some kind of new sound. I heard something of a new and different sound when Herb reorganized the TJB in the 1974 - 1975 edition. But, still a basically all acoustic, real time experience.

I appreciate the album as it is - but I was probably thinking of something a little different.

 

[Bobberman]

I got word from Amazon on Saturday that my CD Has shipped ( Finally.) I figured there might be similarities between this and Rewhipped ( which I have and I enjoy it for what it is) I happen to be open minded musically when it comes to Herb's music since I liked the Rewhipped album and the fact Herb was playing on it makes it Good enough for me and I expect this Reimagined Album to be at least equally as Good if not Maybe Slightly better. I will report my results after I've listened to it according to Amazon it should arrive tomorrow by 8pm local time meanwhile We shall wait and see

 

[Harry]

It's somewhat interesting that four of the songs that were "reimagined" were, of course, also "rewhipped".

 

[abstract_fan]

I think "The Lonely Bull" is worth the price of the whole CD.

 

[Bobberman]

It's somewhat interesting that four of the songs that were "reimagined" were, of course, also "rewhipped".

Agreed it's An interesting coincidence.