Steppin' Out - it's out!

[martin]

As said in my report from the Hollywood Bowl Concert, Herb's new CD was on sale there, and I got one of course. It is labeled as Herb Alpert - featuring Lani Hall. I am listening to it, as I write this. There is plenty to look forward to. Here is the tracklist:
Puttin' On The Ritz
Jacky's Place
Our Song
Green Lemonade
I Only Have Eyes For You
Good Morning Mr Sunshine
Oblivion
What 'll I Do
Cote d'Azur
La Vie En Rose
It's All In The Game
Europa
And The Angels Sing
Skylark
Migration
The Lonely Bull

It is a lovely mix of standards, new songs by Herb and Jeff Lorber and some TJB songs revisited. More on it later. Time to sleep now...

Greetings from LA

Martin

 

[bob]

hi martin thanks for the info is that good morning mr. sunshine the same song from the brass are coming? and 2 other great songs from the going places lp and the lonely bull
if you can would you please scan in the cover so we all could see what the new CD would look like.
thank you
bob

 

[martin]

Hi Bob,
Yes, it is the same song as on TBAC in a lovely new arrangement by Bill Cantos. And the angels sing is the same song as on GP. Right now I am at LAX on my way home to Norway. It is a long flight, but I will scan and post the coverart during the weekend.

Greetings from LA

Martin

 

[bob]

Thanks Martin for the answer. I met Herb at a place here called the Blossom Music Center August of 1968 in Cuyahoga Falls,Ohio the first night . the opening act was the Checkmates L.T.D. I got to go back stage with Herb and Tonni Kalash and got his autograph and Tonni as well. I still got those to this day, Herb took a picture of me, and tonni I had a orange tee shirt. I was 11 at the time. I wish I could get that picture.and from what I saw Herb was very shy.
Bob

 

[martin]

I just checked and saw that Steppin Out can be streamed from Spotify,

- greetings from the north -
Martin

 

[Harry]

Do we know, for sure, that a CD is going to be released to the general public? Or is this going to be an mp3-only release through the website?

I know that concert-goers were given a chance to buy CDs, but does that necessarily mean that CDs are being pressed for general release? Amazon is showing nothing for the title at this point in time.

I don't mean to be alarmist - it's just what's floating around in my head...

Harry

 

[badazz]

Harry you are indeed being an alarmist.. I am finalizing details for a proper CD release. The digital release will happen first followed by a CD release several weeks later. I am also letting you know that I do not foresee CD releases in the future. Honestly, there is almost no demand for them. People want digital files. Maybe not here at The Corner but just about everywhere else throughout the world. I actually wish that people, other then here at The Corner, wanted really high quality sounding music files but that does not seem to be the case at the moment either. I can tell you that the sound of this new album is WONDERFUL. It's big, it's thick, it's warm, and dimensional. Mick Guzauski did a FABULOUS job mixing these songs and both the engineers & musicians did a great job sound-wise and recording-wise. Herb, in my opinion, has never sounded better. And I think you are going to like the sound of the orchestra on these tracks. Best regards to you.... randy

 

[Jazz Fan]

Harry you are indeed being an alarmist.. I am finalizing details for a proper CD release. The digital release will happen first followed by a CD release several weeks later. I am also letting you know that I do not foresee CD releases in the future. Honestly, there is almost no demand for them. People want digital files. Maybe not here at The Corner but just about everywhere else throughout the world. I actually wish that people, other then here at The Corner, wanted really high quality sounding music files but that does not seem to be the case at the moment either. I can tell you that the sound of this new album is WONDERFUL. It's big, it's thick, it's warm, and dimensional. Mick Guzauski did a FABULOUS job mixing these songs and both the engineers & musicians did a great job sound-wise and recording-wise. Herb, in my opinion, has never sounded better. And I think you are going to like the sound of the orchestra on these tracks. Best regards to you.... randy

Thanks for the information about the new cd Randy! Can't wait to buy it!! Have a great weekend.

Shere Siegel

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Mick Guzauski did a FABULOUS job mixing these songs and both the engineers & musicians did a great job sound-wise and recording-wise.

Hadn't heard Mick Guzauski's name in years. He was the engineer for most of Chuck Mangione's A&M albums for several years.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Harry]

Harry you are indeed being an alarmist.. I am finalizing details for a proper CD release.

I was 90% sure I was being an alarmist, but the collector in me had visions of the "several hundred" CDs sold at the Hollywood Bowl becoming rare collector items that I'd never get a shot at. As it is, it sounds as though those might still be "different" from what is ultimately sold on the marketplace, again making them collectors' items. Those of us fans who couldn't make the trip to Hollywood never got a shot at those.

And yes, it's truly sad what's happened to the marketplace regarding CDs. Maybe someday there will be this giant expose on some national magazine show on how the public has been duped into being happy with lossy files, causing a return to sanity... Nah, maybe not...



Thanks for the response and the confirmation of a final CD to come.


Harry

 

[Rudy]

Harry you are indeed being an alarmist.. I am finalizing details for a proper CD release. The digital release will happen first followed by a CD release several weeks later. I am also letting you know that I do not foresee CD releases in the future.

Amazon does have an "on demand" program--granted your CD comes on a CD-R and IIRC also has an insert printed on demand, but it does deal with the inventory issue. They have done this for both CD and DVD releases, which is a neat alternate method to get the product out to consumers.

I can easily agree that CDs are near death, having researched the new and used CD market myself. Big box retailers have trimmed back inventory; Best Buy, for one, has shrunk their CD selection almost to the point of non-existence. Many of the used stores do not even buy back CDs anymore (I've tried myself, and have literally dozens that are headed for the landfill since nobody will buy them even at 50 cents apiece). Vinyl has made such a resurgence in the market that the stores are doing a great business selling new and used vinyl (with the inflated prices to match), while CD inventory just doesn't turn...not even marked down to fire sale prices. I just wonder if vinyl can sustain itself once all the hipsters stop buying it.

I do know that high-res is picking up steam also. HDTracks is doing a brisk business these days, and the titles they have added in the past 18 months have been amazing--entire catalogs of artists up in 24/96 quality. Consumers are slowly wising up to the fact that MP3 sounds pretty bad, and even scratchy old vinyl has the musicality they are missing. I'm hoping this trend continues. Music deserves to be preserved!

 

[CherryStreet]

Harry you are indeed being an alarmist.. I am finalizing details for a proper CD release. The digital release will happen first followed by a CD release several weeks later. I am also letting you know that I do not foresee CD releases in the future. Honestly, there is almost no demand for them. People want digital files. Maybe not here at The Corner but just about everywhere else throughout the world. I actually wish that people, other then here at The Corner, wanted really high quality sounding music files but that does not seem to be the case at the moment either. I can tell you that the sound of this new album is WONDERFUL. It's big, it's thick, it's warm, and dimensional. Mick Guzauski did a FABULOUS job mixing these songs and both the engineers & musicians did a great job sound-wise and recording-wise. Herb, in my opinion, has never sounded better. And I think you are going to like the sound of the orchestra on these tracks. Best regards to you.... randy

Randy,
Big fan of yours, truly. And such an honor to have you post here. I think many of us have no problem not being able to buy CD's. We just want "true", "lossless" files. Can you give us any info as to when we may be able to start purchasing FLAC files from Herb's site? Totally off topic, but what do you think of Robin Thicke's new CD? I gladly went to my "big box" store and bought it.

All the best,

CherryStreet

 

[jfiedler17]

I can easily agree that CDs are near death, having researched the new and used CD market myself. Big box retailers have trimmed back inventory; Best Buy, for one, has shrunk their CD selection almost to the point of non-existence. Many of the used stores do not even buy back CDs anymore (I've tried myself, and have literally dozens that are headed for the landfill since nobody will buy them even at 50 cents apiece). Vinyl has made such a resurgence in the market that the stores are doing a great business selling new and used vinyl (with the inflated prices to match), while CD inventory just doesn't turn...not even marked down to fire sale prices. I just wonder if vinyl can sustain itself once all the hipsters stop buying it.

Consumers are slowly wising up to the fact that MP3 sounds pretty bad, and even scratchy old vinyl has the musicality they are missing. I'm hoping this trend continues. Music deserves to be preserved!

Well, I may be an anomaly, but I'm 34, and I can honestly say that I have never - not once - bought a digital release, believe it or not. (I've also been religiously collecting vinyl, too, since I was five, so I'm not one of those only now jumping onto the bandwagon!) I'm a bit of a purist. I still buy music exclusively in tangible form, be it CD, vinyl, etc.. It's not even just the sound quality, though, that's the reason I do it. [I'll have to admit to listening to music quite frequently in digital form, i.e. on my iPod when I travel. (I know, I know, but hey, it's more compact than taking along a Discman and several dozen CDs! ] It's that, for one thing, computer files can be lost. Easily. TOO easily. I've had it happen more than once. Heaven forbid your computer crashes, and you've bought stuff in CD form, it's not nearly as devastating an experience, since you know you have the original CDs and can always simply burn the files again in the event that you had no backup files. A bit time-consuming, sure, but it beats having to buy everything over again.
So I like knowing I actually have hard copies I can always fall back on.
And, for another thing, I think that people who only buy music in digital form are missing a big part of the experience, and not just in the fact that the sound is usually inferior. There's a lot to be said for the visual element of enjoying a record, too, be it taking in the album art, reading the liner notes, etc. I'll often pull LPs or CDs off of my shelves just to admire the packaging or read the liner notes to find out the writers and players behind each song. Album packaging became an art form in and of itself back in the '60s and 70s, and it's always interesting, too, to see all the different kinds of goodies (i.e. posters, stickers, bonus 45s, iron-on decals, etc.) that used to be included in LPs back then. I've got some albums that must have at least half a dozen different inserts inside!

Now, mind you, I do think artists who currently are - or will soon be - releasing everything digitally are really, really business-savvy to do that. Considering the buying habits of your typical music buyer these days and how increasingly hesitant even a place like Best Buy is to stock most new releases, it's a much safer move. And, I've got to say, looking at it from an artist's perspective? I'm an amateur musician myself and when I looked into getting something of mine pressed on CD, I was so surprised at how much it would cost to do that (even just to get a hundred copies pressed) and how much overhead I could save by not getting CDs made that the idea of putting music out exclusively in digital form suddenly seemed a lot more brilliant than I had previously ever taken into consideration. For an unestablished or unsigned musician, it's actually a really smart way to go. Between how easy it is to record at home these days and the ease with which you can post music Online, it's thoroughly possible now for amateur bands to record and get music out to the public without having to spend a cent. So it is sort of exciting from that standpoint.

So it's a mixed blessing for me; as a music collector, it's a little bit tragic to see how MP3 has taken over, but the digital age has simultaneously also opened up a lot of new territory and opportunities for musicians. And bear in mind how massive of a comeback vinyl has been making in the last two years, especially among the 18-30 age bracket (I live near a college town, and it's very rare these days that you see any college student walk out of the local music shop with anything other than vinyl! ), so while the CD is waning a bit in popularity, listening to music in tangible form clearly hasn't gone completely out of style. It's quite assuring to see vinyl making such a big comeback. (Even if it's unfortunately driven up the price of vinyl quite a bit. Up until three or so years back, I used to be able to pick up records at the local flea market for practically nothing - there was even one dealer there who would regularly sell me entire crates full of 45s in superb condition for $3! - but now you walk around there and everyone's selling records for as much as $10 a piece for considerably-scratched common albums, but people my age are still paying it! So the deals there aren't nearly as easy to find these days.)

Incidentally, Randy, I've never had a chance to talk to you on this message board before, but I'm a big admirer! I've always been a big Herb Alpert fan - and of A&M in general; I always knew when I saw that A&M logo on a record that I wouldn't be disappointed by it (such amazing quality control!!) - and, before I ever even started collecting the TJB albums, I was into his solo albums like Rise, Beyond, Magic Man, etc., so I became familiar with your songs very early on in life, and I can't begin to tell you how awestruck and spellbound I was once I heard "The Factory." I still think that one's got to be my favorite instrumental song of all-time, actually!

- Jeff F.

 

[TonyCurrie]

To add to the discussion, a few observations from the point of view of a small label. I started my own label in the mid 1970s. Our first releases were vinyl albums. These took a long time to create - once the master tape was ready it was sent to a cutting engineer who produced the master discs. Labels had to be printed and shipped to the pressing plant. Sleeves designed, printed, laminated, assembled and glued, and shipped. Before the vinyl was pressed (and there was a fairly large minimum quantity of discs that any plant would press), we had to pay - upfront - fees to the copyright body MCPS. These fees were a percentage of the retail selling price of the discs, and covered the copyright in the music publishing. We had to shell out for every disc to be pressed, irrespective of whether we sold any or not. Then the discs had to be inserted into bags and then into the sleeves and shipped from southern England to our offices in Scotland. We had to persuade a distributor to stock our products and sell them on to record shops. (Not an easy task, believe me!) And then we had to ship to our distributor. For all that, our cut was a very small proportion of the retail cost and in more than one case we were left with boxes of unsold discs in our stockroom. Later, for specialist albums, we produced cassettes only, since we could go for smaller runs, and a local plant would do the duplication. When we moved to CDs, the same process as vinyl kicked in initially, although for short runs we could go for burning CD-Rs, although we knew that some of these would be incompatible with earlier CD players, and the shelf-life of CD-Rs was (and still is) dubious.

More boxes of unsold stock. All of it an expensive investment. Fewer small distributors - the big boys do crippling deals that effectively 'shut out' small labels.

Now we have a local distributor for our downloads. We produce the master - it's uploaded to a server. Cost is minimal. Copyright is only paid at point of sale. We can release many, many more records because there are no overheads. No stockroom. No unsold product. No damp cardboard boxes. And more money in the kitty to release more albums.

It's a no-brainer, really!

 

[martin]

Thanks Jeff, I believe a lot of us can appreciate and agree on your points of view. Historically, to the big public, however, sound quality has never been the first priority. When I started out recording myself, in the mid eighties, music cassettes sales outnumbered vinyl 2:1. As the CD came along, I believe it was as much the practical solutions; the discman, car audio and so on, along obviously with the sound quality, that ensured ti's success. As I am still very active as a recording artist with my (contemporary Christian) group Reflex, we have noted the interesting fact that CD sales after live shows are stronger than ever, while the ordinary distribution channels seem to deteriorate day by day. I believe there will still be a demand for physical products in the foreseeable future, but that the streaming and download services will be the main channels for music sales.

- greetings from the north -
Martin

 

[badazz]

Hadn't heard Mick Guzauski's name in years. He was the engineer for most of Chuck Mangione's A&M albums for several years.


Capt. Bacardi

Hi Captain-
Mick is probably in the top 5 engineers/mixers in the world. Very, very difficult to get him on a record as he is booked sometimes a year or more in advance. He works with the very best and most popular artists. Earth Wind & Fife, Bacharach, Madonna, David Foster, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Kenny G, Leanne Rimes, BB King, Babyface, Daft Punk, etc. He's won multiple Grammys, is a sweetheart of a guy, and did a WONDERFUL job mixing Herb's new album.. Hope you are having a good summer..

 

[badazz]

I was 90% sure I was being an alarmist, but the collector in me had visions of the "several hundred" CDs sold at the Hollywood Bowl becoming rare collector items that I'd never get a shot at. As it is, it sounds as though those might still be "different" from what is ultimately sold on the marketplace, again making them collectors' items. Those of us fans who couldn't make the trip to Hollywood never got a shot at those.

And yes, it's truly sad what's happened to the marketplace regarding CDs. Maybe someday there will be this giant expose on some national magazine show on how the public has been duped into being happy with lossy files, causing a return to sanity... Nah, maybe not...



Thanks for the response and the confirmation of a final CD to come.


Harry

Hi Harry-
The new album will be released in about a month with the same songs/cover as the Bowl.. All the same. Hope you are having a good summer..

 

[badazz]

Randy,
Big fan of yours, truly. And such an honor to have you post here. I think many of us have no problem not being able to buy CD's. We just want "true", "lossless" files. Can you give us any info as to when we may be able to start purchasing FLAC files from Herb's site? Totally off topic, but what do you think of Robin Thicke's new CD? I gladly went to my "big box" store and bought it.

All the best,

CherryStreet

Hi CherryStreet-
Thanks for your nice words.. I have a stack of almost 20 new CDs to listen to and Robin's album is I believe #3 in the stack. I've been a big fan of his for a few years. Love his vocals. I am also a BIG BIG pop/r&b/funky music person and LOVE LOVE LOVE the "Blurred Lines" single. Not sure if that or the Daft Punk single is my favorite song of the summer. As you may know, my focus is always on finding or creating that magic hit single so I listen to everything from Ellington to Led Zeppelin to Aretha to Skrillex to Sly Stone. FLAC files will be coming. A few more analog tape transfers are being completed but at the moment I am trying to help get out this new album while over-seeing the Ritz video promotion and some new website things. O yeah and I am working on several new music tracks for 3 different artists. Hope you are having a good summer..

 

[Rudy]

.... Earth Wind & Fife ...

Maurice White's "quaker" themed spinoff group? (Hey, I couldn't pass that opporunity by!)

I know that CD sales after a gig are a really good way to get music into the hands of the fans, and even more so if you have the artist on hand to autograph it. Even if someone already owns it, they'll want some memento with the signature on it, and may purchase it a second time. I know from working with Yellowjackets over the years, they usually do a meet and greet, and a disc signing, after their gigs if they can. Depends on the venue, also--I'm not sure how they lay out the jazz festivals in Detroit now, so I don't know where they could set up to sell them when they are here on 9/1.

 

[Rudy]

O yeah and I am working on several new music tracks for 3 different artists.

Definitely keep us posted on that--take advantage of the free publicity. I know that more than a few of us here would like to hear other projects you've worked on.

 

[badazz]

Well, I may be an anomaly, but I'm 34, and I can honestly say that I have never - not once - bought a digital release, believe it or not. (I've also been religiously collecting vinyl, too, since I was five, so I'm not one of those only now jumping onto the bandwagon!) I'm a bit of a purist. I still buy music exclusively in tangible form, be it CD, vinyl, etc.. It's not even just the sound quality, though, that's the reason I do it. [I'll have to admit to listening to music quite frequently in digital form, i.e. on my iPod when I travel. (I know, I know, but hey, it's more compact than taking along a Discman and several dozen CDs! ] It's that, for one thing, computer files can be lost. Easily. TOO easily. I've had it happen more than once. Heaven forbid your computer crashes, and you've bought stuff in CD form, it's not nearly as devastating an experience, since you know you have the original CDs and can always simply burn the files again in the event that you had no backup files. A bit time-consuming, sure, but it beats having to buy everything over again.
So I like knowing I actually have hard copies I can always fall back on.
And, for another thing, I think that people who only buy music in digital form are missing a big part of the experience, and not just in the fact that the sound is usually inferior. There's a lot to be said for the visual element of enjoying a record, too, be it taking in the album art, reading the liner notes, etc. I'll often pull LPs or CDs off of my shelves just to admire the packaging or read the liner notes to find out the writers and players behind each song. Album packaging became an art form in and of itself back in the '60s and 70s, and it's always interesting, too, to see all the different kinds of goodies (i.e. posters, stickers, bonus 45s, iron-on decals, etc.) that used to be included in LPs back then. I've got some albums that must have at least half a dozen different inserts inside!

Now, mind you, I do think artists who currently are - or will soon be - releasing everything digitally are really, really business-savvy to do that. Considering the buying habits of your typical music buyer these days and how increasingly hesitant even a place like Best Buy is to stock most new releases, it's a much safer move. And, I've got to say, looking at it from an artist's perspective? I'm an amateur musician myself and when I looked into getting something of mine pressed on CD, I was so surprised at how much it would cost to do that (even just to get a hundred copies pressed) and how much overhead I could save by not getting CDs made that the idea of putting music out exclusively in digital form suddenly seemed a lot more brilliant than I had previously ever taken into consideration. For an unestablished or unsigned musician, it's actually a really smart way to go. Between how easy it is to record at home these days and the ease with which you can post music Online, it's thoroughly possible now for amateur bands to record and get music out to the public without having to spend a cent. So it is sort of exciting from that standpoint.

So it's a mixed blessing for me; as a music collector, it's a little bit tragic to see how MP3 has taken over, but the digital age has simultaneously also opened up a lot of new territory and opportunities for musicians. And bear in mind how massive of a comeback vinyl has been making in the last two years, especially among the 18-30 age bracket (I live near a college town, and it's very rare these days that you see any college student walk out of the local music shop with anything other than vinyl! ), so while the CD is waning a bit in popularity, listening to music in tangible form clearly hasn't gone completely out of style. It's quite assuring to see vinyl making such a big comeback. (Even if it's unfortunately driven up the price of vinyl quite a bit. Up until three or so years back, I used to be able to pick up records at the local flea market for practically nothing - there was even one dealer there who would regularly sell me entire crates full of 45s in superb condition for $3! - but now you walk around there and everyone's selling records for as much as $10 a piece for considerably-scratched common albums, but people my age are still paying it! So the deals there aren't nearly as easy to find these days.)

Incidentally, Randy, I've never had a chance to talk to you on this message board before, but I'm a big admirer! I've always been a big Herb Alpert fan - and of A&M in general; I always knew when I saw that A&M logo on a record that I wouldn't be disappointed by it (such amazing quality control!!) - and, before I ever even started collecting the TJB albums, I was into his solo albums like Rise, Beyond, Magic Man, etc., so I became familiar with your songs very early on in life, and I can't begin to tell you how awestruck and spellbound I was once I heard "The Factory." I still think that one's got to be my favorite instrumental song of all-time, actually!

- Jeff F.

Hi Jeff-
I agree with everything you said above regarding the status quo of sound in today's music listening world. I was brought up working with the very best musicians and recording in the very best studios with the best engineers in the world. I feel your pain which is why I am going through this 3+ year process of preserving the original master analog recordings before they decompose to dust..

"The Factory"... I remember that one. Andy Armer and I had a GREAT time creating that track in Studio D at A&M. We got Peter Frampton to do a one take guitar solo and when Herb put his trumpet on it, for me, was magic. Andy & I always tried to create very unique sounding tracks for Herb. Rise, Rotation, Beyond, Factory, Struttin On Five, etc. We are always pushing things forward and sometimes in weird directions. Hope you are having a good summer..

 

[badazz]

Maurice White's "quaker" themed spinoff group? (Hey, I couldn't pass that opporunity by!)

I know that CD sales after a gig are a really good way to get music into the hands of the fans, and even more so if you have the artist on hand to autograph it. Even if someone already owns it, they'll want some memento with the signature on it, and may purchase it a second time. I know from working with Yellowjackets over the years, they usually do a meet and greet, and a disc signing, after their gigs if they can. Depends on the venue, also--I'm not sure how they lay out the jazz festivals in Detroit now, so I don't know where they could set up to sell them when they are here on 9/1.

Hi Rudy-

I don't think that Herb was signing CD's at the Bowl so there will be none of those on EBay. Unless they are fakes..

 

[Rudy]

@badazz : what condition were some of the masters in? The "decomposing" part made me think of the dreaded Ampex 456 and having to bake the reels...sad to think that an unstable tape compound is storing a lot of irreplaceable recordings!

 

[Rudy]

Hi Rudy-

I don't think that Herb was signing CD's at the Bowl so there will be none of those on EBay. Unless they are fakes..

I didn't think he would be signing. But just from others' experience with sales and signings, it gives a little additional tweak to audience members to get them to make an impulse purchase.

Remember the tour several years ago when Prince gave away his new CD at concerts?

 

[badazz]

Definitely keep us posted on that--take advantage of the free publicity. I know that more than a few of us here would like to hear other projects you've worked on.

I'm shy about the stuff I work on for other artists.. But when Herb asks me to be involved with certain things for him, I like to try and hear what you, his long time listening audience, has to say. So I try to check in every so often.