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[catchy trumpet music]
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- Herb Alpert is a cultural icon.
- Herb Alpert is funky.
- Herb Alpert is who I'd like to be when I grow up.
- So now, ladies and gentlemen.
Direct from the border by Tijuana taxi,
the number one recording group in the world,
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
[clapping]
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Man] Tijuana Brass became that universal sound
that everybody loved.
That sound was very unique.
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Man] It was an incredibly popular sound.
It just made you happy.
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Man] Tijuana Brass was everywhere,
you couldn't get away from it.
It's very inspiring, it was very upbeat and very cool.
[catchy trumpet music]
- No musician ever had a year
like Herb had in 1965 and 6.
5 songs in the top 20, 4 of them in the top 10.
Sold more records than the Beatles.
[catchy trumpet music]
Herb Alpert is butter.
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Man] No matter who else is there,
Herb Alpert is always the coolest person in the room.
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Herb] All of a sudden, I was catapulted
into this thing from one hit record
into many hit records.
It was pretty crazy.
I mean, we were selling out these huge arenas
in three minutes.
And at that point I realized, man,
I have the American dream come true.
I'm famous, I'm rich, but I'm miserable.
[catchy trumpet music]
[dramatic trumpet music]
- Herb Alpert is a creative life force.
- She's done.
If you promise not to tell anyone,
I'm going to cheat a little bit,
a little maple syrup.
But don't tell anyone.
Mm.
That's good stuff.
This is why I look like I'm 82 and I'm really 83.
[laughing]
- Herb doesn't work creatively, he lives creatively.
- I started sculpting, I think around 1980.
Here's where I heat the wax,
and I pull it out, and start fiddling some pieces.
I don't have a plan, I'm just feeling my way,
hoping I can land on something that makes me feel good.
It's like jazz.
You just play it, do it, don't judge it.
And if you come back tomorrow,
this might change shape again.
You never know.
'Cause I leave it on the counter there,
and then I'm having lunch or dinner,
I'm looking at it, and I might make some changes on it.
What I do is, I make these small maquettes,
and then if they qualify in my head,
that could turn into a larger piece.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
My wife hates this move, but here goes.
[torch blowing]
- Herb has always said
that when he came to the trumpet,
it opened up a whole area of his life
that he hadn't had access to before.
But it's not just that, he's found a similar outlet
in paint and sculpture.
So he's a person who's found all kinds of ways
in which he can identify, develop, and express
his own creative perceptionS.
And in that respect,
he's shaped a whole life for himself.
[trumpet music]
- The most important thing you can do
as a musician is practice.
That's how you get to Carnegie Hall.
[jazzy trumpet music]
There's no shortcut.
You can think about wanting to play an instrument
and it's not gonna do any good.
You have to really get in there every day
and try to inch forward.
You never really get to the end product.
You never get there.
That's the seductive part of being an artist.
[jazzy trumpet music]
I don't know how to describe what I do
other than I'm not affecting it,
it's just coming out.
It goes back to what I seriously feel
is the whole essence of making music, is the feel.
[somber piano music]
It has to feel good.
I think that's the ingredient.
If it touches me emotionally, I'm in, that's all I need.
I use that process for painting and sculpting.
If something touches you,
it touches you on a very deep level.
I don't think people listen with their ears.
I think they listen with their soul.
[dramatic piano music]
This is Herbie Alpert singing "Oh Johnny".
♪ Oh Johnny ♪
♪ Please tell me true ♪
♪ What makes me love you so ♪
♪ You're not handsome, it's true ♪
♪ But when I look at you ♪
♪ Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, oh, oh, oh ♪
[lighthearted trumpet music]
Melrose Elementary School, Los Angeles, California.
It doesn't look anything like it looked
when I was going here,
but I have a lot of memories about this place.
Some good, some not great.
I have this experience here,
the teacher in my second grade unit,
she wasn't sure whether to give me an A or a B in reading.
So she called in another teacher
and I was on the spot.
I had to read for this other teacher and I panicked.
I was trembling and didn't feel good.
I read part of a book, and then she looked
at my original teacher and she said,
"I don't think he's an A reader,
I think he's a B reader at best."
And from that point on Herb Alpert became an introvert.
[chuckles] I don't know, I just became mute.
I just, I don't know it just really affected me.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
When I was in the third grade,
there was a music appreciation class and they had a table
filled with instruments.
They had French horns, trombones,
clarinets, oboes, tubas,
everything you can imagine, and a trumpet.
I happened to pick up the trumpet because
it kind of fit in my hand,
and I tried to make a sound out of it,
but I couldn't.
When I finally did make some sense out of it,
it took a while.
The trumpet was talking for me.
So this guy who was an introvert
all of a sudden had a voice.
[dramatic trumpet music]
I was born in Boyle Heights, east of LA.
And we moved to a house in the Fairfax District
when I was about two years old,
I was the youngest of the three kids.
My sister Mimi's the oldest, she played piano.
My brother Dave was second,
was a professional drummer.
Although I wasn't as close to my father
as I would've liked to have been, he was a real hero.
He came to this country when he was 16 years old.
Couldn't speak the language, on a boat by himself,
and made a great life.
Certainly provided a great life for me.
[lighthearted music]
Well, I come back here about every 53 years.
[chuckling]
I haven't been here since I was 19 years old
when I got drafted in the army.
Oh, well, so this is the room
where a lot of action took place.
I used to practice right in that area right there.
I used to practice just about every day of my life,
and then one day I was playing
and one of the neighbors yelled out,
"Hold it down!"
More like "Shut up!"
You know?
And my mom opened the window and she said,
"Oh, he's gonna play louder."
You know, so. [chuckles]
She was in my corner all the way.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
I was very lucky.
My parents supported me with the lessons,
I had some wonderful teachers.
One particular teacher, Ben Claskin,
who was lead trumpet player
in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
He really had an impact on my life.
This one time, I think I might've been 12 or 13 years old,
I played this etude for him
that was in the Arban's book,
which is a famous book that most trumpet players study.
And I finished playing it and I looked over to him
and he was like tearing up,
you know, I touched him.
You know?
So at that point I thought, hm,
maybe I do have something on this instrument.
'Cause he was moved, you know?
And he wasn't that easily moved.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
In high school we had a little trio
and we're in a period when television
was first getting started in Los Angeles,
and there was a show called High Talent Battle.
So we entered the show and we won like six,
seven weeks in a row.
Through that, we started playing, you know,
parties and bar mitzvahs and weddings.
After graduation, I was drafted in the army.
I was sent to band school in Fort Knox, Kentucky,
and I learned a big lesson there.
You know, I was kind of a hot shot
trumpet player from Los Angeles.
When I got to band school,
there were like 12 trumpet players there
that were all pretty much better than me.
At that period I was trying to play
a little bit like Louis Armstrong,
a little bit like Harry James,
a little bit like Miles Davis.
And I came to the realization like, who wants to hear that?
They've already done it.
I realized at that point,
if I was ever gonna be a professional musician,
that I would have to find my own voice.
- Herb Alpert is an artist whose legacy will endure.
[trumpet music]
- Music and sculpting and painting
takes me into a mysterious world
where I just get lost in it.
[catchy jazzy music]
I just use my instincts.
My instincts are painting for me.
What I'm looking for is something that appeals to my senses
in terms of the shape, the color.
Is it too busy, is it not busy enough?
But it's also personal.
There's no one way to do it.
What might look good to me
might look terrible to the next person,
but it's okay because I'm not doing it for anyone else,
I'm doing it for my own personal need.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- People ask me often, how do you define good art?
Or how do you define successful art?
For me, I have a pretty simple criteria.
Does it move me?
With Herb, I can honestly say
that there's an emotional component
that when you see the sculptures,
when you see the paintings,
it's really an emotional experience.
When I say Herb Alpert is an artist,
I mean something very specific.
Herb is compelled like breathing and eating
to make music and make sculptures
and to make paintings every single day.
So, the true sense of an artist.
[dramatic trumpet music]
- Herb Alpert is my dearest and oldest friend,
and that's what's important.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- When I left the army, I was making a living
playing with pickup bands.
$30 here, $40 here, $20 here.
But it wasn't gonna lead any place,
it was just, you know, I was surviving.
I met Lou Adler and we hit it off immediately.
Something about our energies just mesh.
We became friends.
Little by little, Lou was showing me you could write poetry,
which he wrote some really nice poetry.
So I took the poetry and I played piano,
and I started writing songs to his poetry.
- He didn't speak much, which, for me who didn't speak much,
when I realized I was going to be the spokesman
for this duo, it was sort of challenging.
I mean, I could go all day with Herbie,
and the only reason I knew he was there
was he was practicing trumpet.
The first thing that we did, we wrote four songs,
cut four demos.
- We knocked on all the doors.
We went to publishers all around Los Angeles,
we went to this one record company,
Specialty Records, where Sonny Bono was the head A&R man.
So he listened to all these songs and he said,
"You know, to tell you the truth, you guys,
I think you ought to get out of the business,
and you don't have it."
So we didn't take his advice.
And we kept going,
and we landed a contract with Keen Records as staff writers.
And their big artists was Sam Cooke.
♪ Whoa, whoa ♪
♪ You, you send me ♪
♪ I know you send me ♪
♪ Honest you do ♪
- [Lou] Sam Cooke was a tremendous individual
as far as his soul and his heart.
- Sam Cooke was a brilliant artist.
He was very natural, authentic, he could write songs.
He would keep this notebook with a bunch of poetry
and lyrics in it,
and one day he came up to me and he said,
"Herbie, what do you think of this song?"
He was showing me the notebook and I looked at it,
and I was thinking to myself, man oh man,
this is the corniest thing I've ever seen.
I didn't say that to him, but I said, holy moly,
what are you going to do with that, you know?
I said, what does the song sound like?
So he picked up his guitar and started singing this song,
and all of a sudden I realized, man, it ain't what you do,
it's the way how you do it.
He transformed this corny lyric into something
that was magical.
His intent, his authenticity,
his energy was just so beautiful.
And that's when I realized, man, it's not about perfection,
it's not about technical wonder, you know,
not about anything that's other than
it's all about a feel.
That's all it is.
["Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke]
♪ Don't know much about history ♪
♪ Don't know much biology ♪
- Herbie and I were working on a song that basically
was you didn't have to read a book
to be a lover, that these things came natural.
♪ And I know that if you love me too ♪
♪ What a wonderful world this would be ♪
- The bridge we had, it's a wonderful world, you know,
and Sam loved the concept, and he took that concept,
and the three of us adapted it to "Wonderful World"
which Sam recorded.
Which is a whole other story,
because he recorded it as a demo,
he was just wanting to see if the song was gonna work.
Keen Records shelved it, they put it in their vault.
And so after Sam left, and he was recording for RCA,
and you know, things started clicking for him,
Keen Records decided to release that record
that was in the vault,
and it became one of the biggest records Sam ever had,
you know, which was pretty amazing.
I mean, the moral of that story
is nobody knows what a hit record sounds like.
I mean, it's the public that'll tell ya.
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ But I do know that I love you ♪
♪ And I know that if you love me too ♪
♪ What a wonderful world this would be ♪
["Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean]
♪ I am only five years old and my baby's three ♪
♪ But I know that she's the girl, just you wait and see ♪
♪ When I say I love my girl, she replies to me ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Which means to say she loves me in baby talk ♪
- I think Lou found Jan and Dean,
but I found that song, "Baby Talk".
- That's the first thing that Herbie and I produced.
We had produced the other demos,
but that was the first record we had produced.
We were one of the first independent duo record producers.
He had my back musically, and I had his back as far as
what it took to get in there and get it done.
[catchy music]
Herbie at some point we wanted to strike out as an artist.
He didn't want to manage,
he didn't want to produce Jan and Dean,
he wanted her to be an artist.
So it was very amicable.
We sat down and we looked at our assets,
which was fairly simple,
we had Jan and Dean and the tape recorder.
I took Jan and Dean, he took the tape recorder.
- So I wrote this song for one of the artists that RCA had.
I called the head of A&R, he recognized my name.
So I had a meeting with him the next day,
I sat down at the piano, started playing these songs,
he says, "Why don't we do that with you, you know?"
And it caught me off guard,
I wasn't even thinking about that.
I never thought of myself as a singer,
so I was signed to RCA Victor.
["Gonna Get a Girl" by Dore Alpert]
♪ I'm gonna get a girl, yep ♪
♪ Because I ought to have a girl ♪
♪ Well, you know I never had a girl ♪
♪ That's why I've got to have a girl ♪
- At RCA he had two singles under the name Dore Alpert.
They didn't do very much,
but it got him a chance to sing,
to be an artist on a big label.
- I felt really uncomfortable there.
I didn't know exactly what it was, I couldn't identify it,
but really the environment was not very creative.
I was treated like a number,
it wasn't Herb Alpert, it was like 38254,
take five, take two, it was like that type of thing.
And in their studio it was very cold, stark,
you know, very medicinal.
And so I recorded the song...
It came out pretty good, actually,
I was listening to the playback in the studio.
I thought it needed a little more bass, you know?
So I walked over to the console,
I lifted the bass, and all of a sudden
the engineer there slapped my hand,
he said, "Don't ever touch that again."
He said "This is a union board and I can get in big trouble,
so please don't ever do that."
So I felt this doesn't add up, you know?
Shouldn't a record company revolve around the artist,
you know, and that's when I thought
if ever I had my own record company
that's what I would do first and foremost.
It would be the artist first.
[catchy music]
- Herb Alpert is a musician first and foremost.
That's where his genius lies.
- Did you say that you wanted a table, sir?
Well, you get more than a table,
because Herb Alpert, this is your life!
[cheering]
In 1961, Herb met Jerry Moss.
I'll tell you the story as I've got it here.
Herb sang under the name of Dore Alpert in those days,
and he made a moderate hit called "Tell It To The Birds",
and it sounded like this.
[birds chirping]
Fantastic.
[catchy music]
♪ You turn me on then you put me down ♪
♪ Get you running all over town ♪
♪ If you love me ♪
♪ Aw, tell it to the birds ♪
- With me as his promotion man,
"Tell It To The Birds" sold about
seven or 8,000 records in Los Angeles.
It swelled our bank roll to about three or 4,000 bucks,
so we had a little more money to operate with.
And that was the start of A&M Records.
♪ Around with someone new ♪
♪ Do you really think that that's the ♪
♪ Proper thing to do ♪
- So, my partner Jerry Moss's office was right there,
and we were partners on a handshake.
We started in 1962,
and to tell you the truth,
I don't think my career would have happened without him.
He knew how to take what I had to the next level.
[lighthearted music] [birds chirping]
♪ Aw, tell it to the birds ♪
[crowd chanting]
- He goes on a little vacation to Tijuana.
He goes to the bullfight.
He hears the crowd roaring, cheering,
on their feet shouting.
He sees the picador and the matador, he sees it all.
And he goes home and he brings every sound,
every inflection, every nuance into "The Lonely Bull".
- Well, it all started in my garage back in 1962.
And it was this song that got us off the ground.
[melancholic piano music]
That's The Lonely Bull, and it wasn't written
like that at all, it was written like a minuet.
Less very light and airy up there,
but when I saw my first bull fight...
[piano music]
I felt like it wanted to have trumpets.
And one of the thoughts was to, in that day,
the pop singers used to overdub their own voice
on top of their voice.
So I tried doing that with the trumpet,
and I was experimenting with that sound on this machine.
Hm, interesting sound.
That was the sound.
And I got a little, you know,
I got the goosebumps when I heard it and I said,
you know, I think this could be good.
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Man] 1962 was a year Herb broke the sound barrier.
Move over folk singers, move over jazz,
move over country, move over everyone.
Here's a new sound in town.
[catchy trumpet music]
- The record was in the top 10 in the country,
and I received a letter from a lady in Germany who said,
"Dear Mr. Alpert, thank you for sending me
on this vicarious trip to Tijuana."
And so I thought holy moly, man, that was amazing.
Because I mean, she was 7,000 miles away
from Tijuana and it transported her.
So I thought about, you know, making visual music,
that's the music I really want to make.
[catchy music]
I had a choice.
I could either play The Lonely Bull sideways
and come up with something that was Lonely Bull-ish,
or just take that sound of mine
and see if I can move it forward, you know,
just move it in different directions.
And that's what I decided to do.
I never tried to make a hit record.
I always tried to make a good record, a fun record,
something that's interesting to listen to for me,
not for anyone else.
- So many people are trying to be something
other than themselves, or do what other people do,
and what they hear other people do.
Herb just does Herb.
[catchy music]
- So we did a second Tijuana Brass album
that didn't do quite as well as the first album,
but it was enough to keep us going.
And we kept reinvesting the money into the company.
The third album was an album
that really started the ball rolling.
[catchy music]
"Mexican Shuffle" was on there.
And so that Mexican Shuffle was the catalyst.
It is kind of got us going again
because the Clark Teaberry gum company picked it up.
- [Presenter] Clark's Teaberry Gum presents
the Teaberry Shuffle.
[catchy music]
- The record itself wasn't a big hit,
but the fact that it was an up record
and it made people feel good,
and the Teaberry people took it over as a gum thing,
made it more successful.
So it made us sound like we're never off the radio.
And that was good.
[catchy music]
- [Presenter] Have a little fun, try Clark's Teaberry Gum.
- It was Jerry's idea, my partner's idea
to come up with an album of food titles.
Whipped Cream & Other Delights.
You know, so we had Lemon Tree, we had Taste of Honey,
we had Green Peppers,
we had all sorts of songs that had food titles.
[catchy trumpet music]
- I suppose like most adolescent boys,
I was obsessed with that woman covered in whipped cream
on the album cover.
[chuckling]
It was quite quite a cover.
- I actually had guilt,
like I would sneak into my mom's room
and look at the cover of that album
when she was like in the kitchen or whatever.
You'd think you hear her and you put it back.
- Well, I don't feel I can talk about that anymore honestly.
It was a very important point in my life.
- Other Delights is a great phrase.
And a lot of us would like to put whipped cream
all over somebody.
- This guy comes up to me a month and a half
after the album was released, and he said,
"You know, Mr. Alpert,
that whipped cream album cover, I love it.
I love the girl, I love the idea of the whipped cream."
You thought it was whipped cream, it wasn't.
It was shaving cream.
He says, "I think it's the best album cover
I have ever seen period."
I said, well, thank you so much.
What about the music?
[laughing]
He said, "Well, I haven't had a chance
to listen to that yet." [audience laughing]
I mean, this was a month and a half after it was released.
True story, true story.
- Down through the 18 years, we present
a lot of bands on our stage,
but here's one of the most exciting bands
we've ever presented.
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
So let's have a fine welcome.
[audience clapping]
[dramatic band music]
- [Jerry] Everything came together.
If you wanted to write a book about promotion and marketing
and the right product at the right time,
the point is that Herb had a base of interest
from around the country
based on the three albums we'd already put out.
All we needed was a really good sized hit
that got everybody else involved.
And this record just touched so many people,
the Taste of Honey, and it just took everything with it.
So that at the end of the year,
we'd sold maybe 5 or 6 million albums
of whipped cream album, but not only that,
it took all the rest of them right on the charts with it.
[dramatic music]
[catchy band music]
[scattered trumpet music]
- I think Herb's trumpet style is totally revolutionary.
- People like the human voice in pop music.
It's rare that an instrumentalist can do the same.
You need a unique signature to do that.
It's not just any trumpet,
it's the way it's played,
and it's a fingerprint, oh, that's Herb Albert.
- Two, one, two, three.
[catchy band music]
- Miles Davis said it.
You gotta love it, man.
He said, "You hear three notes and you know
it's Herb Alpert."
I can kiss him for that line, you know.
But he said it.
- He has such a distinct tone with his trumpet playing.
I think to any instrumentalist,
that's probably a compliment in the highest order.
The fact that you can identify the sound
and the tone of their instrument.
And it never changes.
Like, his tone is just the same now today as we speak,
as it was in the 60s when he made his debut.
- Whenever you're playing maracas right there
get into the thing.
[catchy band music]
- Okay, listen, same time tomorrow.
- Yeah.
[catchy band music]
- They always wore the Mexican
little short jackets and stuff,
and it was called the Tijuana Brass.
Well, why the hell would we not think he's Mexican?
So I grew up thinking that his real name
was probably like Alberto Martinez,
and he just changed it to Herb Alpert, you know?
And so I thought, this is so cool.
This Mexican cat and he lives in LA, you know,
but he brought his music here kind of thing.
- Everybody knew about Herbie, you know.
'Cause we associated with him
because he had a jazz propensity.
But it was influenced by the mariachis.
[catchy band music]
It was big, man.
- No musician ever had a year
like Herb had in 1965 and 6,
5 songs in the top 20, 4 of them in the top 10.
Sold more records than the Beatles.
[catchy band music]
- It's the happiest music in existence.
If I feel down or whatever
I have a Herb Alpert mix,
and that sort of brightens...
I feel so silly saying that.
[laughing]
No, but you know, it's literally feel good music,
and not a cliche way.
Like, it makes me happy.
[catchy band music]
- I was raised pretty poor in the south.
I always put his records on
when I needed to forget everything else,
like it could transport me into a world
where I wasn't thinking about all the horrible stuff.
[catchy band music]
- I love the harmony and the melodies.
And all of us can sing "Tijuana Taxi".
[laughing]
You know, the mark of a good pop song,
it stays in your head from the day you hear it
until the day you die.
[laughing]
In a good way, you know?
[catchy band music]
[audience clapping]
- It's amazing that a friend of yours
just becomes this great performer all of a sudden,
just out of nowhere.
But that's what happened.
Herbie was basically playing his heart out on his horn
and people could feel it.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
this is Zorba's Dance from Zorba the Greek.
[catchy band music]
- It was a blur of activity,
and it was very exciting.
- [Herb] The Tijuana Brass was screamingly hot, you know,
we were selling out arenas in 2, 3 minutes,
20,000 people, it was amazing.
We played this one concert,
they were selling seats behind pillars,
and people knew they were gonna be behind a pillar,
they wouldn't be able to see us,
and they were buying the seats,
and they wanted to hear the sound.
- I remember, you know,
we'd try to sneak out the back way,
get in the limo,
and there would be like mobs of people,
and they'd start shaking the car and stuff
like we were rock and roll stars, you know?
[laughing]
[catchy band music]
- I thought it was fun,
and I thought it was different.
And it was at a time when actually
there were instrumental records on the radio,
and they were actually hit records.
You know, without any lyrics or anything.
And Herb had an amazing run of those records.
- I would say it's almost a not gonna happen
when you're an instrumentalist.
So the fact that he was able to have that much success
tells me he may be supernatural.
- You know, having someone like Herb
who has been so successful at it,
not just like moderately successful, but like so successful,
it gives all of us like instrumentalist hope.
[laughing]
Like, yeah, I can do that too.
[laughing]
Maybe.
[laughing]
[catchy band music]
- I can't explain it other than
I was caught totally off guard.
I mean, it was like I came from playing weddings
and parties and bar mitzvahs, you know what I mean?
[catchy band music]
[audience cheering]
[yelling]
- That was everywhere.
Tijuana Brass was everywhere,
you couldn't get away from it.
[chuckling]
[rocket blasting off]
- [Astronaut] This is Power Control, Houston.
Now the crew seems to be pretty well
settled down in there,
and they're getting some time on the window.
[catchy band music]
This is a Apollo Control, Houston,
at four hours, 21 minutes into the flight.
In the course of the last 20 to 25 minutes,
we have been playing music by VHF out of California,
and the crew reports Herb Alpert sounds great.
[lighthearted band music]
- We spent whole evenings talking about his musical career
and the people he met and the people he worked with,
and it turns out to be everybody.
He's one of those people
whose musical life stretched through
the whole fabric of a generation.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- One never got the idea that as big a star as he was
that he may have been full of himself,
that's the opposite of what Herb is.
- Humble.
And gracious with his success, he always was.
- Other artists, successful artists,
successful businessmen,
maybe at some point it shows.
It never shows with Herb.
He was always just Herbie, you know?
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- It got a little crazy, you know.
I try to shield myself from that.
I don't want to get caught up in that.
I was a little afraid that...
I didn't want it to affect me.
All of a sudden, you know,
I was catapulted into this thing from one hit record
into many hit records, and I wanted to keep my sanity.
You know, I heard a lot of stories,
and I just wanted to make sure that
I wouldn't go off the deep end.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- Herb Alpert is one of the most creative people I know.
[calming jazzy music]
- I had no idea that Herb had a 40 year career
as a painter and a sculptor,
I only knew him through his music.
When I saw these works for the first time,
it really floored me because this is the work
of a mature artist.
[calming jazzy music]
I could see that this was just another way
of him giving voice or instantiating
the kind of free spirit that his music represents.
- What if we have to take off some of this length,
and had this, whatever that shape is right here.
And I know what it is,
but I'm not going to tell anyone.
What if that thing was looking at this piece right here?
- Just cut the clay right off. - Yeah.
[catchy jazzy music]
- And move the head so it's looking.
- Yeah.
So far I'm loving this idea.
[catchy jazzy music]
- [Kristan] I'm liking that.
- A little dip right here. - Okay.
Might have to wait for this to firm up a little bit,
but I think it's good.
- Man, I like it.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
Thank you for appearing.
You know, I wasn't planning on it just saw it.
I think this is a nice improvement on the piece
that was already pretty good.
You know, I do my art until my body feels relaxed
and nice and comfortable,
and that's what happened.
As soon as that piece came in,
and all of a sudden this eye, it was just there.
You know?
I think this piece is finished.
What I like to do is,
when I get that feeling of satisfaction, I like to stop.
There's no need to analyze it anymore.
Stop, done.
[intense drum music]
Great.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
So around 1966, we were looking for some new quarters.
At that time, we had an office on Sunset Boulevard
in this Saul Yurok building,
and we were running out of space there,
and so we caught wind that this property was for sale.
Jerry and I took a goosey gander at it and like, wow,
it's like beautiful.
But we only had like 32 people,
and this was like three acres.
And so we just fell in love with it,
and we thought that just a matter of time
that if we got lucky and sold some records,
we'd be able to fill it up.
[catchy band music]
I think all the artists that recorded for us
really appreciate it and look forward
to being on this particular lot because there's that vibe.
We got the vibe of Charlie Chaplin,
who created so many memorable movies here.
And that vibe is still here.
[catchy band music]
This is my office and...
Through that door over there is a bathroom.
I used to practice in that bathroom
a good part of the time.
And right beyond the bathroom
was my partner's office, Jerry Moss.
He'd hear me practicing because we were doing
a lot of concerts and had to stay in shape,
and it was also a way for me
to just get away from everything
and just try to create something that might
eventually work their way onto an album.
[lighthearted band music]
Okay, well, this is Studio A.
We wanted to have our own studios,
and we were spending a lot of money
just recording in other studios,
and I thought it'd be nice to have it.
We had this monster sound stage
that was completely empty when we bought the property.
This is the result,
this is one of the most beautiful studios.
It's very flexible because you can record small groups,
rock and roll groups, symphony orchestras.
- The A&M studios were different
than any other studios that I ever wrote songs in.
They kind of created a womb like sensation.
It was sort of like you were just in this environment
that felt very warm,
and like you could do anything that you thought about.
- It was like a paradise for creativity.
[catchy band music]
- I helped the moving trucks unpack in November of 1966,
I was 11 years old,
and my father David, Herb's brother,
had come on board as Herb and Jerry's business manager,
and to oversee and run the A&M lot.
There was no other place.
Every other music place in the world were offices.
They were cubicles and they were, you know,
straight little square offices.
This was a lot.
There was a sound stage where bands were rehearsing,
there was film rooms, there was recording studios,
there was an art department, there was photo studio.
There was all of these things.
The artists are there, publishing people,
songwriters are coming in.
You're on the lot with Cat Stevens or Joe Cocker
or the Carpenters,
and it was a place where people intermingle.
- The A&M lot was really like a college actually.
And the personality and the character
came from Herbie and Jerry.
- The A&M secret is, well, I can't tell you now.
[catchy band music]
- You can actually say hello to Mr. A and Mr. M.
Most other acronyms, there's no Mr. C,
and Mr.B, and Mr. S,
but Mr. A and Mr. M actually existed.
In many ways it was a human enterprise
and not a faceless corporation.
So I think we were very fortunate to have been
taken on by this company,
and the ethos of the company was about artists.
They were artists and they treated artists
in a very human way, not just as resources, but as people.
And I think all of the artists at A&M felt
they were part of a family.
- It had Gil Friesen, and it had Herbie,
and it had Jerry Moss,
just beautiful people now, really beautiful people.
And A&M was on that path, you know,
of breaking down boundaries.
I was with them 12 years.
Amazing history at A&M.
- Herb empowered so many others, you know.
What people don't know about A&M Records is that
it was behind some of the least known
and soon to be best known performers
in the country, in the world.
[catchy music]
- One of the most impressive things
I think about Herb Alpert
is that his creativity knows no box to live in.
You know, whether it's jazz,
whether it's developing other artists,
or what he's doing with a paintbrush in his hand,
or sculpting.
His artistic expression is like breath.
And the great thing is,
is part of that breath is the breath of life
for those of us who have benefited from A&M Records.
- Well, who would you say you sing like?
- Um, Beethoven.
[audience laughing]
- Beethoven? - Yeah.
- Wait a minute, Burt, Beethoven wasn't a singer.
- That's right.
[audience laughing]
- So we had this album, and I saw Herb on the lot,
and I recorded the night before,
and he said, "How'd it go last night?"
I don't think we got what the world needs now.
Right.
And he said, "Why don't you go back and do it again?"
And I was stunned, you know, coming from the
"Hey man, gotta watch the budget."
Now to have somebody like Herb say "Do it again."
That's a big orchestra, Herb, I mean,
get that size orchestra back in,
"Yeah, get it right."
He walked away.
And that says something about the record company.
It says a lot to me.
It said a lot to me at the time, it says a lot to me now.
- When I think about Herb, I have nothing
but great memories, great feelings, lots of joy.
- So many people are always asking me
how I got the idea for the Brass,
and how we got organized,
and I'm sure plenty of people are wondering the same
about Brasil '66 and how you got the idea
for the sound of the group.
[speaking in Portuguese]
- Well, what Sergio's saying, excuse me,
is that he got the idea while he was watching
this bull fight in Tijuana, you know.
He got the idea to combine the sounds of Mexico,
the mariachi sounds, with the traditional
South American ancient sounds.
- I'm sorry, but that's not true.
- No? [audience laughing]
- In 1966, Jerry and I auditioned
Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66.
Even before we got into the room,
I remember hearing this sound man,
that was like interesting.
It was a hybrid sound between Brazilian music,
Brazilian jazz, American jazz, classical music, African,
and add all these elements,
and then to top it off,
Lani was singing and she was giving me goosebumps too.
♪ There's so many people who can talk ♪
♪ And talk and talk and just say nothing ♪
♪ Or nearly nothing ♪
♪ I have used up all the scale I know ♪
♪ And at the end I've come to nothing ♪
♪ Or nearly nothing ♪
♪ So I come back to my first note ♪
♪ As I must come back to you ♪
♪ I will pour into that one note ♪
♪ All the love I feel for you ♪
- [Herb] Sergio's a brilliant musician,
and his instincts are terrific.
When I produced that first album,
Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66,
I just try to stay out of the way of the artists,
give them honest feedback.
- He had a lot of experience in the studio, I had none.
Herb was so knowledgeable of the recording process.
You know, he really helped me.
He would be like a producer, but at the same time,
allowing me to do my thing.
But he would give some incredible suggestions.
[catchy bossa nova music]
- Herb decided that he wanted Brasil '66 to open his shows
for the next couple of months,
and he was the biggest star, pop star,
in the world at the time.
So Brasil '66 went from playing small nightclubs
to playing for 20,000 people overnight.
- Everywhere they go in, mass applause and big sales.
People buying records left and right from both artists,
and it was just fantastic.
For a new company to have this kind of a success,
this is just incredible.
[catchy bossa nova music]
- So we played everywhere.
I mean, in the United States and Canada, and for me,
it was an incredible chance
to be exposed to an audience here.
And it was great, it was like a wonderful thing.
Because of Herb, all the places was packed,
and filled arenas.
A lot of laughs in the bus and in the plane.
It's a wonderful time.
[lighthearted bossa nova music]
- Well, I was calling Herb "Mr. Alpert"...
[laughing]
A lot. [laughing]
And I remember looking out the window
and he was talking to somebody.
We were in the airplane that he had chartered,
and I turned around and I looked outside,
and he was talking to somebody and he started laughing.
And I'd never seen him laugh before.
And he has the most beautiful smile,
and he's got these dimples, so there it was.
You know, I turned around, I am in big trouble.
[laughing]
- [Presenter] Now, a special program in living color on NBC.
- And in living black and white,
for those of us who don't have color sets.
Good evening, I'm Herb Alpert,
and welcome to the Beat of the Brass.
[catchy theme music]
- Herb was very, very hot, about to do this television show,
and they were looking for a song,
as Herb could record.
- Well, he sent me "This Girl's in Love with You"
that he recorded with Dionne Warwick.
Liked the song, I liked it a lot.
- I had never heard Herb sing.
I didn't know he could sing.
♪ You see this guy ♪
♪ This guy's in love with you ♪
♪ Yes, I'm in love ♪
♪ Who looks at you the way I do ♪
- And my attitude was like hey,
I don't know whether he can sing or not,
but they're my friends,
and they put albums out on me,
and they've supported me going out on the road.
I'd do anything for them.
So it's almost like I went in the studio,
doing your friends a favor.
I wrote the orchestration, conducted the band.
Jerry Moss stayed in the booth, and we made this record.
- They set up a mic, I sang the song,
went back into the control room where some of the singers
and Burt was there,
and some of the musicians were hanging out.
As I walked in the door, they said, "Don't touch it."
I said, what do you mean don't touch it?
He said "Don't touch it, it sounds great,
leave it, don't improve on it, don't touch it."
So that was my demo recording.
It was the first take, I didn't struggle over it.
I tried to communicate the feeling.
♪ My hands are shaking ♪
♪ Don't let my heart keep breaking ♪
♪ 'Cause I need your love ♪
♪ I want your love ♪
- I love the way he sings.
I mean, and it's so effortless and casual,
and yet it's got this melancholy.
♪ If not, I'll just die ♪
- I'd rather hear him sing that song
than anybody in the world.
[melancholic music]
- Because of the amount of people that watched that TV show,
it was number one in the country in 2 weeks.
[melancholic music]
- Herb Alpert is a visionary.
[catchy music]
- Herb's a risk taker.
I mean, just A&M, the artists that they chose to sign,
you know, people would always say,
"What's on the radio, what's on the radio,
like, let's do what's on the radio."
And Herb would always say,
"What's not on the radio?"
Even the Carpenters, you know, they got rejected
from every record company that they went to until A&M.
- Well, because we had no board of directors
it was easy to make decisions.
You know, I heard the Carpenters, and I signed them.
[laughing]
I didn't have to ask anybody.
I just popped into Jerry's office,
I said, I found a group I'd like to sign, he says "Great."
You know, that was it.
- And Herb said "Let's hope we have some hits."
Is how he put it.
And you know, of course, let's hope we have some hits.
And then we were pretty much allowed to go in
and make the record we wanted to make.
- A lot of people in show business
got a break from somebody at one time or another.
Somebody who believed in them and helped them get started.
- We're very proud to have the gentlemen
who gave us our first break in show business.
And our second break.
He not only signed us to his record label,
but several months later also brought the tune
"Close To You" to our attention.
- Ladies and gentlemen, our good friend, Herb Alpert.
[audience clapping]
[catchy music]
♪ Why do birds suddenly appear ♪
♪ Every time you are near ♪
♪ Just like me, they long to be ♪
♪ Close to you ♪
- I thought I had a pretty darn good
recording of it, actually.
It felt good to me, but I was in the control room
listening to the playback with our head engineer
at A&M, who was a dear friend of mine, Larry Levine.
And I said, Larry, tell me the truth.
How do I sound singing this song?
He said, "Man, you sound terrible singing this song."
[laughing]
So I put the song away, and luck be have it,
I gave it to the Carpenters.
- He wasn't happy with an arrangement he'd done of it,
but take the lead sheet, and he said,
"Do whatever you like with it arrangement wise."
So, first thing I'd do is put it, it was not Karen's key,
put it in her key,
and then I felt it needed an intro.
And I heard it as a slow shuffle, so instead of...
[singing]
So...
[melancholic piano music]
The vibraphone.
And Karen.
♪ Why do birds suddenly appear ♪
♪ Every time you are near ♪
♪ Just like me, they long to be ♪
♪ Close to you ♪
♪ Why do stars fall down from the sky ♪
- Every year A&M would bring in
all the field staff from all around the country,
and Jerry would play all the new records coming out.
And this was 1970s, so it was, you know,
it was the rock and roll era.
And Jerry is up there and he's playing the new Free record,
"All Right Now", he's playing a Joe Cocker "Delta Lady".
He played a new Humble Pie record,
and I'm in the back shooting photographs,
and I hear all the salespeople.
They're all excited, love those things.
Then Jerry plays a new record that just came out called
"Close To You".
♪ Eyes of blue ♪
- And I can hear these guys, they're quietly saying
"How the fuck are we gonna get this shit played?"
So, you know, long story short, "Close To You"
blows up, the Carpenters become a phenomenon,
and Herb looks like a genius.
Up until then they're thinking
"What's the shit that Herb's signing?"
- I marvel at the fact, because I knew anyway
that Herb's not only a pretty damn talented trumpeter,
he's a born A&R man, and you can't be taught that.
He can hear a potential of this song
with this arranger, with that artist.
This was a perfect example of that talent of his.
["Close to You" by The Carpenters]
[catchy music]
- After, you know, the Tijuana Brass hit
and we were successful and money started rolling in,
I bought a home in Beverly Hills.
I was married to my first wife.
We were having an anniversary party
and invited all our friends, including Sergio in the group.
- He had talked about this house for, you know,
as long as it was being done,
it was decorated and all that.
And he would talk to me about it.
So all of a sudden there I am,
invited to the house for this party,
and I was really excited to see, you know, to see it.
[laughing]
- I was sitting in the living room area
and I had this great painting,
and I remember seeing Lani
standing in front of this painting looking at it.
And I was thinking to myself, man,
she's probably really impressed with this piece.
- He kept asking me, "What do you think of the house?
What do you think of the house?"
I, you know, I did, Oh, you know, try to get around it.
I, you know, I did, "Oh..."
[laughing]
Trying to get around it.
I said "I don't think it looks anything like you."
- Boy, did she see through me. [chuckling]
I knew she was 100% right.
I was faking it.
You know, I was living a life that wasn't real to me.
And she saw it.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
If I wasn't a professional musician,
I'd probably be sitting here by the beach,
wondering what I'd like to be when I grow up.
[laughing]
[lighthearted trumpet music]
I got married in the army at the Presidio in San Francisco.
I was going with this girl that, you know,
she was a high school sweetheart,
and I think one of my motivations was
I wanted to get out of the house,
I didn't want to live with my parents anymore.
I wanted to be on my own,
I wanted to be independent.
And I was only 21 at the time, but I wasn't mature.
I didn't know who I was, you know, I was too young
and I probably got married for the wrong reasons.
Not probably, strike the probably,
I got married for the wrong reasons.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
Herb Alpert is kind of a funny word to me now.
I hear the name on the radio and I've seen, you know,
the TV shows that he's been on,
and sometimes I feel like it's somebody that I don't know.
It's somebody whose music I like now and then, you know.
[dramatic trumpet music]
Did I enjoy being a dad?
I did, I did enjoy it.
You know, I wasn't a soccer mom,
I didn't do the stuff that fathers usually do.
I was on the road a good part of the time
and I was playing, and I was probably more consumed
with my stuff than my kids' stuff, you know.
My views on life...
Have changed quite a bit in the last three years.
And I don't really attribute it to the success I've had.
But I think with age, you kind of...
Grow into the...
I can't talk anymore.
[dramatic music]
I was having trouble playing the trumpet.
In 1969 I was going through a divorce,
and the horn was my best friend for a long time,
all of a sudden turned into an enemy.
I couldn't get a sound out of it.
And I had this obligation to play in Europe
that was prearranged prior to this problem happening,
and I honored it.
[lighthearted string music]
I was on stage in Germany and
I had this out of body experience.
All of a sudden I was in the third row
looking at me playing the horn,
and I was saying now why is this guy
so comfortable on stage,
but really not that comfortable
as a walking, talking person.
[dramatic band music]
- It was hard for us to perform
because he was affected by that, at that time,
all of the, you know, the negative stuff that he had.
I remember telling him that he was letting us down
'cause we wanted to support him,
but we didn't have the person to support there.
He wasn't giving us 100%.
Maybe 50%, 60, and that just didn't work.
- After I honored this tour and came back to Los Angeles,
I disbanded the group.
That was it for me.
I was willing to sell my half of A&M Records,
throw my trumpet into the ocean,
and just find out who in the heck I was.
[dramatic trumpet music]
I remember the night I left my ex wife in the home there
and I was driving on the freeway,
and I like let out this scream like I was free, you know?
And I drove to Lani's place.
- He walked in the house and he said to me,
"I can't live without you."
[laughing]
Whoa.
What do you mean?
What does this mean?
[somber piano music]
♪ Just like a star across the sky ♪
♪ Just like an angel off the page ♪
♪ You appeared in my life ♪
♪ And I have never been the same ♪
♪ Just like a song in my heart ♪
♪ Just like like oil on my hands ♪
♪ I'm honored to love you ♪
Herb Alpert is
the most beautiful human being I've ever met.
- I always had a buzz on Lani,
you know, the minute I met her.
Her voice is extraordinary, she's a terrific artist,
and she's an angel.
[melancholic trumpet music]
♪ Oh, I've come to understand all your ways ♪
♪ And more ♪
♪ No secrets behind doors ♪
♪ No, no ♪
My feeling about Herb initially
was how kind he was.
I had never been around that kind of kindness.
And at first, I didn't trust it.
So I waited 'til, one of these days,
his true colors are gonna pop out.
We'll see.
I'm still waiting.
[laughing]
[dramatic trumpet music]
♪ Just like a song in my heart ♪
♪ Just like oil on my hands ♪
♪ I'm honored to love you ♪
[dramatic trumpet music]
- I remember with Herb and Lani
just feeling like that's the kind of relationship
I want to have.
- She brought him everything.
Everything that he needed and everything he didn't have
at that particular time.
- You know, when somebody comes to you
with the feeling like you're home, finally home,
it's immense.
♪ Safe from all the storms ♪
♪ You know true love can bring ♪
♪ But I'm not a bird ♪
- And wishes can just fly away
♪ And wishes can just fly away ♪
♪ My love ♪
- What it felt like watching, the two of them was,
there's a certain holiness to that
when it's the love of a lifetime.
♪ All in all, I've had the best of the good and the bad ♪
♪ Times spent in love were the best that I've had ♪
You know, that's one of the songs
that I wrote the lyrics to from the album "Wings".
I think that song, well, no,
I know what that song is about.
That song is about what I sensed from Herb and Lani.
♪ Shining in your eyes ♪
♪ Of the stars, my love ♪
♪ Now we'll never be afraid ♪
♪ Of who we are ♪
♪ And who we're not ♪
♪ Come what may ♪
♪ Of who we are ♪
♪ And who we're not ♪
♪ Come what may ♪
♪ Of who we are ♪
♪ And who we're not ♪
♪ Come what may ♪
[dramatic trumpet music]
- In '69 when he had trouble playing the horn,
this was a really, really emotional time for him.
This was like, you know, a dancer cutting off her legs.
When I was in the kitchen doing the dishes,
and he was in his studio trying to play, I would cry.
It was painful.
I saw struggle, I saw a frustration,
anger, confusion.
How is he gonna fix this?
- Every time I tried to make a sound out of the trumpet,
it would be something like...
I couldn't get the first note out right.
It just wouldn't come.
My emotions just got the best of me.
And it took a while to get back on the track
with playing the instrument.
It really took a couple of years.
- He saw this trumpet teacher
who was like a troubleshooter.
He lived in New York, and we went to visit him,
and he was just a wonderful man, Carmine Caruso.
He lifted up the trumpet and he said to Herb,
"This is just a piece of plumbing,
that's all this is.
You're the instrument."
[dramatic music]
He gave Herb a different perspective on playing,
and Herb started getting results.
Thank God.
[dramatic music]
- Here's the deal.
Herb's last big hit was "This Guy's In Love With You".
It was in the summer of 1968.
From the summer of '68 to early '79,
there were no hit records.
Herb had quit music for a couple of years.
He was producing some other people,
but I know that Herb missed playing.
He came back into doing music around '73, '74,
somewhere around there.
He tried by getting Tijuana Brass thing back together...
I don't think that was working for him.
It was tough, you know,
when you leave the public.
Music changes, things change and people forget.
[lighthearted music]
- I met Hugh Masekela,
we started talking about songs and ideas,
and we hit it off.
He told me that the music that I was making instinctively
with the Tijuana Brass was pretty close
to what the music was like in South Africa.
So we started talking about possibly recording together.
[catchy music]
- He made great records with Hugh Masekela.
They sold moderate amounts.
They weren't off the charts or anything like that,
but that didn't stop him
from enjoying playing with Hugh Masekela,
I mean, he really liked to play with him.
- Oh, that was great, that was really great.
Hugh was such a great artist.
Herb learned a lot playing with him.
- There's one song that we did,
I think it was one of the best songs I've ever done,
and it was with Hugh, it's called "Skokiaan".
And I think it was an extraordinary, exciting recording.
[catchy trumpet music]
What a beautiful morning.
- [Hugh] Oh, this is a gorgeous sunrise.
- [Herb] This is a real Rise morning.
- First time I heard "Rise", I had no idea who it was,
I just knew that it was funky
and thought it had a great beat.
[funky music]
- [Herb] Rise came to be from my nephew, Randy.
And he wrote it with this friend, Andy Armor.
- I knew we had to make something good,
and we had to make something different.
Rise was not the Tijuana Brass.
- Herb actually told me that initially
Rise was intended to be a faster paced song.
- They want to do a disco version of Rise,
I said, no, I can't do that,
let's play this as a ballad, slow this baby down.
[catchy trumpet music]
- It's the same 4 and a 4 pace,
but instead of a faster cocaine-laced pace
of what disco was in the mid 70s,
suddenly it slowed down to a funk.
- I recorded it live in Studio D at A&M,
I think it was one take.
Listening to it back in the control room,
I got that feeling on my neck, listening to it.
I said, man, that's good.
- Those drums, that bass was up in your face,
and we laid down some funk that day.
Yeah.
[catchy trumpet music]
- The baseline is just so it, it's so hot.
Like, you can hear that song right now,
and I was like, uh, oh yeah.
You would dance to that right now.
- I'll tell you, give you a little context.
Since Rise, there's only been one other
number one instrumental on Billboard charts.
That's it.
Two records in the last 40 years.
So it's just like, wow, thank you.
[catchy trumpet music]
- [Presenter] We asked Marilyn Fream
to take the Fandango Challenge.
- This is the other cola here,
and this is the Fandango, I'm pretty sure.
- [Presenter] No, Fandango is the new Herb Alpert album.
[catchy trumpet music]
- I don't think anyone was prepared
for Herb Alpert to hit as hard as he did in '87.
I remember hearing, you know, super producer
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
are gonna produce Herb Alpert's next record.
Me and my friends looked at each other like,
yo, what's that gonna sound like?
[catchy music]
- One of the things I always say is like,
a barber can't cut the back of his own head,
everybody needs a barber.
You need someone that can see you from all sides
and give you a different perspective.
And at that point,
I think Herb needed a new perspective in his career.
- I was excited to record with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
'cause they did this miraculous album,
this album with Janet Jackson called "Control".
And it was like really pushing it forward.
They just had a very unique way of producing and recording.
- So, "Keep Your Eye On Me"
was really the first song that we came up with
working with Herb.
In our minds, we were just trying to think of something
that was a catchy instrumental hook,
and we wanted to kind of take it back to the days
of the Tijuana Brass, kind of that sound.
So we just kind of came up with this little lick,
which was...
[singing]
[catchy music]
♪ Keep your eyes on me ♪
♪ Look out ♪
- What we were able to do with Herb was just allow him
to just relax and just be.
Just be.
And all he had to do was be a trumpet player.
- When he would go in and we'd say "Do a solo.",
it was like, he'd wait for a little space
that he liked, and he'd go...
[singing]
And he'd be like "Yeah!"
[singing]
It was like, yeah!
There's something about that.
There's a, I don't know, it's just like
a natural feel that he has that's very unique.
- It was the first time I really recorded with
all computer type sounds, you know, keyboards,
drum machine, all the things that were being used
at that particular time,
and it was different for me and I fell right into it.
I mean, I feel like I'm the type of musician that can,
you know, I could play with anything.
If it touches me, I can get into it.
- I will say that in a year
in which a lot of banner albums came out for black music,
that was the sucker punch of 1987.
The fact that Herb Alpert yet again,
like reintroduced himself to Black America
eight years after "Rise".
[catchy trumpet music]
♪ Keep your eyes on me ♪
♪ Watch me ♪
[ominous trumpet music]
- I guess it was strange to me at first
because of course we all turned it into
the most successful independent in the business, A&M.
I guess I never pictured Herb and Jerry selling it.
- I was a little sad because, you know,
obviously being a member of the family
when the whole thing was broken up,
we were all split up like the kids after a divorce.
So, yeah...
I still think of myself as a part of the A&M family.
[melancholic trumpet music]
- Well, we left the lot.
"We" meaning I left the lot in 1990,
pulled out the gate, and I never looked back.
It was a memorable and fantastic moment in my life, A&M,
but that was then, and I wanted to always push it forward.
I had things to do.
[dramatic trumpet music]
- Herb Alpert is compassionate.
[catchy music]
- There are many talented kids here in this community that
don't really have any place to really come out
and express themselves.
And I think here, the Harlem School of the Arts
brings that out of them.
[catchy music]
- How you doin', man?
- There's Herb reading the Sunday paper,
seeing an article that says the Harlem School of the Arts
is closing because they don't have the funds,
they don't have the support.
That's it, it's gone.
And he just said, "This can't happen."
- I had this reaction because I remember
when I was eight years old
and I had this opportunity in my grammar school,
and the arts changed my life.
And I believe so strongly in the arts.
Is it fun to play?
- Yes.
- For you too, you too?
Fun, that's what it's all about.
Having fun.
Teaching is not about teaching the subject.
The teaching is about teaching the student,
and that's a big difference.
Everyone's an individual,
and that's what I love about this school.
- Having a community that's built around culture
and built around creativity and the arts
just doesn't happen enough.
To see that here at HSA day after day and week after week,
is a very, very powerful thing to be a part of.
[catchy music]
- One, two!
[singing]
[clapping]
Hit, hit!
[singing]
And!
[cheering]
- Fantastic.
I love the way you teach with all that energy.
- Thank you. - That's beautiful, thank you.
- When I look at Dorothy Maynor
and her founding this school in 1964,
and feeling that the arts were pivotal in creating
the next generation of citizens of these young,
black and Brown children here in Harlem.
Her vision, her legacy would not have lived on
if it weren't for Herb's generosity.
- That's just part of my DNA.
I just feel like I have to do it.
I've been blessed way, way beyond my dreams.
- I really applaud that because music
is really inspiration and about touching people.
And he has built his career on touching people,
not just through songs, but through his philanthropy.
- Herb Alpert is a man who truly puts his money
where his mouth is.
That's like... [laughs]
I mean, that's too crude,
I wouldn't want to use that,
but it's something I think about a lot,
because he's unusual in that way.
For example, last year,
the Herb Alpert Foundation provided support
to 99 organizations, and that's a lot.
'Cause we're, you know,
a relatively small family foundation, a private foundation.
Nonetheless, I like to say we're small, but mighty.
[catchy music]
- The Herb Alpert Award is five prizes given annually
in the fields of dance, film video,
music, theater, and visual arts.
And one of the things Herb said to me was,
he had such deep respect for the artists
who went their own way.
- And now with Lani and Rona, and the team
at the Herb Alpert Foundation
investing millions upon millions of dollars
in education and the arts and young people.
- When I read about Herb donating so much
to the music education programs, I was just so moved.
And I mean, it's something that I've been
begging for in different areas.
And so to have one person donate 150 million to something
that you really care about makes me want to cry.
- I think the young folks deserve and should have
a creative experience at an early age.
I mean, whether it's painting, sculpting, music,
whatever that happens to be.
Something that just gives them a feeling of
yeah, I can do it.
And if they do it, and they feel good about themselves
with fingers crossed, hopefully they will
appreciate the uniqueness in themselves
and appreciate the uniqueness in others.
[audience clapping]
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- Herb had a little problem with atrial fibrillation
for about four years,
and he finally got it fixed.
I said to him, what do you want to do?
And he said, "Well, I want to do what I've always done.
You know, I want to do music and art and do that."
I said, do you want to go out and play music for people?
And he said, "I was thinking about that."
And I said, well, if not now, when?
[lighthearted music]
- The fact that Herb is still making records
and performing in concert is remarkable.
Of course, I think he's a person who is young at heart,
and that combined with a love of music and his art
keeps him going as if he's a 40 years younger than he is.
- He's 84?
God damn.
[laughing]
In my mind I was like, oh, he's 62 or something.
With that tone?
That's crazy.
[lighthearted trumpet music]
- He's still on stage, still traveling,
still loving to be out there,
maybe more than he ever did.
- The whole band.
They are a family.
And I can't imagine any other band playing with them.
I mean, I think they've been doing this
over 12 years now together.
They're playful, they're having fun.
- Herb, he's always kind of listening
for something that tweaks his ear,
and he loves what everybody brings to the table,
and what they do.
So he's always searching for some little thing
that one of us does, that then sparks
some other idea for him to do something else.
- Herb kind of lets us do our thing and be ourselves,
and he wants a lot of what we do to be spontaneous
and fun and different.
- Herb always says, you know,
"When I played with the Tijuana Brass,
we did the same show every night, exactly like the record,
you know, it was always like just repeating the same script.
And when we started to do this, it was like,
let's see if we can have fun playing these songs
and see how many different ways we can do the same thing.
Herb and Lani are very connected in that way.
They both walk on stage every night
knowing that basically you're starting with a blank canvas.
- When you see them on stage together,
it illuminates all over the stage.
Everyone in the room can feel
the way they look at each other,
the way she looks at him, they're magical together.
- They're so each other's muses.
They're so intertwined,
and they are both inspiring each other
on a level that I never experienced
when I was younger.
It's pretty amazing to see.
[lighthearted music]
- If you look at the work of people
who achieved a lot in their own lives,
like Herb, this didn't happen accidentally,
it didn't happen casually.
He didn't wake up one day and think,
I think what I'll do is maybe sell 72 million records,
we'll see how that goes.
This is a lifetime of practice, of passion,
of commitment, of engagement, of learning.
Someone asked me recently,
if I could answer in one sentence
the question, who is Herb Alpert?
Easily I said...
He's the man with a golden horn,
and a golden touch, who has a heart of gold.
And with those gifts,
you bring joy into our world.
[lighthearted music]
- Well, I'm not totally unprepared for this question
because I knew at some point
you were gonna ask me that.
Herb Alpert is, well,
at the risk of sounding like Mr. Humble,
Herb Alpert's very grateful.
[lighthearted music]
- Herb Alpert is inspiration.
- Herb Alpert is a life saver.
- Herb Alpert is a remover of obstacles.
[people talking]
[lighthearted music]
♪ What a wonderful world ♪
♪ What a what a what a wonderful world ♪
[dramatic trumpet music]
[lighthearted trumpet music]
[catchy trumpet music]
[lighthearted trumpet music]