Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpertis an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. Alpert is also a recording industry executive, the "A" of A&M Records, a recording label he and business partner Jerry Moss founded and eventually sold to PolyGram. Alpert also has created abstract expressionist paintings and sculpture over two decades, which are publicly displayed on occasion. Alpert and wife, Lani Hall, are substantial philanthropists through...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth31 March 1935
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
We were like a trial for the digital process, and I found that in that particular timeframe, there were too many problems with it.
I was obligated to do a bunch of concerts and a television show, but something in my stomach was telling me this wasn't what I wanted to do.
With tape, you capture the impact, but you bring in some other elements. Sometimes those elements are good and sometimes, they're not.
Unfortunately, what they're playing on the radio now is not really fair to a lot of great musicians that are out there struggling to be heard.
He has a method that likens the musician to an athlete, so I do physical exercises designed to keep a musician in shape in order to perform the function, which is to play music.
We finally got our big break when Ed Sullivan put us on his show.
This was during a period when I was producing Brazil '66 records and got infected by Brazilian music.
I'm sure I'll go back again and record in the digital process.
I practice every day. I've been doing it since I was eight.
Although there was a point with the Tijuana Brass where we were playing for such huge crowds that I kind of lost contact. At one point, the only connection I had with the audience was with people out there lighting cigarettes.
Mexican Shuffle was a turning point of the Brass.
I never thought of myself as a trumpet player in the traditional sense: I never played in a big band... I didn't struggle the normal way.
Is there an audience for it? I don't know. I don't think it's the audience who bought it originally. But there's a younger audience that might appreciate it. These are good songs.
There was a certain naturalness that was happening in the '60s and '70s that felt more like a happening, ... Production wasn't as clean and neat as I'm hearing these days. They're not perfect, but they have an honest feeling, which is what I was going for.