HERB ALPERT OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Herb Alpert's celebrated career in music began over four decades ago, with early--and extraordinary--successes including his 1958 co-write, with Lou Adler and Sam Cooke, of the evergreen hit "Wonderful World." Today, 75 million+ in record sales down the road, Alpert's versatile talent is legendary. His myriad credits encompass triumphs as a superstar trumpeter and bandleader, label founder, producer, composer, arranger and vocalist...the latter, most notably for his 1968 #1 single with the now-classic track "This Guy's In Love With You," which was also the first #1 hit for the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Among Alpert's many music awards garnered over the years are seven GRAMMYs®, including Record of the Year/Best Instrumental Performance (Non-Jazz) for the '65 Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass smash "A Taste Of Honey," as well as Best Pop Instrumental Performance wins for the 1966 TJB hit "What Now My Love" and Herb's 1979 solo masterpiece "Rise." Alpert has also been honored with the prized GRAMMY Trustees Award for Lifetime Achievement, which he and longtime music business partner Jerry Moss received jointly in 1997.
In 1962, Alpert and Moss co-founded A&M Records, long the world's leading--and largest--independently owned record label. The company was revered internationally for its artist-driven agenda, and acts that over several decades included The Police, Sting, Janet Jackson, Joe Jackson, The Brothers Johnson, Suzanne Vega, Bryan Adams, Soundgarden, Sergio Mendes, Cat Stevens, The Carpenters, Sheryl Crow, Barry White and Quincy Jones.
In many ways, though, in addition to being one of its founding fathers, Alpert was A&M's signature artist. Immediately after forming the label, he introduced the Tijuana Brass phenomenon, which propelled him, and the A&M name, to global fame. By putting the trumpet out front, Alpert revolutionized the instrument as a pop radio staple with a trademark sound fusing Mexican mariachi, various other Latin influences, jazz instincts, and unerring pop sensibilities.
TJB's--and A&M's--inaugural single, '62's "The Lonely Bull," went Top 10 and helped keep the LP of the same name charting for over three years. Next came Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Vol. 2 in 1963, followed in '64 by South Of The Border and its memorable single "The Mexican Shuffle." 1965 saw the release of Going Places --with its Top 40 singles "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea"--and Whipped Cream & Other Delights, featuring the hits "A Taste Of Honey" and "Whipped Cream",...as well as the lusciously cream-clad model on the LP jacket, the best-known of the many sexy and celebratory album covers that were synonymous with TJB.
Both discs hit #1 in Billboard, remained on the charts for 3+ years, and were Herb's, and A&M's, first two gold albums. In 1966, the LP What Now My Love also shot to #1, S.R.O. climbed to #2, and the TJB craze was all but unstoppable. They held down the #1 spot on Billboard's pop album chart for 18 weeks, the most for any act that year (for 4 of the 18, they also grabbed the #2 spot)--the runners-up, The Beatles, topped out at 17 weeks. That same year, the Brass achieved the since-unmatched feats of simultaneously having four albums in the Billboard Top 10--and five in the Top 20. With six Top 30 singles under his belt, and three of his albums in their year-end Top 5, Billboard fittingly named Alpert "Record Man Of The Year" for 1966.
The remainder of the '60s delivered three more #1 albums--Sounds Like ('67), Christmas Album ('68) and Beat Of The Brass ('68)--as well as Herb Alpert's Ninth ('67), which hit #4, and the Top 40 Warm ('69). While never matching the pace of the peak Tijuana Brass years, Alpert's career going forward into the '70s and beyond produced many more stellar highpoints. 1971's Summertime launched Alpert and wife Lani Hall's striking duet of the classic title track, as well as the Alpert's intense and moving composition "Jerusalem." The acclaimed 1974 album You Smile, The Song Begins was a soulful collection of tracks that prefaced 1975's Coney Island, Herb's 19th album with TJB, and their last together until 1984.
Alpert followed up his 1976 solo debut Just You And Me with two jubilant 1978 albums in collaboration with the great South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, Herb Alpert/Hugh Masekela and Main Event, the latter recorded live in Los Angeles. The following year ushered in one of Alpert's most definitive triumphs with his GRAMMY-winning single "Rise," from the platinum LP of the same name (a #6 Pop album that went to #1 on Billboard's Jazz and Black album charts). The dance-flavored smash was a Billboard #1 Pop/AC hit, as well as a #4 Black and Top 20 Club Play Single. Alpert's 1987 solo album Keep Your Eye On Me also reaped extraordinary success, led by the hit "Diamonds." Featuring Janet Jackson on vocals, the cut soared to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and aced #1 on the Dance and R&B charts. The album's title track was also a hit, as was the Top 40 single "Making Love In The Rain."
Overall, Alpert recorded over thirty albums for A&M, with the Brass and solo, fourteen of them certified platinum, fifteen gold. He's amassed five #1 Billboard Pop singles, and three of his recordings number among the historic GRAMMY Awards Archive Collection: All Time Winners ("Whipped Cream," "What Now My Love," and "Rise"). Alpert has produced albums for artists including Stan Getz, The Baja Marimba Band, Gato Barbieri, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, and his GRAMMY-winning wife, Lani Hall. He's still as passionate as ever about music, and Shout! Factory's 2005 launch of The Herb Alpert Signature Series, presenting deluxe remastered editions of his classic albums, is both a salute to the past and inspiration for the future.
Herb Alpert has also proved himself a true Renaissance man with endeavors in other realms. The same passion driving his musical genius equally informs Alpert's incarnation as a visual artist, which for 35 years has paralleled his life in the recording and performing arenas. His color-saturated, abstract expressionist paintings have been shown in museums and galleries around the world, and his bold, fluid sculptures, from the miniature to the monumental, are becoming equally acclaimed. On Broadway, Alpert has produced celebrated works including Jelly's Last Jam, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, and Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning smash Angels In America. Alpert's ongoing philanthropy has garnered a host of awards, and for almost two decades, The Herb Alpert Foundation has underwritten funding in the areas of the arts, the environment, and education.
Earlier this year, the Foundation celebrated the 10th anniversary of the internationally renowned Alpert Award in the Arts, granted to emerging mid-career artists in five disciplines annually, many of whom have gone on to be Pulitzer Prize winners and MacArthur Fellows. Looking forward, the Foundation is providing major support for the New Vision Foundation's pioneering Herb Alpert Educational Village, breaking ground in Santa Monica in 2005.
Born in Los Angeles, Herb resides in Malibu, California with Lani Hall, his wife of more than thirty years. They have three children.
###
© 2005 by Jensen Communications, Inc. Reproduced with permission of Jensen Communications.
