The iconic trumpeter, pianist, composer, producer and co-founder of A&M Records is on tour with a stop Sunday at DeVos Performance Hall. He insists: ‘It gives me energy to play.’ The Local Spins interview.
A Lifetime of Making Recordings That Make Him Feel Good: Herb Alpert (Courtesy Photo)
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Those of a certain age will remember when tunes like “The Lonely Bull,” “A Taste of Honey” and “This Guy’s In Love With You” were topping the charts and filling the airwaves.
Herb Alpert does.
He’s of a certain age himself, you see: He’s celebrating his 90th birthday by performing with a new-look Tijuana Brass and playing those hits and others from across his six-decade career.
“It gives me energy to play. I enjoy playing with the group,” Alpert says from the midst of a tour that brings him to DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids on Sunday (May 11). A few scattered tickets, $45.50, remain available for the 7:30 p.m. show online here.
With numerous sold-out shows on his 2025 U.S. tour, the response from audiences has amazed him. “People are excited to hear the music. It’s a sense of joy.”
On Tour: Herb Alpert and Lani Hall (Courtesy Photo)
It’s no exaggeration to call Alpert a legend, certiainly not with all those hits across all those decades, plus founding a label to release his own music, one which grew into a major label that released hit records across the musical spectrum. The Carpenters, The Police, Janet Jackson, Joan Baez, Quincy Jones, Rick Wakeman and Burt Bacharach are but a sampling of those who recorded for A&M Records the label started by Alpert and his partner Gerry Moss to distribute those first Tijuana Brass albums.
Among the early acts on A&M were Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band and Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66. The former took the Tijuana Brass’s sound even further into Mexico, and Wechter occasionally toured with Alpert’s band. “Julius was a good friend,” Alpert says of the marimba player and percussionist, who also composed numerous tunes for the TJB albums. He died in 1999.
Even more important for Alpert was the music of Mendes. The group’s first album for A&M went platinum as a result of the success of the single “Mas que nada.” More importantly, Alpert began dating Brasil 66 vocalist Lani Hall, and she and Alpert married in December 1974. Hall continued to record, both on her own and with her husband, working again with Mendes in the 1980s. She is accompanying Alpert on this tour.
LISTEN: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, “A Taste of Honey”
‘WHIPPED CREAM’ AT 60 AND A NEW VERSION OF TIJUANA BRASS
Alpert too started his career as a vocalist, but it was the bouncy mariachi-inflected music by his band the Tijuana Brass that put him on the map. Except there was no band. The sound was Alpert’s own double-tracked trumpet, backed by studio musicians. It wasn’t until after the success of his fourth album, “Whipped Cream & Other Delights,” that he formed a band to tour.
Now, here we are 60 years later, and he’s revived the Tijuana Brass to celebrate the iconic “Whipped Cream” and other hits from those days. “It’s a new version of the band. It sounds great,” says Alpert.
That’s not just the way he feels. The show is selling out venues across the country, including two shows at Jazz at Lincoln Center, where he was serenaded by the crowd singing him “Happy Birthday” for his 90th birthday March 31. “It was a little embarrassing,” Alpert says.
Alpert’s decision to form a new version of the Tijuana Brass stemmed from the desire to celebrate the 60th anniversary of “Whipped Cream.” The album went gold a short time after its release in April 1965, selling more than 500,000 copies. It was in the top 10 for 61 weeks and among the top 40 for 141 weeks.
It became a cultural touchstone propelled by “Green Peppers,” “Whipped Cream,” “A Taste of Honey” and the mournful “Ladyfingers,” and also by its risqué record jacket. The titillating cover featured model Dolores Erickson clad only in whipped cream (spoiler alert: she was actually wearing a bikini top, and the whipped cream was shaving cream that wouldn’t melt as quickly under the hot photo lights).
A Respected Painter and Philanthropist, Too: Alpert (Courtesy Photo)
After that, there was such a demand for his music he had to form a band. At one point in 1966, Alpert had three of the top five albums “Whipped Cream,” “Going Places” and “What Now My Love,” outselling The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra.
While he put the Brass to rest for years, Alpert himself didn’t slow down. He continued to make music, with hits “Rise” in 1979 and “Diamonds” with Janet Jackson in 1987. He also continued to work with and sign musicians to the label, from pop to punk (Captain and Tennille to Iggy Pop), rock (Rolling Stones, Stranglers) to jazz (Wes Montgomery, George Benson), soul (Al Green, Jeffrey Osbourne) and funk (The Brothers Johnson).
Alpert is also a respected abstract expressionist painter and sculptor, whose work has been exhibited across the United States, Europe and Asia. And he is a noted philanthropist. The Herb Alpert Foundation supports organizations in diverse fields from the arts to compassion and well-being, mostly in the greater Los Angeles area.
It all stems from his success playing original music that he and his audience love. His burnished tone is unmistakable. “You hear three notes and you know it’s Herb Alpert,” said Miles Davis.
It’s not been all sunshine and lollipops, or honey and whipped cream. “It turned on me,” he says of the trumpet. “I ran into a snag. I was stuttering on the horn.”
That was in late 1969, coinciding with his divorce from his first wife, and led to his decision to break up the Tijuana Brass. In search of an antidote, he worked with trumpet instructor Carmine Caruso, who told him the problem wasn’t the trumpet, it was Alpert himself.
“It’s just a piece of plumbing,” Alpert says Caruso told him of the horn, referring to its bends and loops. It’s the player that makes the music. “You’re the instrument. You want to make music, it has to come out of you.”
He also notes that while the music of the Tijuana Brass is typically upbeat, there’s always a hint of melancholy to it. He attributes that to his ancestry: His parents were Eastern European immigrants. “My father was born in Kyiv. There’s a Russian something, a melancholy,” he says.
“I never tried to make a hit record,” Alpert continues. “I make recordings that make me feel good.” That’s the sentiment behind both his tour and his most recent recording. He released his 50th recording, aptly entitled “50,” last September.
The 90-minute show will include “Rise” as well as a couple tunes sung by his wife, Lani. But the bulk of the show will feature and celebrate the iconic sound that made him a star more 60 years ago.
“I want to give my gift back,” says Alpert. And the reception has been rapturous for both the trumpeter and the audience. “It’s been an amazing experience for me.”
VIDEO: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, “The Lonely Bull”
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