Chart entered : 6 June 1987
Chart peak : 27
We bid farewell to another sixties survivor here.
Herb never became a chart regular in the sixties although two of his singles reached number 3, "Spanish Flea" in 1965 and "This Guy's In Love With You" four years later on which he revealed an unexpected vocal talent. Shorty afterwards he disbanded his group The Tijuana Brass as the burgeoning success of A & M , the label he founded with Jerry Moss in 1962 , made more demands on his time. Although he periodically re-formed the band, he had little success as a recording artist in the seventies until his jazz-funk instrumental "Rise" made number one in the US and number 13 here in 1979. Now operating in the R & B market Herb continued to have hits in the US which were largely ignored here. In 1986 he invited producers of the moment Jam and Lewis to collaborate on his next album. Although they were only involved in four of the 10 tracks, Herb's shrewd business sense ensured that three of those songs were released as singles. The first "Keep Your Eye On Me" became his first UK hit for seven years reaching number 19.
"Diamonds" was the follow up single. Herb's artist credit seems like a bit of a liberty as Jam and Lewis wrote and produced the track and star clients Lisa Keith and Janet Jackson sing this ode to eighties materialism. It sounds like a close cousin to What Have You Done For Me Lately ? although less brutalist. In part that is down to Herb's contribution, filling out the spaces with inventive trumpet parts that don't sound bolted on as an afterthought. It's not my cup of tea but it is an effective single.
Two more singles were taken from the album . "Making Love In The Rain" is the Jam and Lewis ballad ( as in Human and Let's Wait Awhile ) with Keith doing the lead vocal and Jackson on backing vocals. It was Herb's last hit single in the US reaching number 35 but didn't do anything over here. "Our Song" , which had no involvement from the aforementioned pair, is a slow jazzy instrumental with a passage which closely resembles Billy Ocean's Suddenly.
The following year Herb switched to Latin jazz on the short-ish ( 33 minutes ) and largely instrumental LP "Under A Spanish Moon". The single " I Need You" is an attractive jazz funk tune and there's a pleasant if unnecessary smooch through Sting's "Fragile" but otherwise it's strictly for the cognoscenti.
In 1989 he released the fusion LP "My Abstract Heart" which is less forbidding than the title suggests. There's only one vocal track "When The Lights Go Down Low" ( on which his singing is atrocious ) ; the rest are instrumentals which range from meandering jazz workouts to pleasant background music. The single "3 O Clock Jump" uses rock guitar and drums to emphasise its sinister growl but the tune's nothing to write home about.
Two years later he released "North on South Street" which utilised contemporary dance rhythms from hip hop to Soul II Soul shuffle beats but put them to the service of some great tunes. The title track was released as the first single followed by "Jump Street" although this latter release was marred by adding an amateur-ish rap from Yvonne De La Vega." Paradise 25" remains the best track on the LP.
1992 saw the release of "Midnight Sun", a snoozy collection of jazz standards (" Someone To Watch Over Me","I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" etc ) from which no singles were taken.
Herb's recording career was then put on hold due to litigation. In 1987 he and Jerry had sold A & M to Polygram with all sorts of caveats that they would be able to preserve the culture and integrity of the label. By 1993 they felt that these had not been honoured and went to court. They were eventually paid off in an out of court settlement and set up a new label, Almo Sounds, to carry on the tradition.
Herb's first album on Almo was 1996's "Second Wind". Assisted by keyboardist Jeff Lorber, Herb meanders between smooth jazz and light funk but it's all pretty torpid. 1997's "Passion Dance" has a more obviously Latin flavour but is fairly muzak-y. The track "Beba" which was released as a single is no exception. Two years later he released "Colors" in collaboration with Living Color's rhythm section and there are some contemporary dance rhythms once more, including drum and bass on "Dorita". It's a sprightlier affair than its immediate predecessors.
It was however to be the last album of new material from Herb for over a decade. In 2000 he acquired the rights to his back catalogue from Universal Music in a legal settlement. Almo Sounds was put on ice as Herb started remastering his old hits for CD reissue. The Shout! Factory label bought the rights to release the cream of the crop ( i.e his sixties mega-sellers and "Rise" ). In the meantime Herb was an active philanthropist giving $30.000,000 to set up the Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California.
In 2008 Herb accompanied his wife, jazz singer Lani Hall on tour and a live album of the pair tackling standards, "Anything Goes" was released in 2009. The following year he had a sculpture exhibition Herb Alpert : Black Totems in Beverley Hills. In 2011 He and Hall out out another album "I Feel You " which followed the same formula except it was recorded in the studio.
In 2013 he put out "Steppin Out", something of a hotch potch with a few more standards recorded with Hall ( credited as the album's producer ) , some new smooth jazz compositions and re-workings of some Tijuana Brass numbers. It won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album which doesn't say much for the competition . He also had another art exhibition that year, this time in Santa Monica.
Herb turned 80 in March 2015 but six months later released another album, "Come Fly With Me". The single "Night Ride" has some Latin vim and there's some attempt at sonic experimentation with electronic percussion and even reggae rhythms on a couple of tracks but otherwise it's another exercise in soporific smooth jazz.
Just three weeks ago, Herb released another LP "Human Nature" on which he dabbles in electronic dance rhythms. The title track is an uncomfortable cover of the Michael Jackson song. It's a short album of 9 tracks lasting 30 minutes but it runs out of steam well before the last track.
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