Herb Alpert walks down a long driveway to his rambling Malibu estate, wincing slightly in pain after waking up around 3 a.m. with a cramp in his left calf.
“It's still a little convulsive,” the trumpeter says as he leads me through a lush garden with wet-looking tropical plants.
Alpert accepts that this is the reality of life at 91 years old. However, the only reason he's here racking up hundreds of steps on a recent morning is because he was hanging around his sculpture studio before I arrived. And the only reason the sculpture studio is so far from his music studio (there is also a studio dedicated to his painting) is because of his great success over the last 60 years or so.
“So I can't complain,” he says.
A Los Angeles native who began writing songs like Sam Cooke's “Wonderful World,” Alpert has lived here in Malibu since 1972, a decade after releasing “The Lonely Bull,” his debut album with the Tijuana Brass. The LP's title track, inspired by a bullfight Alpert captured in Mexico, peaked at No. 6 on Billboard's Hot 100; More than a dozen Top 40 hits followed, including “A Taste of Honey,” “Spanish Flea” (also heard as the theme song on the TV show “The Dating Game”) and “This Guy's in Love With You,” which took a rare Alpert vocal turn all the way to No. 1.
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What's more, these inescapable tunes came out on Alpert's own label, A&M Records, which he “formed on a handshake,” as he puts it, in 1962 with his business partner Jerry Moss. The label quickly became one of the largest independent record companies in music, featuring artists such as Carole King, the Carpenters, the Police, Peter Frampton and Janet Jackson, as well as a beloved recording studio complex on La Brea Avenue. (Moss, who along with Alpert sold A&M in 1989 for $500 million, died in 2023.)
After years working alone and with his wife, singer Lani Hall, Alpert revived the Tijuana Brass name in 2024 and launched a tour that will stop Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl. We sat down in his gear-filled music studio to talk about it and much more.
I'm sure you've heard that John Mayer and McG bought the former A&M studios last year. I was wondering what your emotional investment in the place is right now.
I have no emotional investment. Once I left the lot, I got out of there, I didn't look back. I wanted to paint, I wanted to sculpt, I wanted to make music. I wasn't thinking about the business.
What is an A&M success story you are especially proud of?
Cat Stevens. I heard this kid (he was a kid at the time) at the Troubadour, just him and a guitar, and I got goosebumps. It was so beautiful and so honest.
What was Karen Carpenter like?
She was a doll. I didn't know how great she was; I didn't think she was a great singer. A great drummer too. Go to YouTube and search for Karen Carpenter's drum solo; It will leave you speechless. But she was innocent. She was lucky to have [her brother] Richard because Richard knew what to do with her in a very gentle way.
Even at the Carpenters' softest moment, I hear a deep sadness in Karen's singing.
I think that's a standard ingredient for great artists. Listen closely to Miles Davis and you will hear the same thing.
Karen struggled with her mental health, which her fame didn't help. Did you ever feel responsible for what she went through?
I've gone over that question so many times in my head: If I hadn't picked them and signed them, would the same outcome have happened?
Where have you landed?
I don't have an answer.
In a recent documentary about you, you talk about “Wonderful World” and say that no one knows what a hit record sounds like. That's his feeling now based on years of experience. But did you think you knew that when you were young?
I didn't know it then either. “Wonderful World” was a demo that Keen Records put on a shelf. When Sam started selling records on RCA Victor, they released it as a joke and it ended up being one of the biggest selling singles Sam ever had. I've told this story before, but at A&M a guy played me a record. I said, “Man, this record sucks.” Well, I was turning down “Louie Louie.”
Why didn't you understand “Louie Louie”?
It was out of tune. It was too long. I didn't know what the hell they were saying.
That's why it's great.
It's probably like that. But did they have another hit album? Sam used to say, “Close your eyes when you listen to a new artist; don't get carried away by whether he's beautiful, whether he's handsome, or whether he can dance his butt off.”
Okay, but you were like a heartthrob in the '60s.
What am I now: chopped liver?
I don't think you can say that your success had nothing to do with your looks.
I don't think it was like that. Do you remember that sadness you were talking about? It's on my speaker.
I agree. But it didn't hurt that you looked great.
It didn't hurt once I had a hit record. I wouldn't have done it given For me a successful album.
Jerry Moss, left, and Herb Alpert in 1974.
(Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Let's talk about your song “Rise.”
I was lucky with that.
How?
My nephew Randy, who is one of my managers, wanted me to take some of the Tijuana Brass records and do a little disco number with them. So we went into the studio with a group of great musicians and started playing “Taste of Honey” at 120 beats per minute. I felt nauseous and said, “Man, I'm not doing this.”
Nauseating?
The album was big and I didn't want to alter it. But Randy had written this song called “Rise” with a friend of his. He also wanted me to play it at 120 beats per minute. I said, “Look, man, let's slow this down and let people dance closer.” We recorded it live in the studio. Julius Wechter was playing the marimba, my dear friend. I said, “What do you think of this? Pretty cool, right?” He turns around and says, “I hate it. That rhythm, the four on the ground, is killing me.” I expected a different answer from him. But it didn't matter.
What do you think of Notorious BIG sampling “Rise” for their “Hypnotize”?
How could you not like that album? These guys who take your bass line and make a record by pressing a button, I think that's a bit of cheating. But there are 70 million views of that song. I can't deny it.
“Rise” was also sampled by rapper Nas for his song “Power, Paper & P—.”
I don't know how to comment on that.
Many musicians of your generation have been selling their catalogs lately. Have you considered it?
There's no reason to do it: I don't need the money.
I wrote about Frankie Valli a few years ago, and he and Bob Gaudio seemed eager for this company, Primary Wave, to find ways to…
Monetize the catalog. I understand. But they don't have to do that with us. I don't know if you know what's going on, but I'm at the height of my career right now.
Right now?
It wasn't my idea to get the Tijuana Brass back together. My nephew is a social media expert and he traveled around the world to see which songs of mine were selling the most. It turned out there were about 18 songs. I started listening to 18 and at the end I felt happy, I felt joyful, I felt a smile on my face. I thought, Man, let's try this; this could be interesting. We started doing it and we sold out 50 concerts in a row.
It seems to me that without the Tijuana Brass you wouldn't be playing at the Hollywood Bowl.
Hell no, I wasn't.
What does that tell you?
That music is touching people. In the times we live in, there is a lot of doubt about what is happening and I think people are getting some positive energy from it.
You are a lifelong Angeleno. Many well-to-do people say that Los Angeles has gone to hell. What is your opinion?
I think it's pretty much the same across the country.
Which is it?
He went to hell in a basket. People are confused about where they are going, if they will be able to have enough food on the table, if they will be able to pay for gas. I'm not saying everything is bad; It's just hard to make sense of it for a lot of people, including the guy you're talking to.
Your music comes from numerous cultures. Do you think it speaks to your Jewish identity?
Definitely. My father was born in a shtetl outside kyiv; He didn't speak Russian, he spoke Yiddish. He brought his mandolin when he was 16 on a boat alone and landed on Ellis Island. He used to play me songs on the mandolin. When his nostrils flared, I knew he liked it. That got me.
The encounter between the Jewish and the Mexican seems very Los Angeles to me.
I believe that we are all products of our environment. In high school I used to go see Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, and I was moved by them. Of course, they were loaded.
What kind of man was Chet Baker?
A troubled guy who was a brilliant musician. I gave him one of my horns and he pawned it the next day. He was sweet but he didn't control his emotions.
Obviously not very good to live. But good for music?
Well, you're opening a whole can of worms. I mean, why did so many great jazz musicians become addicted to drugs? Maybe the kids who were obsessed with being human found that getting high helped them overcome the struggle. I recorded Stan Getz the first time he recorded without drugs. It was at A&M: he was wearing a red silk shirt that had sweat stains under both arms. I had like 75 reeds on the ground because I couldn't pick the right one. He finally found the right reed, overcame his anxiety, and began playing, the same Stan Getz he heard throughout his career. These guys assumed that being high would change the way they played. I don't think that will hold up at all.
Was there a moment when you thought it might be true?
I experimented with weed once. I turned on a recorder, took a drag, and started playing some jazz. He took another puff and started playing more jazz. I listened to that recording the next morning; It was terrible.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Can we do a little Herb Alpert trivia to finish?
Do I have a choice?
“A Taste of Honey” won record of the year at the Grammys in 1966.
You're going to ask why.
You surpassed the Beatles' “Yesterday.”
Oh really?
The year after “Taste of Honey,” you were nominated again for record of the year with “What Now My Love.” The one you lost. Do you remember what you lost against?
Not “Louie, Louie.”
“Strangers in the night.”
That's a real pop song. I love the guy, but he's not my favorite.
What is your favorite Sinatra song?
“Only the lonely ones.”
“This boy is in love W.“Ith You” – great vocal performance. Why didn't you do more?
I'm not a singer.
You sure are.
I know it's a great performance. But it was a take, man; I did it in one take.
This is what I'm saying.
See, I had an interesting guy in the sound booth who did the arrangements named Burt Bacharach.
I read that you talked to Burt several times a week until he died.
I did it, and not about music. We talk about football, basketball, politics, whatever.
What is your basketball team?
Lakers.
It's hard to be a Lakers fan nowadays.
It's easy to be critical.
