Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (sometimes called "Herb Alpert and the TJB") in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, five of which became No. 1 albums; he has scored 14 platinum albums and 15 gold albums. Alpert is the only musician to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979).[a]
"TJB" redirects here. For other uses, see TJB (disambiguation).
Herb Alpert
Dore Alpert, Tito Alpert
March 31, 1935
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Musician
- songwriter
- record producer
- arranger
- conductor
- painter
- sculptor
- theatre producer
- actor
- Trumpet
- piano
- vocals
1956–present
Alpert has sold an estimated 72 million records worldwide.[1] He has received many accolades, including a Tony Award and eight Grammy Awards,[2] as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Alpert was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama in 2013.
Early life and career[edit]
Herb Alpert was born and raised in the Boyle Heights[3] section of Eastside Los Angeles,[4] California,[5] He was the youngest of three children (a daughter and two sons)[6] born to Tillie (née Goldberg) and Louis Leib (or
Louis Bentsion-Leib) Alpert.[7] His parents were Jewish immigrants to the U.S. from Radomyshl (in present-day Ukraine) and Romania.[8][9][10]
Alpert was born into a family of musicians. His father, although a tailor by trade, was also a talented mandolin player. His mother taught violin at a young age, and his older brother, David, was a talented young drummer.[11] His sister Mimi, who was the oldest,[5] played the piano.[6] Herb began to play trumpet at eight years old.[12]
Alpert started attending Fairfax High School in Los Angeles beginning there in the 10th grade for the Class of 1951. In the 11th grade in 1952, he was a member of their Gym Team, where one of his specialties was performing on the Rings, but an appendectomy a week prior to a League Meet sidelined his path to continue there. In his Senior year (1953), he took to focusing on his trumpet.
While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950s,[13] he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years. Alpert served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where he played in the 6th Army Band.[14][15][16] In 1956, he appeared in an uncredited role as "Drummer on Mt. Sinai" in The Ten Commandments.[17]
In 1957, Alpert teamed up with Rob Weerts, another burgeoning lyricist, as a songwriter for Keen Records. A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became Top 20 hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean and "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke.[18] In 1960, he began his recording career as a vocalist at RCA Records under the name of Dore Alpert.[8] In 1962, Alpert and his new business partner Jerry Moss formed Carnival Records with "Tell It to the Birds" as its first release, distribution outside of Los Angeles being done by Dot Records. After Carnival released its second single "Love Is Back In Style" by Charlie Robinson, Alpert and Moss found that there was prior usage of the Carnival name and renamed their label A&M Records.[19]
Visual arts[edit]
Alpert has a second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with group and solo exhibitions around the United States and Europe. The 2010 sculpture exhibition "Herb Alpert: Black Totems" in Beverly Hills brought media attention to his visual work.[38] His 2013 exhibition in Santa Monica included both abstract paintings and large totemlike sculptures.[39]
Business ventures[edit]
In the late 1980s, Alpert started H. Alpert and Co., a short-lived perfume company, which sold products in high-end department stores such as Nordstrom. The company launched with two scents, Listen and Listen for Men. Alpert compared perfume to music, with high and low notes.[49]
Personal life[edit]
Alpert married Sharon Mae Lubin at Presidio of San Francisco in 1956.[13] They had two children, Dore (born 1960) and Eden (born 1966).[52] The couple divorced in 1971. Two years later, Alpert married Lani Hall, once the lead singer of A&M group Brasil '66.[53] Alpert and Hall have a daughter, Aria, born in 1976.[10] Hall and Alpert recorded a live album, Anything Goes, in 2009; a studio album, I Feel You, in 2011;[54] and another studio album, Steppin' Out, in 2013. An AllMusic review concluded: "Ultimately, Steppin' Out represents not just the third album in a trilogy, but a loving creative partnership that, for Alpert and Hall, spans a lifetime."[55]