 |  | a superb compilation of a great era in Herb's musical career |  |
Back in the early days of CDs, A&M's "Classics" series appeared. Since, along with Jerry Moss, A&M was Alpert's label (A&M = Alpert & Moss), it was natural that the first disc in the series was a Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass collection. Smartly, this additional compilation, which focuses solely on the years 1979-1985 of Herb's career, was also released. Appropriately, this disc is credited just to Herb Alpert as opposed to Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass since he was crediting himself as a solo artist by now (although his 1984 album "Bullish" was, quite misleadingly, credited to "Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass"). Herb hit the charts in a big way in 1979 with the disco-flavored 12" single "Rise" which did indeed rise to #1 on the US Billboard singles chart. Although Herb's music remained typically ambitious during this '79-'85 era, the "Rise" flavor was, in general, highly prominent throughout, hence the tag "The 'Rise' Years". He was doing a lot of funky groove music during this time, & yet he did this with a cool sophistication, & this resulted in a lot of irresistible music. There are a whole lot of terrific tracks from this era--certainly more than can be fit onto a single CD--however, this CD is an absolutely first-rate overview. There are some vocals on here (including Herb's wife Lani Hall on the cover of "Maniac"), but for the most part, it's an instrumental CD--the thing is though, Herb had an incredible ear for melody, & his trumpet, figuratively speaking, really WAS his voice. Yes, he was an outstanding & underrated vocalist, so in that sense it's strange that he didn't sing more often, but you can't really complain, because he really was a brilliant instrumental performer. "Rise", "'8' Ball", the riffy "Rotation", "Red Hot" (the 1983 "Blow Your Own Horn" version is used here), & the whomping "Bullish" are all infectiously catchy groove tunes. The uptempo, Latin pop flavored "Route 101", and the evocative, hypnotic, fittingly-titled "Beyond" (built upon a loop) are a couple more of the absolute gems you'll find here. The brilliant, easy-riding 1981 groove tune "Magic Man", which Alpert co-wrote, has a trumpet melody that points the way straight to the saxophone part on the subsequent 1984 Wham! hit "Careless Whisper"--it seems impossible George Michael wasn't inspired by it. If you haven't explored this period in Alpert's career, you seriously should, & this CD is a great place to start--it's got 14 tracks, runs well over an hour, the sound quality is great, & you get some nice liner notes. A couple tracks here--"Garden Party" & "Street Life"--are much shorter than their original album versions, but nothing else is seriously shortened. Typically grating vocals from Lani Hall do mar "Maniac", but still, there's not a single track on this entire CD that's even close to weak. Exploring Herb's individual albums from this period will expose you to a wealth of additional gems. He put out an album in each year from 1979-1985, and basically, each one sounds ever so slightly more high-tech than the one that preceeded it, & this disc conveniently stops before 1987's "Keep Your Eye On Me", which features Jam & Lewis, & is the album where Herb really did cross the line & slip over into overproduction. The out-of-print status of nearly all the music from this '79-'85 era is, to put it gently, a great shame. It adds insult to injury that this CD is out of print as well, because it's truly a superb compilation.
November 22, 2004Herb Alpert is an excellent trumpeter as this collection along with Volume 1 indicates. There are two major flaws with this collection: 1) overall sound quality and 2) it's missing the key tracks from "Keep Your Eye On Me" which was released the same year. Since this album is normally out of stock online, it may be hard to find in music stores. You are better off with the "Definitive Hits" because the sound quality is much better and contains key highlights from both volumes on one CD plus three songs from "Keep Your Eye On Me".
February 25, 2004I lost track of Herb after the 60's and early 70's although later I found out he continued to release albums well into the 80's. This album is from that period. It's an eclectic mix of songs which shows what Herb could do with many different pop styles, from Latin to R&B to light rock to jazz-influenced. it would have been interesting to see what Herb and Chuck Mangione could have done together with Mangione's trusty fluglehorn and his easy-listenin' style of jazz. Speaking of Mangione, does anyone today remember that Mangione's Emmy-winning "Give It All You Got" was selected as the theme of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York? And I don't think they could have selected a better song myself (unless maybe it was one of Herb's). But getting back to Herb and the brass, this is another great album from Herb and his band that shows how they continued to adapt to the protean world of pop music rather than rest on their laurels (which they could easily have done).
June 25, 2003 | | Great Stuff, Bad Pressing | |
This is indeed great stuff. The music is exceptional. It gyrates, especially Fandango. But the sound is almost dead silent. It's as if the people engineering the music decided to turn down dramatically the amplification. Be careful because you have to raise the volume extremely high to hear the music. The moment you hear a new CD, it may blow your speakers. If any CD cries out for remastering, this one must be at the very front!
August 31, 2002| | | Alpert proved to be as vital in the 80's as in the 60's. | |
Four years after the last Tijuana Brass LP, Coney Island, Herb Alpert hit the top of the pop and R&B charts with the slow grind classic, Rise. Throughout the next decade he released album after album of smart and tasty instrumental classics. This album is a very definitive overview of his work from 1979 - 1985. It hops from one genre to the next, featuring AC, R&B, Latin and even Techno influenced tunes, proving Alpert's versatility and adaptability in the ever changing world of pop music. It contains single edits of a few tunes (Street Life, Garden Party) but full length versions of most of the tracks (Rise, and Beyond in particular). I prefer the LP version of Garden Party but it's a minor quibble in an otherwise faultless compilation. And besides, most of the albums from which these songs are taken, are out of print.
November 21, 1999More reviews at Amazon.com ...
(7 reviews)