Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an Americantrumpeter, pianist, songwriter, record producer, arranger, conductor, painter, sculptor and theatre producer, 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-foundedA&M Records withJerry Moss.

Herb Alpert
Alpert in 1966
Background information
Also known as	Dore Alpert, Tito Alpert
Born	(1935-03-31)March 31, 1935 (age 90) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	Jazz Latin funk pop R&B
Occupations	Musician songwriter record producer arranger conductor painter sculptor theatre producer
Instruments	Trumpet piano vocals
Years active	1956–present
Labels	A&M Verve Almo Sounds Shout! Factory Herb Alpert Presents
Website	herbalpert.com

Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have appeared on the U.S.Billboard 200 chart, five of which reached No. 1; he has been awarded 14platinum albums and 15gold albums. Alpert is the only musician to have reached No. 1 on the U.S.Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and as an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979).^[a]

Alpert has sold an estimated 72 million records worldwide.^[1] He has received many accolades, including aTony Award and eightGrammy Awards,^[2] as well as theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. Alpert was awarded theNational Medal of Arts byBarack Obama in 2012.

Herb Alpert was born on March 31, 1935^[3] and raised in theBoyle Heights^[4] section ofEastside Los Angeles,^[5] California.^[6] He was the youngest of three children (a daughter and two sons)^[7] born to Tillie (née Goldberg) and Louis Leib (or Louis Bentsion-Leib) Alpert.^[8] His parents wereJewish immigrants to the U.S. fromRadomyshl (in present-dayUkraine) andRomania.^[9][10][11]

Alpert was born into a family of musicians. His father, although a tailor by trade, was also amandolin player. His mother taught violin at a young age, and his older brother, David, was a drummer.^[12] His sister Mimi, who was the oldest,^[6] played the piano.^[7] Alpert began to play trumpet at eight years old.^[13]

Alpert started attendingFairfax High School in Los Angeles beginning in 10th grade. In 11th grade (1952) he was a member of their gym team. One of his specialties was performing on the rings, but an appendectomy a week before a League Meet sidelined him. In his senior year (1953), he began focusing on his trumpet.

While attending theUniversity of Southern California in the 1950s,^[14] he was a member of theUSC Trojan Marching Band for two years. Alpert served in theU.S. Army during theKorean War, and played in the6th ArmyBand.^[15][16][17] In 1956, he appeared in an uncredited role as "Drummer on Mt. Sinai" inThe Ten Commandments.^[18]

In 1957, Alpert teamed up with Rob Weerts, another burgeoning lyricist, as a songwriter forKeen Records. A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became Top 20 hits, including "Baby Talk" byJan and Dean and "Wonderful World" bySam Cooke.^[19] In 1960, he began his recording career as a vocalist atRCA Records under the name of Dore Alpert.^[9] 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.^[20]

All artists should be looking for their own voices. I went through a period of trying to sound likeHarry James andLouis Armstrong andMiles [Davis]. And then whenClifford Brown came along, it was almost discouraging. The guy was so good! But I kept at it. I loved playing. And then when I heardLes Paulmultitrack his guitar on recordings, I tried that with the trumpet. Boom—that sound came out. After I released 'The Lonely Bull', the record that startedA&M in 1962, a lady in Germany wrote a letter to me. She said, 'Thank you, Mr. Alpert, for sending me on a vicarious trip toTijuana.' I realized that music was visual for her, that it took her someplace. I said, 'That's the type of music I want to make. I want to make music that transports people.'
— Herb Alpert inOff Beat Magazine, April 24, 2017

The song that jump-started Alpert's performing career was originally titled "Twinkle Star", written by Sol Lake (who would write many Tijuana Brass songs over the next decade).^[21] Alpert was dissatisfied with his first efforts to record the song, then took a break to visit a bullfight inTijuana,Mexico. As Alpert later recounted, "That's when it hit me! Something in the excitement of the crowd, the traditional mariachi music, the trumpet call heralding the start of the fight, the yelling, the snorting of the bulls, it all clicked."^[22] Alpert adapted the tune to the trumpet style,mixed in crowd cheers and other noises for ambience, and renamed the song "The Lonely Bull".^[23]

He personally funded the production of the record as a single, and it spread throughradio DJs until it caught on and became a Top 10 hit in the fall of 1962. He followed up quickly with his debut album,The Lonely Bull by "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass". Originally the Tijuana Brass was just Alpert overdubbing his own trumpet, slightly out of sync.^[24]

It was A&M's first album (with the original release number being #101), although it was recorded for Conway Records. The title cut reached No. 6 on theBillboard pop chart. For this album and subsequent releases, Alpert recorded with the group of Los Angeles session musicians known asthe Wrecking Crew, whom he holds in high regard.^[25]

Alpert's 1965 albumWhipped Cream & Other Delights proved so popular — it was the number one album of 1966, outsellingThe Beatles,Frank Sinatra, andThe Rolling Stones — that Alpert had to turn the Tijuana Brass into an actual touring ensemble rather than a studio band. Some of that popularity might be attributable to the album's notoriously racy cover, which featured modelDolores Erickson seemingly clothed only in whipped cream. However, as writer Bruce Handy pointed out in aBillboard article, two other Brass albums,Going Places (1965) andWhat Now My Love (1966), "held the third and fifth spots on the 1966 year-end chart despite pleasant yet far more anodyne covers."^[26] Another measure of the band's popularity is that a number of Tijuana Brass songs were used as theme music for years by theABC TV game showThe Dating Game.^[27]

In 1966, a short animated film byJohn andFaith Hubley called "A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature" was released; it won theAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1967. The film featured two songs by the band, "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea".^[28] Also in 1967, the Tijuana Brass performedBurt Bacharach's title cut to the first movie version ofCasino Royale.^[29]

Alpert's only No. 1 single during this period, and the first No. 1 hit for his A&M label, was a solo effort: "This Guy's in Love with You", written byBurt Bacharach andHal David, featuring a rare vocal.^[23][30] Alpert sang it to his first wife in a 1968CBS Television special titledBeat of the Brass. The sequence was filmed on the beach inMalibu. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the television special, allegedly thousands of telephone calls toCBS asking about it convinced Alpert to release it as a single, two days after the show aired.^[31] Although Alpert's vocal skills and range were limited, the song's technical demands suited him.^[32]

After years of success, Alpert had a personal crisis in 1969, declaring "the trumpet is my enemy." He disbanded the Tijuana Brass, and stopped performing in public.^[11] Eventually he sought out teacher Carmine Caruso, "who never played trumpet a day in his life, (but) he was a great trumpet teacher."^[33] "What I found," Alpert toldThe New York Times, "is that the thing in my hands is just a piece of plumbing. The real instrument is me, the emotions, not my lip, not my technique, but feelings I learned to stuff away—as a kid who came from a very unvocal household. Since then, I've been continually working it out, practicing religiously and now, playing better than ever."^[11] The results were noticeable; as Richard S. Ginell wrote in anAllMusic review of Alpert's comeback album,You Smile - The Song Begins, "His four-year sabbatical over, Herb Alpert returned to the studio creatively refreshed, his trumpet sounding more soulful and thoughtful, his ears attuned more than ever to jazz."^[34]

In 1979, five years after his last chart hit with the Tijuana Brass, Alpert tried to record adisco album of rearranged Brass hits. "It just sounded awful to me," Alpert was quoted later. "I didn't want any part of it." But because the musicians were already booked, Alpert recorded other material, including the instrumental "Rise" (with initial version created by Alpert's nephew, Randy "Badazz" Alpert and his close friend, musician Andy Armer). The song hit number one on theBillboard Hot 100 after it was used repeatedly on the soap operaGeneral Hospital. The song also became a hit in the UK, but in a speeded-up version, due to British DJs not realizing that the American12" single was recorded at 33 rpm instead of 45 rpm.^[35]

In 2013, Alpert releasedSteppin' Out, which won aGrammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album.^[36] Since that time, he has released several other albums, most recently50 (claimed to be his 50th studio album) and has said he has plans for his next two LPs, one of which will be another Christmas album—his third.

In late 2024, Alpert announced that he was forming a new Tijuana Brass group and would do a tour in 2025, to celebrate the landmarkWhipped Cream and Other Delights album. The tour is titled "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass & Other Delights."^[37]

On October 11, 1989,Philips subsidiaryPolyGram announced its acquisition of A&M Records for $500 million.^[38] Alpert and Moss later received an extra $200 million payment for PolyGram's breach of the terms of the deal.^[39]

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" inBeverly Hills brought media attention to his visual work.^[40] His 2013 exhibition inSanta Monica included both abstract paintings and large totemlike sculptures.^[41]

In May 2000, Alpert was awarded an honorary doctorate fromBerklee College of Music.^[42]

In 1977, for his contribution to the recording industry, Alpert was awarded a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 6929Hollywood Boulevard.

At the 1997Billboard Latin Music Awards Alpert received theEl PremioBillboard award for his contributions toLatin music.^[43]

Alpert and Moss were inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M.

Alpert was awarded theSociety of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award bySociety of Singers in 2009.^[44]

Alpert was awarded a 2012National Medal of Arts award byBarack andMichelle Obama on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, in theWhite House'sEast Room.^[45]

In the 1980s Alpert created the Herb Alpert Foundation and theAlpert Awards in the Arts withthe California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).^[46]

The foundation supports youth and arts education as well asenvironmental issues, and helps fund the PBS seriesBill Moyers on Faith and Reason and laterMoyers & Company.

Alpert and his wife donated $30 million toUniversity of California, Los Angeles in 2007 to form and endow theUCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as part of the restructuredUCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. He donated $24 million, including $15 million from April 2008, toCalArts for its music curricula, and provided funding for theculture-jamming activiststhe Yes Men.^[47]

In 2012, the foundation granted more than $5 million to theHarlem School of the Arts, which allowed the school to retire its debt, restore its endowment and create a scholarship program for needy students. In 2013, the school's building was renamed the Herb Alpert Center. In 2016, Alpert's foundation also bestowed a $10.1 million donation toLos Angeles City College to provide music majors with a tuition-free education, the largest gift to an individual community college in the history of Southern California, and the second-largest gift in the history of the state.^[48] In 2020, Alpert bestowed an additional $9.7 million on the Harlem School of the Arts to upgrade its facility.^[49]

Alpert founded the Louis and Tillie Alpert Music Center inJerusalem, which brings together both Arab and Jewish students.^[50]

In the late 1980s, Alpert started H. Alpert and Co., a short-lived perfume company, which sold products in high-end department stores such asNordstrom. The company launched with two scents, Listen and Listen for Men. Alpert compared perfume to music, with high and low notes.^[51]

In partnership with his daughter Eden, in 2004 Alpert openedVibrato, a jazz club and restaurant located in theBel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.^[52]

On September 17, 2010, the TV documentaryLegends: Herb Alpert – Tijuana Brass and Other Delights premiered onBBC4.^[53]

In 2020,Herb Alpert Is..., a documentary written and directed by John Scheinfeld, was released.^[54]

Alpert married Sharon Mae Lubin atPresidio of San Francisco in 1956.^[14] They had two children, Dore (born 1960) and Eden (born 1966).^[55] The couple divorced in 1971. In 1973, Alpert marriedLani Hall, once the lead singer of A&M groupBrasil '66.^[56] Alpert and Hall have a daughter, actress Aria Alpert, born in 1976.^[11]

Hall and Alpert recorded a live album,Anything Goes, in 2009; a studio album,I Feel You, in 2011;^[57] and another studio album,Steppin' Out, in 2013. AnAllMusic 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."^[58] As of 2025 the couple still performs together.

• 20th century brass instrumentalists
• Herb Alpert: Music for Your Eyes documentary (2003)
• List of artists who reached number one in the United States
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
• List of trumpeters

• Official website
• Herb Alpert atIMDb
• Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass atIMDb
• "Herb Alpert".Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 
• Herb Alpert: BiographyArchived July 4, 2011, at theWayback Machineon a&m records
• Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass biography, sessionography
• Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass discography
• Herb Alpert Interview withMarc Maron, Feb. 2016
• "Tijuana Strings" parody
• Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass playlist onYouTube