Jazz fans should be chomping at the bit to win these two pairs of free tickets we just scored for you to hear Grammy award-winning jazz trumpeter & songwriter Herb Alpert & Grammy award-winning singer Lani Hall at the Guthrie Theater on Monday, June 13, 2011 at 7:30pm ($54 tickets, unless you win one of our free pairs).
The pair – married for almost 30 years – just released their first studio album in ten years, “I Feel You,” a CD that blends their unique stylings to reinvent classics like the Beatles “Blackbird” and Van Morrison’s “Moondance.” It’s pretty sweet.
“I think originality is the whole key,” says Herb Alpert. “The thrill for us has always been to find our own little niche. When we find songs that we like, we try to do them in a way that puts our own spin on them. And we were so fortunate to find the versatile and creative musicians in our band, Michael Shapiro (drums), Bill Cantos (keyboards) and Hussain Jiffry (bass), to work with and fill this music with our personal touch.”
Alpert is a legend in the music business and the co-founder of A & M Records, one of the most successful independent record labels in history. In the decades before Alpert and partner Jerry Moss sold A&M in l990, he significantly influenced and/or produced a diverse roster of talent, including Janet Jackson, Gato Barbieri, George Benson, Chuck Mangione, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, Milton Nascimento, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, The Carpenters, The Police, Joe Cocker, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton and scores of others.
To generations of music fans, Alpert is the dark-haired, trumpet-playing songmaker whose name instantly brings to mind memorable songs like The Lonely Bull, A Taste of Honey, This Guy’s in Love with You and Rise. These are but a few of the tunes Alpert recorded either as leader of the legendary Tijuana Brass or as an artist in his own right, yielding 5 #1 popular hits, 8 Grammy awards, 14 Platinum and 15 gold albums – plus a staggering 72 million albums sold worldwide. Of Alpert’s performing style, the late Miles Davis once remarked, “You don’t have to hear but three notes before you know it is Herb Alpert.”
Alpert is also a MOT (Member of the Tribe), born in L.A. to a family with Russian, Romanian and very musical origins. His father was a tailor and a talented mandolin player. His mother taught the violin. His brother was a drummer. Alpert started taking lessons in trumpet at the age of 8.
The Chicago-born Hall, who’s especially known for her emotional vocal interpretations, started her professional career as the original lead singer with Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66. It was in 1966, while singing with the group in an audition for A & M Records, that she met Alpert. They were married in 1973 and since then their lives and musical gifts have mingled. Hall has enjoyed a distinguished solo career, having recorded some 14 solo albums (variously in English, Portuguese and Spanish.) In 1983, she sang the title song of the James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery, and won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance for her album Es Facil Amar in 1986. She also has credits as a lyricist, producer, arranger, writer and editor.
Watch Herb Alpert & Lani Hall on Youtube here:
httpv://youtu.be/fx-cUiB4Ipk
So how can you win free tickets to Alpert & Hall’s show at the Guthrie?
Answer this question in the comments to this post before Thursday, June 9th at midnight to enter to win one of our free pairs of tickets:
Is jazz Jewish? Why or why not?
There’s no correct answer – we’ll be picking our two winners randomly. Good luck! And enjoy the show!
(Photo: Herb Alpert)
Is Jazz Jewish? Well – how shall I count the ways? At the turn of the 20th century, Jewish immigrants from Europe mixed with black immigrants from the South in New York and Chicago to innovate American Jazz. While Jazz may have originated in New Orleans int he late 19th century, it reached new heights when urban jazz mixed klezmer riffs with black gospel harmonies and Afircan rhythms. Al Jolson popularized it – the move is called The Jazz Singer (not the opera singer). Henry Ford warned ‘moronic and sensuous Jewish jazz music’ was corrupting white youth. The Nazi’s banned jazz a ‘degenerate Jewish-Nigger music.’ Benny Goodman, George Gershwin, Stan Getz, Kenny Gee (nee Gorelick),and numerous others. Klezmer bands and more.
Of course Jazz is Jewish.
Yes, jazz does have Jewish roots! There are many similarities between Jewish and African-American Jazz with the nod to Yiddish styles of music. Begging the question: Did Jews get into Jazz as a means of expression or simply as a way to continue their musical traditions. From the dance bands in the swing era, to the writers of standards a and the writers of avant garde jazz, Jews have been and are a great part of this country’s jazz heritage! וווּנדערבאַר
No. It’s a 4/4 swing beat, not “FORE-skin.” As a Jew that has had a Bris, “I’m just sayin’…”
Does it come from the heart, move the soul and give you pause? Well then sho’nuf it’s Jewish.
Of course jazz is Jewish. It takes a single musical phrase and create 5-15 minutes of interpretation on the phrase–just like Torah study.
Yes. Both can touch your soul, and both can be misunderstood.
Yes, Jews have always been and are there, wherever jazz is performed, in whatever country.
Yes, Jews have used jazz as a way to break the color bar in American jazz, and in using jazz as an instrument against apartheid and as a means of survival in Nazi death camps.
Yes, Through the decades, the contributions of many Jewish performers have greatly influenced the blues and jazz music scene
Is jazz Jewish? Was “The Jazz Singer” the son of a cantor? I’m certain a good argument could be made that jazz grew out of klezmer.
I’d say yes. Irving Berlin, Al Jolson,Sophie Tucker, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Dinah Shore are a few of the 20th century’s jazz giants who were of Jewish background. Need I say more?
Congrats to Mal – you’re the winner! I’ll follow up with an email shortly.
And Mensch Maschine gets a pair too – will follow up with an email.