Jazz
Pioneering jazz pianist-singer Nat King Cole is best known for classics such as “Mona Lisa” and “The Christmas Song” as well as for hosting his own television show on NBC in 1956. However, it was a Black woman who initially broke that barrier in 1950 on the DuMont Television Network: jazz and classical pianist-singer Hazel Scott.
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That’s just one of the Black history lessons comprising the revelatory PBS documentary American Masters – The Disappearance of Miss Scott, which premieres Feb. 21 (9 p.m. ET, check local listings). Produced and directed by Nicole London, the documentary marks the first in-depth film about the early 20th century star whose fierce and fearless advocacy of civil rights during Jim Crow prompted the stipulation in her contracts that Scott wouldn’t play before segregated audiences. In fact, the documentary notes that Rev. Martin Luther King said the first desegregated audience he sat in was at one of Scott’s shows. And her film contracts stated that she would only perform as herself or as a patron — never a servant — in the movie roles she was offered. She even organized an actors strike during the production of a film because of unfair treatment.
Her impactful career in the aftermath of that strike, however, was further derailed in the U.S. when she was blacklisted during the ‘50s Red Scare by the House Un-American Committee. But that didn’t faze the intrepid Scott. Relocating to Paris in 1957, she added another successful chapter to her legacy before returning to the U.S. in 1967. As she’s quoted in the documentary: “They say I’m impossible. I won’t conform.”
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“That resilience during the era’s McCarthyism was the kind of element that I wanted to highlight,” says London, whose credits include the Emmy-winning American Masters film Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. “I wanted people to know that Scott was a towering figure of her time — and to also understand the reasons why we don’t know her. At a time when there was so little available, she stood up against the odds and it cost her. But it shouldn’t cost us the pleasure and the gift of getting to know her story and learning from it, especially today.”
Born in Trinidad in 1920 and raised in Harlem, New York, Scott was a child prodigy. Taught by her classically trained pianist/saxophonist-music teacher mother Alma, Scott began playing piano at two years old, performed in public at three and by eight was a pupil at the Juilliard School of Music. A member of her mother’s all-female band at 14, Scott landed her first professional gig at 15 with the Count Basie Orchestra. By 19 she was headlining Café Society, the first integrated club in Manhattan. She would later marry and divorce Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a pioneer and civil rights activist in his own right as the first Black congressman from the state of New York.
An engrossing compilation of archival footage and stills, performance clips and animation illuminate Scott’s career journey, which included appearances in films (Something to Shout About, I Dood It, and Rhapsody in Blue), followed by the aforementioned nationally syndicated TV program The Hazel Scott Show, featuring herself and jazz legends Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Providing further context are excerpts from Scott’s unpublished autobiography voiced by Emmy-winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph plus interviews with country artist Mickey Guyton, actresses Amanda Seales and Tracie Thoms and jazz musicians Camille Thurman and Jason Moran.
“I wanted people who weren’t necessarily obvious because [Scott] didn’t just influence jazz. Her reach and influence are so much bigger in terms of the possibilities for women in film, television and elsewhere. Here I am, a Black female director who wouldn’t be in this position if I hadn’t had these footsteps to follow. I also wanted to touch on the importance of friendship between women and women in support systems for each other, especially Black women.”
Influenced and mentored by jazz icons/family friends like Billie Holiday, Fats Waller and Art Tatum, Scott became known for the speed with which she could play and the top-notch improvisational skills she applied in “jazzing” up classic songs. Then there was her dexterous ability at playing two pianos at once. Alicia Keys paid tribute to Scott’s influence and inspiration while hosting the 2019 Grammy Awards during which she played two pianos.
His mother’s high level of musicianship, in addition to her personal crusade for what’s right, is one thing that Scott’s only child, Adam Clayton Powell III, wants viewers to witness. He shared with Billboard that Grammy-winning pianist Michelle Cann and other musicians have recreated his mother’s improvisations from her records for project that will be released in late summer. He adds that Cann told him the project was “like the Olympics, almost impossible to do physically. She said the musicians working on this were staring at the sheet music. But in looking at clips of my mother playing, she’s smiling at the audience — not even looking at the keyboard.”
As the documentary was being developed, Powell learned just how valuable dollar-wise his mother’s talent was after her biographer Karen Chilton (2010’s Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist, from Café Society to Hollywood to HUAC) found some of Scott’s old film contracts. “The idea that my mother was making, in today’s dollars, more than $2 million a year at MGM is like whoa,” he says. “And her hands were insured by Lloyds of London for $1 million in 1940s dollars, which is over $18 million today.”
In The Disappearance of Hazel Scott, viewers will learn as well about her insistence to appear before the House UnAmerican Committee, the end of her troubled marriage, a suicide attempt and the dream job that materialized after her return to the U.S. Throughout it all, Powell says his mother often quoted the French song “Non, je ne regrette rien,” covered by Edith Piaf. Its title translates to “No, I Regret Nothing.”
Plans for New York City’s iconic Blue Note Jazz Club to expand to the U.K. could be at risk, with London’s Metropolitan Police Service expressing fears of a potential “uptick in crime”.
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According to The Standard, plans are in place for a 350-seat venue to be established in the basement of the St Martins Lane hotel in Covent Garden. If the application is approved, the venue would be open until 1am, seven days a week.
However, a Licensing Sub-Committee Report from the City of Westminster has outlined a number of objections from the local police enforcement, who have objected to the venue’s construction on the grounds it would undermine the licensing objective of “prevention of crime and disorder”.
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Airing their fears at a hearing with the Council on Thursday (Feb. 13), officers claimed that granting the application for the venue would “expose more people to crime and disorder in the immediate area and further afield”. The report issued by the City of Westminster also included diagrams outlining antisocial behavior, robbery, theft, and violence in the immediate area, with the Metropolitan Police Service stating their belief that the addition of the new venue “could add to crime, disorder and public nuisance within the immediate area”.
“Police are concerned that if the LSC grant this application within the CIZ [the West End Cumulative Impact Zone], there would be an increase in demand on an already overstretched police service and other emergency services,” the report added, noting that despite their objections, police have however met with the applicant to discuss matters.
The report and hearing also included statements from unnamed local residents who shared their concerns and suggestions for the potential venue. These included recommendations that the venue’s operating hours be limited to 11pm in order to limit the “potential for crime and exploitation of vulnerable jazz lovers“
“It is suggested that it is extremely likely that some of the dispersing jazz lovers may be inebriated to a greater [or] lesser extent [or] perhaps slightly disorientated by their emergence in to the cool night air,” one resident wrote. “They will be immediately vulnerable to the gangs of criminals who already prey on similar groups of people in the Soho area. The 1:00 am exit could become a crime hot spot.”
The applicant has however responded to these concerns in the report, noting that a 1am closing time is “integral to the music scheduling in the basement and the viability of the cultural use” of the venue.
If the application for the venue is approved, it would become the latest iteration of the Blue Note Jazz Club to open around the world, and the first in the U.K.. Founded in New York City in 1981, the club has since expanded to other locations throughout the U.S. (including venues in California and Hawaii), and internationally (including Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Milan, Beijing, and Shanghai).
The Grammys made sure to pay proper tribute to one of the most important figures in 20th century popular music — the late Quincy Jones — with a star-studded tribute performance recognizing the producer, composer and instrumentalist’s varied musical achievements throughout the decades. The performance was introduced by Will Smith, who acknowledged his career would […]
Nominees: Take It Easy (Collie Buddz); Party With Me (Vybz Kartel); Never Gets Late Here (Shenseea); Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired By The Film (Deluxe) (Various Artists); Evolution (The Wailers)
Technically, there are only two original reggae albums nominated here this year. Incredible.
Vybz Kartel and Shenseea scored their first career nominations for their own music this year with Party With Me and Never Gets Late Here, respectively, both dancehall records. Reggae legend Bob Marley is represented through the One Love soundtrack, which features covers of Marley classics from several artists, including Grammy winners Kacey Musgraves, Daniel Caesar, Leon Bridges and Wizkid.
Collie Buddz’s Take It Easy and The Wailers’ Evolution are the remaining nominees. This is Buddz’s second nod in this category in as many years, while Take It Easy features contributions from Caribbean music giants such as Bounty Killer, B-Real and Demarco. The Wailers — formed by former members of Bob Marley’s backing band — are nominated with Evolution, which hit No. 5 on Reggae Albums.
As previous nominees, Shenseea and The Wailers are likely the frontrunners here, but keep an eye out for Vybz Kartel. Last summer (July 31, 2024), the King of Dancehall walked out of prison a free man after serving 13 years of a now-overturned life sentence for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams. By New Year’s Eve, the legendary deejay mounted Freedom Street — his first performance since his release, and the biggest concert the country had seen in nearly 50 years. Though Party With Me lacks an all-out smash à la “Fever” and “Clarks,” Kartel’s narrative may prove too irresistible for any of his competitors to put up a fight. The Freedom Street concert dominated social media, but it happened near the very end of the voting period (Jan. 3), when many voters had presumably cast their ballots already.
Shenseea is probably his stiffest competition here. Never Gets Late Here reached No. 4 on Reggae Albums and incorporates notes of pop-dancehall, R&B, rap, Afrobeats and, most importantly, reggae. With Grammy-approved producers like Di Genius, Tricky Stewart, Ilya, Stargate and London On Da Track in tow, Never Gets Late Here could muster up enough support to pull ahead of Worl’ Boss.
Nonetheless, there’s also a scenario in which Marley’s legend and the film’s box office success lifts the One Love soundtrack to a victory — even if the more exciting win would be Buddz’s project. Traditional reggae projects tend to triumph here anyway, which counts against Kartel and Shenyeng despite their strengths elsewhere.
Prediction: Vybz Kartel, Party With Me
Look Out For: The Wailers, Evolution
After teasing a “new era” on Instagram last week (Jan. 25), Kelela kept the wait short and sweet, unveiling her latest project on Tuesday (Jan. 28). Out Feb. 11, In The Blue Light is a live album capturing Kelela’s intimate, unplugged performances at New York City’s Blue Note jazz club. Last year (May 28-29, 2024), […]
Verve Records and Impulse! Records are launching a new vinyl subscription service that will send members exclusive limited-edition pressings of albums by jazz greats, the Universal Music Group-owned labels announced Friday (Jan. 17).
Dubbed Verve Record Club, the service will give subscribers “exclusive access to legendary recordings, meticulously reissued on high-fidelity vinyl” on a monthly basis, per a press release. The first release, scheduled for February, will be John Coltrane Quartette: Coltrane, an early release for Impulse! Records.
“This is more than a subscription service; it’s an entryway into the heart of jazz history,” said John Pinder, vp of revenue and consumer acquisition for Verve Label Group, in a statement. “With the Verve Record Club, we’re inviting fans to rediscover these extraordinary recordings in a way that honors their artistry and legacy, with the highest quality sound and presentation.”
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Added Ken Druker, senior vp of jazz development at Verve Label Group: “We’re thrilled to bring these classics — and some hidden gems — back to life with an exhaustive attention to detail. It’s an exciting time for jazz fans everywhere.”
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Members of Verve Record Club will receive limited-edition pressings created from analog sources and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, packaged in numbered, tip-on jackets. Only 2,500 copies will be pressed for each release. Additional perks for members include an annual member-exclusive release, early access to upcoming titles and unique merchandise.
The current release schedule also includes albums featuring Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz and Billie Holiday, with releases for Ahmad Jamal and Sarah Vaughan also forthcoming. In addition to Verve and Impulse!, Verve Record Club will offer members “a deep dive into the vaults” of labels including Mercury, CTI, Decca, MGM and others, according to the release.
You can check out the current release schedule below. Visit the official Verve Record Club website to learn more.
February – John Coltrane Quartette: Coltrane
March – Nina Simone: High Priestess of Soul
April – Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly!
May – Bill Evans: Empathy
June – Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Swings Gently with Nelson
July – Stan Getz
August – Billie Holiday: Stay with Me
André 3000 stopped by The Tonight Show on Monday night (Dec. 16) to chat with host Jimmy Fallon about his right-turn into the world of jazz and perform a rendition of one of the songs from his Grammy-nominated solo album New Blue Sun.
Three Stacks stressed to Jimmy that despite his name being on the cover and the LP being tagged as a “solo” project, it was truly a “collective effort.” Asked to describe the vibe of the all-instrumental, no rapping album that came out in November 2023, André said it’s definitely a “very open, trusting free-form exploration.”
Though some fans were bummed that the man widely consider to be one of the greatest MCs of all time put down the mic and picked up woodwinds, André revealed that the title of the first song on the album — “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time” — wasn’t a joke.
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He said that though for years he’s been “producing, making beats and still trying to do a vocal, rap kind of situation. Because I’m still a fan of rap. But that wasn’t on tap right now and that just happened to be what I was doing at the time. So I was like, ‘I enjoy this. Let me share it.’”
During a 17-year hiatus from releasing music as a lead artist, André dabbled in acting and became a kind of traveling minstrel meme among fans who delighted in posting videos of the MC strolling around coffee shops and airports playing one of his many flutes. “You know how when you have your phone you’re usually just scrolling and looking, I’ll play my flute,” he said. In fact, while in Philadelphia shooting a movie years ago, he would be spotted around town playing and people would come up to him and say, “‘you know it’s a game now. People are trying to find you and we’ll tweet and we’ll say, ‘Well, he’s at this park.’”
He also said that before each performance with his band they huddle and pump each other up with the phrase “fly free… that’s what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to really fly free with it. The reward is different, because you have to listen to every second to know what’s happening. It’s just a different muscle, a different exercise than going and performing verses and choruses that you’ve written. Both are rewarding in their own ways.”
Dré then came back later in the show to perform an edited version of the originally 13-minute song “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Shirt Embroidered.”
Watch André 3000 on The Tonight Show below.
Lady Gaga scores her third No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts, as Harlequin debuts atop both tallies (dated Oct. 12). The companion set to her film Joker: Folie à Deux, earned 25,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 3, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 16,000 are traditional album sales.
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Gaga previously topped both rankings with her collaborative albums with Tony Bennett: Love for Sale (in 2021) and Cheek to Cheek (2014).
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Harlequin earns the biggest debut week, by units earned, for any jazz album, or traditional jazz album, since Love for Sale earned 41,000 units in its opening week (Oct. 16, 2021-dated charts).
Equivalent album units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. All Oct. 12, 2024-dated charts will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Oct. 8. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of Harlequin’s first-week units, streaming equivalent album-units comprise nearly 9,000 – equaling 11.34 million official on-demand streams of the album’s songs. The latter figure marks the biggest debut streaming week for a jazz album in over a year, since Laufey’s Bewitched bowed with 22.36 million clicks (Sept. 23, 2023-dated chart).
Harlequin also debuts at No. 20 on the overall Billboard 200 and No. 3 on both Vinyl Albums and Top Album Sales.
Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums rank the week’s most popular jazz and traditional jazz albums, respectively, by equivalent album units earned. The Billboard 200 ranks the week’s most popular albums across all genres, by units. Vinyl Albums and Top Album Sales tally the week’s top-selling vinyl albums, and overall albums, by traditional album sales.
Also on Top Album Sales, Billy Strings’ Highway Prayer debuts at No. 1 with 19,000 sold in its first week – the act’s biggest sales week ever. It’s also the first No. 1 for the artist. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess slips one spot to No. 2 (18,000; down 67%), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is steady at No. 4 (14,000; down 3%), Katy Perry’s 143 falls 2-5 (9,000; down 77%), Luke Bryan’s Mind of a Country Boy bows at No. 6 (nearly 8,000), Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Folklore vaults 33-7 (7,500; up 153% after a stock replenishment of its CD at retail), Stray Kids’ former leader ATE is a non-mover at No. 8 (7,000; down 6%), P1Harmony’s Sad Song falls 3-9 (6,000; down 77%) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft climbs 15-10 (nearly 6,000; up 8%).
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.
For Ezra Collective, things rarely go according to plan. At the start of “Ajala,” the vibrant highlight of new album Dance, No One’s Watching, drummer Femi Koleoso jokingly calls out a crowd who didn’t quite get the memo to clap along. When the London jazz group collected the U.K.’s Mercury Prize in 2023 for their album Where I’m Meant To Be, they collapsed in a heap on the ground, shocked at the news.
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Therein lies the appeal of their group’s emotionally charged hits: it’s OK to be caught off-guard. “The dancefloor can be a reflection of life,” Koleoso tells Billboard just hours ahead of its release on Partisan Records last week (Sept. 27). “Life’s not meant to be perfect, it’s meant to be honest. You can’t have a perfect life because so much of life is not in your control, but you can be honest about every situation you go through and try and weather the storm in a genuine way… that’s what all of the record is about.”
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Long a leader in the U.K.’s storied jazz scene, their new album looks set to take them to new heights. Dance, No One’s Watching could see the band’s first top 10 entry on the U.K.’s Official Album Chart. Later this year, they head to Wembley Arena for their biggest ever show and one of the jazz scene’s largest headline shows in the capital.
Made up of Koleoso, brother TJ (bass), Joe Armon-Jones (synths), Ife Ogunjobi (trumpet) and James Mollison (saxophone), Ezra Collective fuse elements of jazz, highlife, Afrobeats, hip-hop and more in their varied songs. Since meeting at a youth club focused on musicianship and jazz in their native London, the band have released three albums and collaborated with Loyle Carner, Jorja Smith, Kojey Radical and rising U.K. pop star Olivia Dean (the latter guests on new song “No One’s Watching Me”).
They’re one of many venerable independent jazz acts in the U.K. releasing consistently and meeting growing audiences. Last month saxophonist Nubya Garcia released her second studio album Odyssey, as did Nala Sinephro with the gorgeous Endlessness. It’s a scene with Ezra Collective at its core, and one that continues to flourish.
Koleoso discusses his contemporaries, why he wants to retain the giddiness of releasing music and how The Beatles and Fela Kuti inspired their new record.
How are you feeling about the release of the album?
Just so happy. It’s the best part of the journey. My technique is that once the masters approved I won’t listen to the album again until it’s released. Honestly, I’ve forgotten most of it! So when midnight strikes I will open Spotify and listen to it like everyone else. And that helps my excitement levels match everyone else’s.
We’ve been doing it a little while now – 12 years as Ezra Collective – and I’ve been playing music for most of my life, but I’ve still got quite a juvenile innocence and get bare excited when I see my name on Spotify. Once you lose that excitement you’re done, you know?
How does this record compare to what you’ve done previously?
The most recent record [2022’s] Where I’m Meant To Be was very much a documentation of our lockdown and Dance, No One’s Watching is the documentation of being let out again. It was looking at the dancefloor on the Ezra Collective world tour and then writing a narrative for them. So the feeling was a lot of freedom and excitement to be outside again.
What were those gigs like for you?
It was wonderful. You could feel the anticipation of people turning up to Ezra Collective gigs like “I am here to have a good night.” I could feel it. People would come with a smile on their face and a pair of leggings and beat-up trainers, and I could look at them like “you’re here to dance.” People in baggy t-shirts and a pair of jeans and I’m thinking, “Yeah, you didn’t even bring a jacket and it’s November, you are here to dance.” I’m so grateful for that and we ended up mirroring that energy up on stage.
How did you end up recording the album at Abbey Road Studios?
We felt if we were going to make a record documenting the dancefloor the only way for it to sound authentic was for it to have people dancing while we made it, and we needed a studio that had the space. It was never meant to be a live album but it was meant to feel live but sound like a studio record. So we needed people in the room dancing and vibing, but at the same time we needed the equipment to record every instrument’s detail at the highest level and that was the place where it was made the most possible.
That must have provided a unique challenge…
Yeah, but if you look back, other people have also done that. The Beatles did something similar with when they recorded Let It Be; they played the gig on the rooftop, and the recording of some songs from the roof concert made the album. It was the same with J.J.D. by Fela Kuti – it just sounds both deep in quality, but occasionally you hear someone scream. We were taking big inspirations from those types of albums in how we approached it. I’m really proud of how it’s come and you can feel the live elements in the album, but it seems on the sound system like a studio record.
It’s such a beautiful space, but what’s important about Abbey Road is that it’s not reserved to those who can afford it. It has to be for the music of today. You need Nia Archives, Loyle Carner and Dave and the band that are still in sixth form that you’ve never heard of. It needs to be a space that musicians aren’t intimidated by as that’s where you’ll get the best art.
Our first ever EP Chapter 7 was actually recorded at Abbey Road, but we only got in because an engineer snuck us in in the middle of the night and told us “you’ve got one hour before they kick you out” and we just played the songs once and that was it. This time it was nice to have permission to be there.
You won the Mercury Prize in 2023, a shock evident to yourself and the band. What was that moment like?
It was a crazy moment. It couldn’t have gone better. Because we were just excited about the nomination! But we’d honestly not even thought about winning. I told everyone to compose themselves and when they say someone else’s name, don’t be all upset about it. So when they said our name it was pure shock. That’s why we ended up on the floor. It was an unexpectedly beautiful moment. But it was a moment and then it’s back to normal the next day, you know? Which I’m grateful for.
The name Ezra Collective was a bit more recognizable after that moment. I think most of the U.K. music industry was aware of the band if they weren’t beforehand, but in terms of the band, I feel exactly the same as I did when we were in school and just started out. It was just me and my friends making songs and I was just grateful for every ounce of attention they got.
Olivia Dean provides vocals on the wonderful “No One’s Watching Me.” What was that session like?
She is so beautifully talented. It’s the perfect kind of session. She came into the studio and we just spoke about life, about how she was, and I asked her to tell me a bit about what dancing meant to her, and she was attracted to the idea that no one’s watching so just move and get on with it. So we discussed that and she was in the booth on her own with a pen and paper and after a couple of hours she said she was ready to record.
I pressed the red button and this wonderful sound and most beautiful voice came out of her. And I remember instantly after she finished I was like “yeah, you can go home.” Like she didn’t need to add anything, it was so perfect. I think she was shocked at how quickly and easily she wanted to move on but I knew that perfection had been captured immediately.
We recently spoke to Gilles Peterson who featured you on the compilation We Out Here in 2018 alongside your contemporaries like Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd and more. He discussed the fact that your scene knows the value of the community you’re creating that an outsider cannot replicate. Does that ring true to you?
Yeah that rings true. The word community and collective is more important than the name. It’s about how you’re investing into the community and people around you. That’s what the Ezra is all about, and that’s why I’m so proud to be considered a part of the U.K. jazz scene because it’s such a beautiful community.
Later this year you’re headlining Wembley Arena. How are you feeling about it?
I feel great! What a crazy thing to be doing, but I couldn’t be more excited. The game plan is the same it’s always been. There’s not an ounce of nerves. I’m sure on the day there might be a wobble but right now I’m feeling really great.
Was there any hesitation in leveling up to a venue like that?
Nah… we knew we’d be fine [laughs]. The moment we played outside of a pub full of my friends and my family and there were people we didn’t know, that was when we knew we could do anything. It’s the same feeling when we did Ronnie Scott’s, Islington Assembly Hall, the Roundhouse, Hammersmith Apollo, Royal Albert Hall, it’s all the same feeling: it’s like, “Wow, if we can do that then we can do this.” So that’s the energy we’re walking into it with.
Herb Alpert laughs when he says that his sister Mimi — who at 98 is nine years his senior — often asks him, “Why are you doing these concerts? Why are you traveling? Why do you want to do that?” But the 89-year-old trumpet-playing music legend has a ready answer.
“I have to explain to her that it gives me energy to do it,” Alpert — who just released his 50th studio album, appropriately titled 50 — tells Billboard via Zoom. “I’m not on a victory tour here. It’s not about that. It’s that I love doing it. I love to play the horn. I love to play the horn. I love playing with great musicians. I love doing it. I’m a right-brain guy; I play, I’m painting for over 50 years, sculpting for over 40. It just gives me reason to be.”
He’s quick to add however, that “this is landmark year for me. I can’t believe I’ve recorded 50 albums out there. I’ve been married (to singer Lani Hall) 50 years this year. A lot of things have happened in my life that are so startling. I never dreamed of having a career like I’ve had. I’m certainly grateful for it.”
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It’s hard to come up with a superlative that definitively captures Alpert’s career. Born in Los Angeles into a family where everybody played an instrument, Alpert started on trumpet when he was eight, studied at the University of Southern California and played in the Trojan Marching Band and the U.S. 6th Army Band.
He began writing songs during the late ‘50s and putting out records of his own, first billed as Dore (his given name) Alpert, in 1960. Since then, he’s sold more than 74 million records worldwide with his Tijuana Brass band and on his own; placed 39 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 (including two No. 1s); won eight Grammy Awards; received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; won a Tony; got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006; and received National Medal of the Arts in 2013.
Alpert was also the “A” in the famed A&M Records label, which he started in 1962 with Jerry Moss. Moss passed away 13 months ago, and another of A&M’s stalwarts, Brazilian keyboardist and Brasil ’66 bandleader Sergio Mendes, died earlier this month — another death that hit close to home for Alpert, who signed the group to A&M and produced its 1966 debut album, which remained on the Billboard 200 for more than two years and was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012. It was Mendes who introduced Alpert to Hall, too, when she was part of Brasil ’66.
“He was an extraordinarily gifted musician. We just hit it off,” Alpert says of Mendes, adding that he and Hall spoke with him almost daily during the last year of his life. “He was a real person. He was excited about so many things. He loved great food. He loved great wine. He loved great restaurants. He spoke several languages. He was into life. He was a very unusual guy. He’s missed by everyone who came into contact with him.”
Alpert’s record of having four albums simultaneously in the Billboard top 10 back in 1966, meanwhile, was matched last year by none other than Taylor Swift.
“I sent her a nice little FaceTime, and I was very happy for her,” Alpert says. “I think she’s a really good artist. I don’t actually follow her music. I hear a couple of things, but I like her. She has a lot of integrity. She understands her audience. She’s very sensitive. She’s smart. I don’t think that record is carved in stone; I like to see other artists jump in there, too. I have other records, so it’s alright.”
What’s most impressive and inspiring is that Alpert is still doing it, and also planning for the future. He’s released a dozen albums since 2010 — eight of which debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. He approached the 10-track 50 much like he did his other releases.
“I don’t even think about it as being an album,” he explains. “I have a studio at home here, and I just record at my whim, individual songs and melodies that just touch me…. I don’t have a master plan for recording an album. I don’t have a concept. I just take songs that I like, and when I feel it’s worthy of putting out there for other people to listen to, I put out an album. But really I’m just trying to entertain myself more than anything.”
50 features Alpert’s usual mix of original compositions and covers. One of those covers — The Chords’ 1954 hit “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” — is particularly special for him.
“I was kind of a snob with classical music until I heard ‘Sh-Boom,’” Alpert recalls. “I was in high school, and it was the first time I heard a song like that. There was something about it…. I remember sitting down at a friend’s house who had the radio on, listening to this song, thinking, ‘I like that. I like the feeling of that song.’ I really didn’t understand what the lyric was about ’til much later, but I liked the harmonies and the feeling. That song got me on to pop music and got me thinking about some of the songs that were out there in that period. Then I started listening to jazz and never looked back.”
Alpert maintains that his litmus for music has remained the same throughout the decades. “Melody reigns supreme,” he says. “Any artist who’s had success over the years has to have good taste when it comes to melody. You can have a fabulous lyric and terrible melody and I don’t think that song’s gonna go very far. But you can have a fabulous melody with a pretty good lyric and that’ll go far. And if you have a fabulous lyric with a fabulous melody, i.e. Burt Bacharach and Hal David and all those sophisticated songs they did, it hits. Even with jazz, after expressing a melody all of a sudden they’ll improvise on the chord changes of the particular song and invent a whole new melody. That’s exciting.”
As he reaches this year’s milestones, Alpert is already eyeballing the future. He plans to release a recording of “The Christmas Song” for this holiday season (“It touches me, and I feel like a lot of people might feel the same”) and reports that “I have another Christmas album in my head.” And while he and Hall have concert dates books into mid-December, next February Alpert plans to hit the road with a revived version of the Tijuana Brass, the band he led from the early ‘60s into the mid-70s and released hits such as the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 “The Lonely Bull” and the Billboard 200-topping 1965 album Whipped Cream & Other Delights.
“A lot of people have asked; they want to hear that Tijuana Brass sound again, so I’m gonna do it and I’m excited about it,” he says. “I always like the music. It always gave me a good feeling when I hear it, and I know a lot of people feel the same. It’s gonna be fun for me to revisit that whole sound again and play some of the old standards — ‘The Lonely Bull,’ ‘Spanish Flea,’ ‘This Guy’s In Love With You.’” He also plans to include his 1979 hit “Rise” in the repertoire, one of his two Hot 100 toppers (the other being “This Guy’s In Love With You”).
And beyond all that? “I hope to keep living,” Alpert says with a laugh. “Honestly, I don’t know if there’s anything I’m missing. I play the horn every day. I’d like to be able to play a little better bebop, but that’s an inch at a time. There’s not much, though. It’s been a great life.”