50 Albums Later, There’s Still a Bit of Luck Left in Herb Alpert’s Trumpet
The 89-year-old trumpeter sits down with Paste for a career-spanning interview, tracing his origins in the Los Angeles jazz scene to his new, aptly-titled album 50. Along the way, he talks about working with Burt Bacharach, the Wrecking Crew, Sam Cooke, and the Carpenters, selling more than 70 million records and letting the music take him someplace new more than half-a-century after releasing The Lonely Bull.
Born on the East Side of Los Angeles in Boyle Heights during the Great Depression, Herb Alpert is a first-generation son of Jewish immigrants. His father, Louis, was a skilled mandolin player and his mother, Tillie, was a trained violinist. Even his siblings, David and Mimi, were musicians, developing formidable talents on the drums and piano, respectively. As an eight-year-old California kid, Alpert picked up the trumpet and, after years on the Fairfax High School gym team, made the instrument his full-time concentration—a vocation that would take him to USC, where he’d join the Trojan Marching Band and then, while serving with the Army in the Korean War, played in the 6th Army Band. He even nabbed an uncredited role as a drummer in The Ten Commandments.
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