I FEEL YOU - Reviews & Comments

At long last the new Herb & Lani CD I Feel You has been released, so feel free to post your own review and/or comments about this new album!

Herb Alpert & Lani Hall
I FEEL YOU
Concord Jazz CIA-32757-02


Produced and Arranged by Herb Alpert & Lani Hall with Bill Cantos, Michael Shapiro and Hussain Jiffry

Songs:

• 1. Moondance (Van Morrison) - 3:20
  2. Cast Your Fate To The Wind (Vince Guaraldi/Carol Werber) - 4:17
  3. There Will Never Be Another You (Harry Warren/Mack Gordon) - 2:51
  4. Fever (Eddie J. Cooley/John Davenport) - 3:50
  5. Viola (Viola Fora De Moda) (Edu Lobo/Jose Carlos Capinan) - 4:40
  6. Something Cool (Billy Barnes) - 3:13
  7. What Now My Love (Gilbert Becaud/Pierre Delanoe/Carl Sigman) - 3:41
  8. Here Comes The Sun (George Harrison) - 3:31
  9. Blackbird (John Lennon/Paul McCartney) - 3:32
  10. Club Esquina (Clube Da Esquina) (Milton Nascimento/Lo Borges/Marcio Borges) - 4:28
  11. Berimbau (Baden Powell De Aquino/Vincius De Moraes) - 4:10
  12. I Feel You (Bill Cantos) - 3:10
  13. Call Me (Tony Hatch) - 3:48
  14. 'Til There Was You (Meredith Wilson) - 2:39
  15. A Taste Of Honey (Bobby Scott/Ric Marlowe) - 3:32 (Bonus Track from iTunes)

Musicians:
Herb Alpert - Trumpet and Vocals
Lani Hall - Lead Vocals
Bill Cantos - Acoustic Piano, Fender Rhodes, Organ, Keyboards, Synthesized Strings, Background Vocals and a great attitude
Michael Shapiro - Drums, Percussion, Kalimba, Effects, Background Vocals and a great attitude
Hussain Jiffry - Bossa Fretted & Fretless Bass, Vector Bassette Electric Upright, Background Vocals and a great attitude

The loops for "What Now My Love", "Moondance", "Call Me" and "There Will Never Be Another You" were arranged by Michael Shapiro

Loops engineered by Hussain Jiffry

Recorded by Mike Harrison at Sandbox Studios 2

Mixed by Herb Alpert with special thanks to Nathaniel Kunkel, Mike Harrison, Hussain Jiffry, Alan Meyerson, Doug Trantow and Louis Oberlander

Mastered by Doug Sax and Robert Hadley at The Mastering Lab in Ojai, CA

Heartfelt thanks to Brian Avnet, Xander Smith ("Road Manager Extraordinaire"), Gerry Wersh, Andreas Neumann

Manager: Brian Avnet (Avnet Management)

To our "Good Humor Tour" Band: Michael Shapiro, Bill Cantos and Hussain Jiffry without their musicianship, creativity, heart and humor this CD would not have been possible.

Photography & Art Direction: Andreas Neumann
Album Art: Benjamin McAllister
Album Photo Shoot: SIOUXX Inc.

Stylist: Lizette Pena
Hair & Make-up: Khadija Donatelli Nuemann
Producer: David Kemp

Liner Notes by Lani Hall Alpert



Capt. Bacardi

I've just given this a first listening and will give it another couple of listens before I do a review. So far for me there are three outstanding tracks - "Cast Your Fate To The Wind", "Viola" and "Blackbird". Herb's playing is terrific throughout. I'm a little surprised that Lani isn't featured more and that Herb sings on a couple of tracks.

The way they do these songs is a bit intriguing. The melodies are familiar, but they took quite a few liberties on the chord progressions. Fortunately, it works most of the time. Time to give it another listen....



Capt. Bacardi

"Club Esquina" is my favorite track by a long shot. No wonder; it was co-written by Milton Nascimento.

My newspaper said IFY would be released on Feb. 8, but I found my copy at Disc Exchange on Feb. 1.

JB

The All-Music Guide site did a nice little write up on the new album. Interesting that they displayed it under Lani's name and not Herb's.

Capt. Bacardi

Yeah, that confused me too -- if I do a search for Herb Alpert in our music ordering site, the album does not come up in his listings -- but it's listed under "Lani Hall/Herb Alpert" so I don't know what's up.

Gotta disagree on the cover. I think it shows a warm embrace of two people who clearly love each other. It works for me.



Capt. Bacardi

Same here.

Herb Alpert savoring the freedom of improv on new album, tour
Story by Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
SoundSpike Contributor

Published February 10, 2011 11:22 AM

For more than 50 years, Herb Alpert has made his mark on the music business, as a trumpeter and the "A" in A&M Records. This week, he released his first studio recording with his wife, Lani Hall, a collection called "I Feel You."

The songs on the album cover several reinterpreted classics spanning four decades, including Van Morrison's "Moondance" and Peggy Lee's "Fever," as well as two Beatles tunes, "Here Comes The Sun" and "Blackbird." All the songs on "I Feel You" are filled with unique and innovative arrangements, and skilled improvisations give them fresh life. Also on the CD is a reinvented version of the Tijuana Brass hit "What Now My Love." The album was recorded in Los Angeles.

"When we use songs that are recognizable, we try to do it in a way that hasn't been heard before," Alpert told SoundSpike via telephone from Malibu. "Some people are hearing these songs for the first time. They have a new wrinkle. They just give a listener another way of approaching a song that they've heard over and over again."

The project came about organically. Four years ago, Alpert, Hall and their band -- drummer Michael Shapiro, keyboardist Bill Cantos and bassist Hussain Jiffry -- performed live. Just out of curiosity, Alpert asked his engineer to record the shows.

"When I heard it back, I thought, 'Hmm, this might make a good CD,'" Alpert said. "That was the concept for the first [live] album [2009's 'Anything Goes']. I wanted to have some fun playing and doing some small venues with my wife, and that was it. When we got this tremendous feedback that we were getting from the audience, we decided to put out 'Anything Goes.' The record company obviously wanted a follow-up to that, so here we go."

Alpert called the project "challenging" but not difficult. The duo started with 30 songs and whittled it down as they rehearsed with "the guys."

"My whole feeling is, if it's fun to play, it's going to be fun to listen to," Alpert said. "That's what I go on. When we have fun rehearsing a particular song and something feels good about it, I say, 'Hmm. Maybe someone else might think it's fun to listen to, too.'"

Shapiro, Cantos and Jiffry will join Hall and Alpert on stage when they tour together starting Feb. 16. So far only a handful of dates have been announced. However, Alpert expects to hit the West Coast later this spring.

"Live is really a fun experience for us," said Alpert, who began playing trumpet when he was 8. "What happens is Lani pretty much establishes the song. Then everything that's happening behind her is improv, aside from the chord structure that is set, and we know the general, the general form of it. Then what happens is each musician is free to express themselves however they choose.

"That's the fun of it for me That's why I'm having a lot more fun playing with this concept than I did in the '60s, which was fun in a different way. Night after night I was pretty much playing the same songs pretty much the way they were recorded."

At the concerts, Alpert said fans can expect to hear cuts from "I Feel You" as well as tracks from "Anything Goes." He'll also insert a medley of Tijuana Brass "oldies but goodies but here again done in a little different way than they were originally recorded."

With the Tijuana Brass, Alpert said, he was making short, 2-minute, 3-minute records for radio play. This time it's different.

"It wasn't appropriate for that particular concept to go out and do some be-bop on them," Alpert said about the Tijuana Brass era. "They were set into their place without having the ability to just go off on each song in an improvisational way."

http://www.soundspike.com/news/tour/1557-herb_alpert_tour_herb_alpert_savoring_the.html

Since I had time today I added all of the credits from the CD for those who haven't gotten this album yet.



Capt. Bacardi

Music Scene: Herb Alpert and Lani Hall
By Jay N. Miller
GateHouse News Service

Herb Alpert has always been underrated as a jazz player. That’s what happens when a musician bursts onto the pop charts at age 27, sells more than 13 million albums in one year (1966), paves the way for many recording innovations and manages his own record label –– and then sells that label for more than $500 million.

With that kind of resume –– 15 gold albums, 14 platinum albums and eight Grammys –– who’d care about how people view him?

But Alpert has always been a renaissance man, and he’d just as soon be recognized as a talented improviser, too. Along with being a sterling record producer, bandleader, A&R ace with a glittery track record of signing talent, savvy record-company executive and, not to mention, critically acclaimed painter and sculptor, Alpert has always kept a hand in jazz.

Fellow trumpeter Miles Davis once observed that you can tell a Herb Alpert tune within the first three notes he plays. That warm and inviting tone is still immediately identifiable, and hearing it in more of a jazz setting makes Alpert’s latest CD a real treat.

The album, “I Feel You,” is a jazz showcase for the trumpeter and his wife, as they tackle an intoxicating collection of pop classics, some well-known and others almost-forgotten gems.

Peggy Lee’s “Fever” is a well-known standard, for example, and the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” and “Blackbird” are familiar to most music fans. But a jazz treatment of Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” or a revisiting of 1960s hits like “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” or “What Now My Love” makes this CD a rare gem.

Better yet, the arrangement style on the record has Alpert commenting musically on the lines sung by the golden-voiced Lani Hall. It is the best sort of improvisation, expanding and enhancing our understanding of the lyrics and vocals.

“My playing is all improvisation on this record, the whole thing,” said Alpert from his California studio. “I was channeling myself, I guess, but the whole concept was Lani sings, and the rest of us come in behind her. All the playing behind her is basically improv. It’s a given that we know the chords to all these songs beforehand, but after that we let it fly.”

That approach came out of a desire to redefine these songs, many of which are familiar or will jog music fans’ memories when their melodies are heard. The Hall/Alpert versions are not radically altered, but more like lovingly re-interpreted. The band also includes keyboardist Bill Cantos, bassist Hussain Jiffry and drummer Michael Shapiro.

“The idea is how to take a song that’s been heard hundreds of times and play it in a way that has people hearing it differently,” Alpert said. “We started out with about 30 songs we liked and wanted to explore, and some made the grade and some that ... didn’t.

“The first cut, ‘Moondance,’ came out of our bassist playing a groove that was destined for something else. I don’t think I’ve even heard another version of ‘Moondance,’ other than Van Morrison’s, but that melody sticks with you and it’s one of my favorite tracks on the CD.”

If it seems like a long time since we’ve heard “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” its melody is instantly infectious, a quality Alpert noticed, too. With Hall’s whispery vocal, Alpert, 75, does a masterful job of weaving his improv around the melody.

“I’m mainly plugged into melodies,” he said, “and I’d find myself whistling that one in the shower. It was a great record, written by Vince Guaraldi, who’s a great jazz guy. I guess you’d call that kind of an obscure choice today, but it got nice play in the ’60s, and we’re glad to bring it back.”

Peggy Lee’s “Fever” is among America’s best-known tunes, but the Hall/Alpert rendition is a stripped-down stroll, a late-night reverie that uncovers new facets to the tune.

“What Now My Love” is done as an instrumental, with the trumpet’s languorous theme sounding like half of a conversation. “Here Comes the Sun” becomes a stately jazz ballad, while the other Beatles tune, “Blackbird,” is reshaped into a dramatic pop tune with nearly a call-and-response structure. On the old standard “There Will Never Be Another You,” Alpert’s trumpet works as deft counterpoint to Hall’s vocal, providing practically a scat-singing commentary.

“Commentary and counterpoint are a good description of what we’re doing,” Alpert said. “When we play as a group we are responding to the true feeling of the songs, and jazz, of course, involves improvising within the song structures. It can be hard to cover people like the Beatles, for instance, but we still try to put our own personal stamp on the songs. You have to try and go beyond what they did, scramble them up in a way that makes people listen to the lyrics a little differently, or hear them a different way.”

“‘Fever’ is a special case, a song even our parents were listening to,” Alpert added. “The goal there is to play it in such a way that people recognize it, yet also play it in such a way that people might feel they’re really hearing it for the first time.”

Alpert’s life outside music has been pretty busy. He’s produced Broadway shows –– most notably “Angels in America” –– opened a jazz club in Bel Air and crafted a thriving second career as a sculptor. His latest exhibit, “Black Totems,” has earned rave reviews. In 2007, he and his wife donated $30 million to endow the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, and he funded CalArts and its music programs to the tune of many millions more. His Herb Alpert Foundation regularly supports public television productions.

“I’m not doing any more Broadway shows,” Alpert said, “although they were fun at the time, and I think we turned out some good shows. My art and sculpture is absolutely a major focus right now.”

http://www.therecordherald.com/entertainment/x1179521450/Music-Scene-Herb-Alpert-and-Lani-Hall



Capt. Bacardi

In the foodie world there is a term called "deconstruction", which basically is taking the ingredients of a classic dish and reinventing that same dish. That's how I view I Feel You, a collection on mainly classic songs that go through this decontruction method. For the most part, it turns out to be a tasty treat!

Moondance - I'm so used to Van Morrison's original version, so this was quite a surprise. Gotta love Hussain Jiffry's bass groove to start things off, with Herb's muted trumpet stating the melody. Herb and Lani sing a couple of verses of the tune, then Herb and Bill Cantos do a little cat and mouse exchange, while Hussain's bass keeps things in check. Nice tune.

Cast Your Fate To The Wind - I was never a huge fan of this song, but I absolutely love this version. Lani sings the melody over Michael Shapiro's drum, then Herb provides some beautiful horn work, which starts a bit subtle then explodes throughout the rest of the song. This is a true highlight for me.

There Will Never Be Another You - This starts out with a nice groove and Herb's playful horn. Herb then sings, and it's really kind of weak. It's more of a rasp and I keep thinking he needs to cough up something. Maybe it wasn't in the right key for singing. Fortunately, his muted trumpet solo saves the day. Really nice playing.

Fever - Lani gives this a bit of a sultry reading over an exotic drum beat. Herb provides a trumpet solo that sounds similar to what he did on the Re-Whipped album.

Viola (Viola Fora De Moda) - This has become one of my favorite Brazilian tunes over the past few years. Lani starts things off with Bill's piano, then Herb pops in with the entire rhythm section providing a nice groove. I'm guessing that's Bill singing along with Lani on the chorus. Herb just seems comfortable playing on this tune, going muted and open. A very strong track and a clear favorite of mine.

Something Cool - Herb starts singing and I'm getting nervous. But this song seems to suit him just fine. It's one of those songs where he sounds believable as a singer. In the liner notes Lani mentions that June Christy made this song popular in the 50's and that no male has ever sung this before. This is a nice ballad, and sounds as if it could've been from Midnight Sun. I like it.

What Now My Love - A bit of an African rhythm starts things off with Herb playing the melody. Can't say this did much for me at all. My least favorite track of the album.

Here Comes The Sun - When I mentioned deconstruction earlier, this is a prime example. When doing a Beatles tune you'd better be sure you're not just copying what's been done before, and brother they really get out there on this version. Love Shapiro's drumming on this track while Lani seems to stay the course with the melody. Another Re-Whipped feeling on Herb's solo. Very unique interpretation. I like this a lot.

Blackbird - This reminds me of something that Cassandra Wilson did several years ago. It starts off with a bit of a rubato feel before the rhythm section kicks in with Herb's impressive solo. Love Shapiro's drumming on this track. I can listen to this over and over. My favorite track of the album. This is just incredible!

Club Esquina (Clube Da Esquina) - This sounds almost exactly like the version Manolo Badrena did on his album that Herb produced in '79. It's a very simple and somewhat plain arrangement, yet it just draws me into a trance while listening to it. Lani again provides a sultry vocal, then Herb adds a harmony trumpet that has a mournful quality to it. This is just gorgeous.

Berimbau - Another Brazilian favorite of mine, with Herb providing a mysterious quality to his solo, no doubt helped by the reverb. This definitely is not the Brasil '66 version. Very nice.

I Feel You - A Bill Cantos original, with Lani's beautiful voice totally exposed for our listening pleasure. This sounds like it could fit on Lani's Hello It's Me album. Herb provides a brief, poignant trumpet solo. Beautiful.

Call Me - A dark approach to this song. Lani's vocals really stand out on this song, with Herb doing another mournful solo. Love Bill's strings and "vibes" work on this.

'Til There Was You - Hussain's playful bass starts things off, with some finger snaps providing the rhythm and Herb's muted trumpet playing the melody. It's a brief, quirky song, although Herb really doesn't do much on the horn on this track.

A Taste Of Honey (Bonus Track) - This is pretty much the version Herb did on the Jools Holland show, with a bit of a different ending. It's okay, but it doesn't compare to either the TJB version or the Midnight Sun version. I can take this or leave it.

Overall, this is a very solid album - I would give this 4 stars out of 5. If you're expecting a perky, happy album you may be disappointed. I think it's a pretty ballsy album by Herb and Lani. It's very different from the "norm" and may require some repeat listening. But that's okay in my book. They take some chances here, and for the most part it works quite well. Herb's trumpet playing is solid throughout and Lani's vocals are impeccable as usual. The arrangements are unique, to say the least, and I think that's what makes this a solid album. I hope I get a chance to see them perform in concert this year!



Capt. Bacardi

Great review Captain. My copy arrived today but I haven't had a block of time to sit down and listen, and that's what I want to do with it. Maybe over the weekend.

Harry

Yeah, I listened to it about a dozen times before doing my review. Tomorrow night I'm taking my GF to a nice dinner for Valentine's and this CD will be playing in the car, so I hope it gets her in the mood. Of course, being with me how could she not be in the mood?


Capt. "Lips" Bacardi