[filmpenner]

Anybody going to the show in the Phoenix area? As a huge Herb fan (who isn't on this board, eh?), I'm really looking forward to it. I saw him in April of 2008 in LA with the initial tour and thought the intimate venue and concert was great. (It was at the Redcat.)

My wife has since developed an Internet show about following one's passions, creating a better world, and inspiring others to follow their dreams. We're hoping to get a brief interview with Herb & Lani because their story reflects these themes. Either before or after the show. Or even the next day, if they're still in town. If anybody has any "secret" connections they'd like to share to help out, that would be much appreciated.

Regardless of getting an interview, we're going to have a wonderful time at the concert. Of that much I am certain.

Ron Peer
ron.peer@cox.net

[filmpenner]

Just following up ...

The Herb and Lani Concert in Scottsdale was great! The band was on the mark! The song lineup was identical to that in LA the previous night, except there was only one encore and it was the Jobim medley.

Unfortunately, my wife and I thought the audience response was rather lame. This was QUITE a senior crowd. The majority of the audience seemed to be older than Herb ... at least, they certainly acted like it! I swear, it was almost as if they didn't know where they were.

Surprisingly, Herb let the audience ask questions after virtually every song. The house lights stayed down so you had to shout out your questions. I tried to participate as often as possible because of the semi-comatose audience.

At one point, Herb started to talk about the band’s arrangement of a classic Irving Berlin song, how they gave it a unique approach. And he trailed off by asking the audience, “And that song is ‘Let’s …?’”

And the audience yelled out, “Let’s Fall in Love.”

Herb, momentarily taken aback, said, “Uh, no. ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance.’” Then the band immediately rushed into the number. Obviously, no one in the audience had purchased Anything Goes. Or very few anyway.

Once, after a song, Herb paused for questions again … an old woman sitting next to my wife yelled out with indignation, “Play some Tijuana Brass!”

Herb stopped dead. “I was waiting for that one,” he said. He explained that they would be playing some TJB tunes later in the show. Somebody else asked why he hadn’t been recording and touring more. He said that he was afraid that nobody would want to hear new stuff and would be fixated on his previous career with the TJB. (Yeah, like the old woman next to us!)

Anyway, the performances were great, as were the acoustics and sound system in the building. They sounded better live in concert than they do on the album, in my opinion. It was fascinating to see differences in performances compared to the album. How they would go off on an improvisational riff that would color the songs in a new way, sometimes slightly, sometimes heavily. Very nice, very fun.

Earlier I had posted that my wife and I were hoping to get an interview with Herb and Lani for my wife’s internet show. Well, that didn’t happen because Herb and Lani immediately attended a special VIP reception for donors of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts after the show. However, we did get to meet Hussain Jiffry and Mike Shapiro for a few minutes.

The result: yesterday we did awesome 30-minute phone interview with Hussain and we have Mike Shapiro ready to go next week. Bill Cantos is interested too, so before long we’ll have most of the band “in the can.”

Will Herb and Lani soon follow? Time will tell.

I will post the link to the Hussain Jiffry interview when it is up and running.

Ron

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

About 1974 or 1975 Herb Alpert's TJB did a concert in Phoenix. I was in college at the time but a lot of the crowd looked like Sun City folks. Some of them thought the performance was to loud. When Alpert asked for a request some oldster asked for Spanish Eyes. Jeez... later...JO