# Herb Alpert: “Jazz is All About Freedom and Points the Way”: Photos, Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/05/31/herb-alpert-jazz-is-all-about-freedom-and-points-the-way-photos-video/
- Published: 2020-05-31T15:22:39+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Iconic trumpeter, A&M Records co-founder, painter, sculptor, philanthropist and
past recipient of WBGO’s Champions of Jazz Gala Award continues to give back during
the coronavirus pandemic.**

Speaking to WBGO’s News Director Doug Doyle from his California home, Alpert talked
about jazz, his foundation, the renovation of the Harlem School of the Arts and 
the 26th annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts recipients.

Alpert says he and his wife Grammy-award-winning vocalist Lani Hall had to postpone
their extensive tour schedule because of the pandemic.  They haven’t ventured out
past his property for quite some time.

“You know I’m in that category where they scare you to death.  If you’re over 80
watch out, if it gets you, you’re a goner.  I’m afraid to go out of the house.  
I’m a lucky guy, married to an angel and my life has been a charmed life.  I feel
a little guilty. I’m doing what I would be doing last year at this time when nothing
was going on with this virus.  So here I am painting, sculpting, making music and
being an introvert.  I’m fine doing that.  I’m in heaven.  I can do my stuff.  There
are a lot of people out there that don’t have that same situation.  I feel sorry
for the jam, the mess we’re into right now.  I hope it resolves nicely. It’s a very
frightening time for everybody.  I think we’re all wondering what the heck is going
to happen in the futue.  It’s hard to predict what happens next month, next year
or next week.  We’re just kind of hoping for the best.”

[[

Herb Alpert says he’s stayed at home during the coronavirus virus and calls it a
very frightening time

Earlier this month, The Herb Alpert Foundation and the California Institute of the
Arts held its 26th annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts in the categories of Dance,
Film/Video, Music. Theatre and Visual Arts.  Five unrestricted $75,000 grants were
presented to exceptional mid-career artists.  The recipients were honored during
a vitual ceremony hosted by Alpert and his wife on Friday, May 22.

“It turns out there were hundreds of people watching this ceremony.  It was very
real.  The artists that won the awards were chiming in with sensitive and beautiful
stories.  You know there’s something about when you’re in a room, a chat room or
a zoom room with people that are artists or respecting the arts there’s a different
energy.”

The 2020 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts recipients are Karen Sherman – Dance,  Sky
Hopinka – Film/Video, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – Music, Phil Soltanoff – Theatre
and Firelei Baez -Visual Arts.

“I’ve always loved the artists that travel the road less traveled, those are the
artists that touch me.”

Trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is the nephew of legenadary jazz saxophonist
Donald Harrison.

“He had a really interesting horn, kind of a take-off of Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet.
It’s beautiful.  He’s a sensitive, wonderful giving musician.”

Alpert, who stressed he is not involved in the selection of the winners of the highly
competitive awards, was asked about  his thoughts on jazz.

“I think music in general is the heartbeat and soul of our country and I think we
need that.  Jazz is about freedom.  I think what’s the interesting part of these
five art forms are that they’re all the same for the most part.  It’s all about 
freedom of expression and imagination and being totally honest with what you say
or do and we need more of that.  I think that’s why jazz kind of points the way.
I think we’re all looking for freedom in the United States and around the world.
It’s the one thread that binds us all.”

When the creative trumpeter became a sensation in the 1960’s with Herb Alpert and
the Tijuana Brass, he decided he wanted to make visual music.  He wants to make 
music that takes you someplace.

“I think all they really good artists that appealed to me through the years, let’s
talk about jazz.  Miles Davis had that ability.  That _Kind of Blue_ album that 
still sells to this day and the enormous amount of records that were sold, he was
a major jazz artist, but he touched, he had something.  He knew a good song.  He
knew who to present it.  He understood the art form probably better than most other
great jazz musicians.”

What does Herb Alpert think about when he playing his trumpet on his upcoming album.

“I think about all the people I’ve spoken to, all the great jazz musicians I’ve 
run across.  Stan Getz was a dear friend of mine.  He was like my brother for the
last four years of his life.  I’d ask Stan that question.  He always told me if 
you’re playing a great song make sure you do justice to the melody of the song. 
And before you start improvising and turning it into something that it didn’t want
to be.”

[[

Interior Gallery of the Harlem School of the Arts, part of the 9.5 million dollar
renovation of the culture center

Alpert, 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and nine-time Grammy Award winner,
came to the rescue when the Harlem School of the Arts was in desperate need of funds
to survive.  The result became The Renaissane Project, a 9.5 million dollar renovation
of the school.  Alpert says the project’s completion has been pushed back because
of the coronavirus crisis, but he anticipates the groundbreaking will now take place
in the spring of 2021.

“We just felt it needed to be upgraded.  I got involved in 2010.  I saw this article
in the paper that it was about to close.  They were out of funds and they were not
being supported.”

With the 2020 tour of hold because of the pandemic, Alpert has been painting and
sculpting at an elevated pace.  He says he can barely move in his arts studio because
there are so many paintings.  One of his works, a painting, has been inspired by
the current situation.  He calls it _Corona City_.

[[

Herb Alpert and his wife Lani Hall have been married for 45 years

“My wife was not crazy about that title, but when it came out that’s what it looked
like to me.  It’s in the abstract.  It looks like city but not a city you could 
every recognize.  This is one of the things I like about the mystery of art, you
really can’t indentify it.  There’s no way to actually put words on something that
you feel.”

Did the musician and composer know he had the ability to create art before he picked
up the trumpet?

“I didn’t.  Little by little I started making sense out of the trumpet and people
were responding to the way I was playing.  That’s the first time I got a glimpse
that maybe I’m okay.  I had this wonderful Russian teacher who was the 1st player
with the San Francisco Symphony.  One lesson I was 12 or 13 years old.  I played
this tune and when finished and he had tears running down his cheek.  He said ‘that
was beautiful’.  This was a guy who really didn’ show his emotions.  So I felt like
maybe I do have something”

Alpert would then go onto make his first album that he released on A&M Records called
_The Lonely Bull _in 1962.  In all, Alpert has 15 Gold Albums, 14 Platinum albums
and over 72 million records sold.

![](https://i0.wp.com/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wbgo/files/styles/large/public/
202005/herb_2.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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