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• Mr. Alpert's official site
• Mr. Alpert and Ms. Hall - bio
• About "Anything Goes"
• The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

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Alpert reflects on falling in love with Lani Hall. (2:48)
 

Full interview. (22:41)
 

Tavis: Pleased and honored to welcome Herb Alpert and Lani Hall to this program. Along with his friend Jerry Moss, he of course founded A&M Records, a label that would become one of the biggest and most successful in music history.

He is also a talented singer, songwriter and musician who fronted Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. His songwriting credits include what I and many others, I'm sure, consider to be one of the greatest songs ever recorded - Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World."

Just a few years after forming A&M he met a beautiful and talented singer - there she is - named Lani Hall, and the two have been together ever since. Lani Hall was discovered by the great Sergio Mendez in a Chicago nightclub and went on to become the lead singer for Brazil 66.

For the first time in their illustrious careers Herb and Lani have teamed up for an album together. It's called "Anything Goes," and now from the new project, some of the video for "I've Got You Under My Skin."

"Lani Hall:" (Singing.) Don't you know, you fool, you never can win. Use your mentality, wake up to reality. But each time I do, just the thought of you makes me stop before I begin, because I've got you under my skin. And I love you under my skin. And I've got you under my skin.

Tavis: Almost 40 years together. What - (laughter) the obvious question, what took so long, Lani?

Lani Hall: To get to do this album?

Tavis: To get to a collaborative project, yeah.

Hall: Well, we were both doing different music. I was more into the Brazilian vein and pop and Latin, and Herb was doing more jazz and producing. We did a concert with Sergio Mendez to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Brazil 66 in 2006 and the drummer, Michael Shapiro, was so excited that we did a few songs that he kept hounding us, "Why don't you put a group together? Put a group together, let's play together."

And finally we looked at each other and said, "If not now, when are we going to do that?" And we decided to do it.

Tavis: The conditions sound ripe, as you just explained, to do the project when you did, but prior to that there'd never been a thought about it, never conversation about it?

Hall: Well, we've worked together.

Tavis: Yeah, but I mean for an entire project.

Hall: But no.

Tavis: Never?

Hall: No, we really didn't, but there was an album that I adored when I was growing up with Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley and I always wanted to do something like that in a jazz vein, having a conversation with the musician that's playing.

And that's really what we kind of went for with this, but in our own way and with our own voice.

Tavis: I'm going to go way back and then come forward again, and because I respect marriages and after almost 40 years I don't want to break y'all up, so let me just ask this question. (Laughter) Who should I ask the question of how y'all met? Who shall I ask that question of? Mr. Alpert, all right.

Herb Alpert: I'll take the question.

Tavis: Take the question, Mr. Alpert. For $500, yeah.

Alpert: Yeah, I'll take door number four. (Laughter) Brazil 66 auditioned for A&M Records in 1966 and I walked in to the audition. Actually, I was more thinking about the sound of the group than looking at Lani, but we signed the group to A&M and right in that period, this was 1966 -

Hall: He did ask to drive me home.

Alpert: - April of 1966.

Tavis: I'm going to come back to that.

Alpert: After we signed the group we started traveling with Brazil 66 and Sergio. They were opening the show for the Tijuana Brass and Lani and I became friends. It was like a two-year period there, a year and a half. (Laughter) Might have been eight months. (Laughter) We became really good friends and we're still great friends, and it's been just an unbelievable experience for me. Lani's changed my life. She's my guardian angel.

Tavis: See, now watch how this works, y'all at home. Those who are married, you know this process anyway. So I asked who should I ask to answer this question, so Herb raised his hand, Herb answered the question.

Now I'm going to ask Lani to tell the same story about what happened when they met. Now just watch all the pieces that Herb left out of this, which is probably why I should have asked Lani in the first place.

Alpert: Well, wait a minute, I'll tell you a piece that I left out.

Tavis: Oh, now you got something you want to add to this, huh? (Laughter)

Alpert: So years back before that, in 1962, that was the first record I had - "The Lonely Bull." I was doing a local show here in L.A., the "Lloyd Faxton Show." (sp) And Lani happened to see me -

Hall: In Chicago.

Alpert: She was living in Chicago at the time and she was about nine or 10 -

Hall: Sixteen, I was 16.

Alpert: She was 16. (Laughter) And then she said, "Oh, who is that guy there?" So when we met in 1966 she was -

Hall: I was prepared to meet him. I knew what he looked like and I knew what -

Tavis: Okay, so what do you recall about that audition in '66?

Hall: I recall him asking to drive me home.

Tavis: Ah, that just got left out of the story mysteriously. (Laughter) So he was actually checking you out during the audition.

Hall: I think so. I think so, yeah.

Tavis: I got it. I knew the truth would come here at some point.

Alpert: Oh, boy.

Tavis: He's checking you out during the audition, so much so that after the audition he asked you -

Hall: To drive me home.

Tavis: - to drive you home. And did he drive you home?

Hall: I said no.

Tavis: You said no. Wow.

Hall: Yeah.

Tavis: But a year and a half, two years, eight months later -

Alpert: Oh, well, I mean -

Hall: That's right. (Laughter)

Alpert: For a year and a half, Lani was calling me Mr. Alpert, so it was nice. (Laughs)

Tavis: You had to break out of that first, huh?

Alpert: Yeah.

Tavis: Just one more question, I want to come back to the music. And of course this answer is different for every couple in the world, but after spending that eight months, year and a half, two years together, you knew you both had a love of music, what made you know that there was a love of each other that would last - have a chance of lasting as long as this has?

Hall: Well, for some reason I never thought I would fall in love. And when I felt the power of that and the transformation that that caused in me, that there was - I'd never felt that before and I'd never felt that kind of force and power, and that's what did it for me.

Tavis: You know I can't leave this hanging - I've got to come back and get this now, because I know there are people watching right now who have had that same feeling at some point in their life that they would not, or some people watching right now have that same feeling as we speak, that I don't think I'm ever going to fall in love.

Tell me more about why you felt that way, particularly given that you're singing Brazilian music, so you're singing love music. That's the irony to me. You're singing love music but yet you feel inside that I'm never going to fall in love. Tell me more about that.

Hall: Well, I've always felt very passionate about things and music is definitely a passion of mine, but to really give myself to a person and be that trusting and open my heart to someone, to be that vulnerable, I just really didn't think I had that in me. I didn't think I could do that.

I thought I was just too guarded to be able to do that, and I'd never met someone with such kindness before. Herb has a tremendous amount of kindness, and I started to believe that it was real. And once that happened, that's when my heart opened.

Tavis: And how did you get over, Herb, her - once you got past her calling you Mr. Alpert, I guess something happened for you as well.

Alpert: Well, I grew up in a very quiet home. I was very shy, and I had a lot of pent-up feelings that I wasn't quite - I didn't know how to identify. And Lani just had this innate ability to explore some of the things I was thinking about.

I was not as happy as I thought I could be, because I had the American dream come true. I had the A&M Records, the Tijuana Brass, but I was doing concerts and I didn't really experience it because I was too worried about the sound, I was worried about the audience, are they hearing it properly? Is it coming across? It was a little overwhelming because I came out of playing weddings and parties, so this thing hit and all of a sudden I was thrusted into this much bigger picture.

And so Lani was kind of there to identify some feelings that were trapped in me, and one of the reasons we're doing this tour and we've recorded this CD is that I wanted to see if I could have fun playing. I could do concerts and really have the joy and experience the joy of doing it, and this is what's happening. This is why that album, that CD is so, I think, joyful, because it's honest, it's made with a true expression of our love for each other and the feelings that I now have.

Tavis: Tell me more - I'm fascinating by that comment you just made now, Herb. Tell me about the process of coming to find joy in what you do, even when you do it well. For all the years that it was joyless for you - you were doing it, doing it well, to your point, selling records, a wonderful record label that's making money for you so you're not worried about being homeless or anything. And yet while you're playing it's a joyless experience until a certain time. Tell me about that journey.

Alpert: Right. I had a pivotal experience in Germany in 1969. I was playing, I was on the stage, and all of a sudden I was in the third row, watching the band and myself. And I was thinking, "Man, this guy on stage, it looked like he was - the music is nice, he seemed like he was having a good time, but why doesn't he feel that good when he gets off the stage and he's in the middle of a party or he's one-on-one with somebody?"

So there was a real disconnect between how I feel when I'm playing - I feel like I make joyful music because it comes from a source that's - I try to be as honest as I can, and that honesty usually translates in a positive feeling. So I was trying to find how could I put those two elements together? How could I be feeling - (laughs).

Hall: More balanced.

Alpert: Are you a therapist? (Laughter)

Tavis: I'm just asking questions. I sit here every night because I want to learn.

Alpert: How much do I owe you for that?

Hall: Is this a 50-minute hour or what? (Laughter)

Tavis: No, I'm sitting here because I want to learn, and when somebody says to me that they were on a journey and at some point in that journey ran into joy, I want to know that.

Alpert: Yeah, no, that's a darn good question. I'd have to suss it all out to really, really be completely straight and honest with you, how to lay it out on the word level.

Tavis: But Lani had something to do with it, obviously.

Alpert: Well, she had a lot to do with it. Because I feel that the arts, if you're a musician, you're an artist, whatever you do in the arts, you're a dancer, there's a certain level of how do you explain it. We were watching the interview that you did with Forest Whitaker, and I know Forest played Charlie Parker. And when you think of Charlie Parker can you explain why you like his solos? Can you explain why we all love Miles universally.

Hall: Universally.

Alpert: Universally. It's one of those you can't put it in the word level. So I spent a good part of my life in that other level of it's a feeling. I always felt since 1962, when I recorded "The Lonely Bull," if you like the music, great. If you don't, I'm okay with it. This is the music that's coming out. Does that -

Tavis: Yeah.

Hall: You're such a - he's such an artist in so many terms. He's such an intuitive, feeling person. And so he can express himself through painting, through sculpture, through music, easily. It flows out of him like a river in spring. It flows out of him.

Alpert: I think I was tap dancing a little bit.

Hall: Well, I think it caught you off-guard, maybe, a little bit.

Alpert: Yeah, it did.

Tavis: Obviously you both have a love for music, as we all know. I'm curious as to, since we're talking about joy, what made you know, Lani, that music was your gift? I'm going to ask Herb the same question, so now I'm giving you a heads up on this, Herb.

Alpert: Okay. Wow, I'm thinking. (Laughter)

Tavis: Since Lani said I caught you off-guard, I won't on this next question. (Laughter) You get a heads up.

Alpert: I didn't see that on the teleprompter.

Tavis: You get a heads up here. How did you know that music was your gift? When did you discover this?

Hall: I didn't.

Tavis: You didn't?

Hall: Well, I thought everyone sang. I thought everybody was doing what I was doing, so it didn't occur to me that I was doing something different for a long time. And I was kind of a closet singer, so I wasn't out there singing for a lot of people. I was just singing in my room with my albums and Anita O'Day and June Christie and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. I was just in my room singing with these artists and then when I joined Brazil 66 I kind of thought everyone could do what I was doing. I thought that everyone could sing in Portuguese. They just learn it phonetically, and you can do it. It was that simple.

I didn't realize there was some kind of a gift there until Herb started really saying, "You have your own style, a lot of people don't have that yet." They try to sound like somebody else. He kind of started bringing that out in me, and through self-examination, through my own journey as a woman, I had to start looking at myself and seeing, well, where are my strengths and my weaknesses, and how can I make myself stronger in the weaknesses and how can I really appreciate what I can do? And that's really how it evolved.

Tavis: Herb, you started playing so young.

Alpert: I started playing when I was eight, and it took a while before you can make any sense out of the trumpet, it's just one of those instruments. When I was in high school we formed a little trio called the Colonial Trio - I went to Fairfax High School. And in the early days of television there was this show called "High Talent Battle," and so we entered the "High Talent Battle" and our little trio won.

Tavis: Is this like the old school "American Idol?"

Alpert: Yeah, but way old school, man.

Tavis: Way back when?

Alpert: This was like local TV. And we won eight weeks in a row. So we got this little thing going, and I was always the first trumpet player in the band and the orchestra and et cetera, and then when I was drafted into the Army they sent me to band school in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and I was - all of a sudden I was shocked. I was around 12 trumpet players from different parts of the country who could play higher, louder, faster, better than me, and at that time I thought I was doing pretty well.

But I realized if I was ever going to be a professional trumpet player or a professional musician I'd have to come up with my own sound. And that's when I got discharged and I started working on that, and then I got touched by that record that Les Paul did with his wife, "How High the Moon," where he layered the guitar several times on top of himself.

I tried that with the trumpet. I had two tape machines and I went from machine to machine, and about the ninth time all you could hear was hiss, but there was this sound that was coming out that was the genesis of the Tijuana Brass sound.

Tavis: You've lived such a wonderful and rich life, I'm just trying to pull this stuff together as best I can, given the full lives that both of you have lived. We talked about your being a kid and playing, we talked about your being in the military, we're going to come to A&M in just a second, but I saw USC the other day and I know they want to forget what happened last weekend -

Alpert: Yeah, so do I.

Tavis: Yeah, I know you do as well. (Laughter) But when I saw the marching band, I knew you were coming on the show and I thought of you because you played -

Alpert: Yeah, I played in the SC band. In fact, I had a very pivotal experience in the orchestra. I played in the SC orchestra and we were playing "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mazorski. And I remember thinking that while I was in the back row in the trumpet section, and this orchestra was playing and I was leaning forward thinking to myself man, what a sound? Isn't that beautiful, you kind of hear the stereo coming across the orchestra.

And I was listening and all of a sudden I forgot to come in. I had my part but I got so engaged I what I was listening to I just forgot the whole thing. (Laughter) So it was at that point that I realized man, I don't want to play other people's notes. I want to play my own notes.

I was into Louie Armstrong and Miles and of course the great Clifford Brown, and I was thinking that man, that feels like fun. I want to express myself. I want to express myself through the instrument as best I can.

Tavis: I'm connecting dots here, again, as best I can. You go from having that moment of epiphany about your music to starting a record label where you're allowing other people to promulgate and promote and expose their music. I know this is a long story and you've been asked this question a thousand times, but please, humor me for just a second. Tell me about the founding of A&M and how that came to be.

Alpert: Well, prior to A&M, as you mentioned, I wrote "Wonderful World" with Sam Cooke and Lou Adler. I had that experience, we did some records with Jan and Dean, and that I got disenchanted with the record industry. Because I was working at this gym and this guy said, "You should be in movies." I said, "Okay, well, put me in," so this is not what you're asking.

Tavis: No, you did the acting thing for a minute.

Alpert: It's leading up to it. And so I tried, I took lessons, and I really didn't have it. I didn't have the real thing. And then I wrote this song - I was writing songs all along and I wrote this song that I thought was great for an artist that was recording for RCA Victor. So I called the A&R director and he recognized my name because of the Sam Cooke record and a couple of other records that I had done, so he said - I made an appointment.

I was playing the song on the piano for this guy and he says, "Hey, man, I like it." I said, "Why don't you record it?" The guy said, "Me? As a singer?" He says, "Yeah, you sound good."

Okay, so I recorded for RCA for about a year. Shorty Rogers, the great jazz trumpet player, was my A&R man, and I was in the studio recording and I was listening to a playback. And the studio was very - it was cold, man. It was white on white on white on white.

So I'm in the control room listening to the playback and I'm thinking man, it could use a little bit more bass. So I go over to the control panel there and I put my hand on the bass thing, and the engineer slaps my hand. (Laughter) I said, "What's wrong?" He says, "Don't ever touch that board again." He said, "This is a union house and I can get in trouble." I was thinking man, isn't this company supposed to revolve around the artist?

And I also had an idea for the double trumpet thing. I wanted to put that in the middle. He said, "You can't do it, it's against the union regulation." (Laughter) So you're feeding me all this information that I want if I ever get a chance to have my own record company, man, it's going to revolve around the artist. And that was A&M's concept.

Hall: On a handshake.

Alpert: Yeah. So I met Jerry Moss and we started A&M on a handshake. Never had a contract. The only time we ever signed something is when we sold the company years later, but it was all on a handshake and it was a beautiful experience. We had some of the greatest artists in the world recording for us, and it reached a point where artists were calling us, wanting to record for us.

Tavis: See, Herb's a modest guy. The end of that story - it started with a handshake and getting his hand slapped; hand slap, then a handshake - is that when he sold that company back in 1990, as I recall, $500 million they sold that for. So he didn't do bad with that little company, that little independent label called A&M.

Lani, I don't even want to color this question, I just want to ask it. Tell me about "Anything Goes," any way you want to talk about it.

Hall: It's a love affair. It's full of songs that Herb and I had through the years been writing lists of songs that haunted us.

Tavis: How'd you narrow it down to 14?

Hall: Well, we started out with about 40 and we do more than 14 in the show. But we just decided to keep it simple and we chose those songs. Some are instrumentals, some are Brazilian, two are originals and the rest or the American Songbook.

And the arrangements are where our signature kind of is. Hearing these songs that people have heard through the decades in a fresh way, where you've just never heard it like that before.

Tavis: Were you intimidated by that or did you welcome the challenge of putting your own flavor on these songs?

Hall: Oh, that was all we - we couldn't have done it any other way. There wouldn't have been - there's no reason to do these songs the way other people have done them. There just isn't any reason.

So yeah, we put our own signature. That's where the fun is.

Tavis: That's where the fun is.

Hall: Oh, yeah.

Tavis: So I'm counting 14, I know there's more in the show, to your point. I'm counting 14 on the CD. I'm not a math major, but if you started with 40 or 42, you only did 14, there's a few more songs left. This has been so well received, I've gotten friends who've called me about this and asking if I would have you on the show and I'm glad we did, obviously, but it sounds to me like there is material left for another project.

Hall: We'll see how this works. It's just evolving. We're going to see what happens. We don't have any solid plans. We're just grateful that we could be doing this together and sharing this and making this our life right now.

Alpert: And the beauty part for me is when we started, when we thought about doing some concerts, we wanted to play some small clubs, I was thinking, "Oh, man, I'm going to be in a situation where people are going to be yelling out, "Play 'Spanish Flea,' play 'Tijuana -'" (laughter) I didn't want to do that. And we've never encountered that. People are just happy, satisfied with what we're doing, so it's been a great experience.

Tavis: Well, as is the story of their lives, a great experience. It's a wonderful love story of Herb and Lani, it's a wonderful record, and I know that you will want to add it to your collection. Herb, thank you for coming on.

Alpert: Oh, it's a pleasure.

Tavis: I appreciate you being so kind to share.

Alpert: It was really nice seeing you.

Tavis: Lani, an honor to meet you.

Hall: Thank you so much for having us.

Tavis: Glad to have you on as well. Oh, it's my delight.