Herb Alpert

American trumpeter and composer Herb Alpert was born in 1935 in Los Angeles into a family of musicians and gravitated early toward instrumental pop infused with Latin influences. After starting out as a songwriter in the late 1950s, Alpert co-founded the independent label A&M Records in 1962 with producer Jerry Moss, while launching his own project, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, which blended Mexican brass-band motifs, orchestral pop arrangements, and easy-listening rhythms. The 1962 single The Lonely Bull and the 1965 album Whipped Cream & Other Delights established the Tijuana Brass’s signature sound, marked by a highly melodic trumpet and orchestrations designed for a broad audience. Alpert then developed a parallel career as a vocalist—most notably with the 1968 ballad This Guy’s in Love with You—and steered his music toward jazz, light funk, and contemporary pop on albums such as Rise in 1979. In the 1970s and 1980s, he engaged in numerous collaborations, including with South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela on their joint 1978 album Herb Alpert / Hugh Masekela, and in the studio with singer Lani Hall, all while remaining active at A&M Records. From the 1990s onward, Alpert pursued more intimate projects centered on jazz, standards, and world music, alternating studio recordings with tours in small ensembles, which firmly anchored him at the crossroads of instrumental pop and mainstream jazz.