Herb Alpert & Lani Hall

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall first collaborated on the Gershwin song "Summertime" in 1971. The collaboration continues 40+ years later. Here is a list of Lani's appearances on Herb's albums.

Alpert produced and performed on Hall's first two albums for A&M, Sun Down Lady and Hello It's Me. He later guested on 1980's Blush with "Come What May" and and co-produced 1997's Brasil Nativo, Lani's first credit as a producer.

Hall was a producer on Alpert's 2005's Lost Treasures and 2006's Whipped Cream & Other Delights Rewhipped.

Spring 2008 Tour press release

In 2009 Alpert and Hall recorded and produced their first album as a team, Anything Goes. Their thoughts on the album:

[Alpert asked his engineer to record the 2009 concert tour.] When I heard it back, I thought, 'Hmm, this might make a good CD. That was the concept.... 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.'

We heard that Irving Berlin wrote “Let’s Face The Music And Dance” as a reflection of the ‘30s. And the Depression. So when you look at it with that in mind, it’s different. There’s an irony about the lyrics that you didn’t see before. Or at least I didn’t. We wanted that sense of drama and irony in the whole mood of the piece, and it came out very much like a cabaret song. It’s very powerful - I could see the questioning on people’s faces in the audience when we started. It’s really powerful. It’s a powerful arrangement.

SOURCES:
Herb Alpert Savoring the . Christina Fuoco-Karasinski. SoundSpike, February 10, 2011.

An Interview with Herb Alpert & Lani Hall. Tony Sachs. Huffington Post, March 18, 2010.

Anything Goes Press Release 1

Anything Goes Press Release 2

Their album I Feel You was released on February 8, 2011. They again shared artist and production credits. It peaked at #6 on Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart on July 2, 2011

HERB ALPERT & LANI HALL ON I FEEL YOU

One of our goals is to take recognizable songs and do them in our unique way. We always try to put a different spon on songs and make them our own.

...we try to stay very conscious of the original melody. Basically, what happens is, Lani establishes the song and then everything that's happening behind her, even when we're recording, is pretty much improv. We have the chord structure, the harmonic structure and the general form of the song, but everything that happens within that is up for grabs. It works when you're honest. If you're trying to affect it, trying to be hip or corny or whatever, it's lost. But if you're just trying to be authentic, it works."

This album is filled with a lot of young energy. We recorded it exactly the way we wanted to. We wanted to present songs in a way they haven't been heard before. You can't trample on the Beatles [on 'Blackbird'], for example, because their renditions are the ones to listen to. But you can add a little something here or there and make it just a little different that it becomes something new.

I told the drummer Michael [Shapiro], and he stared at me in disbelief, ‘don’t play any backbeats. I don’t want any backbeats.’ The only place we did use [them] was on one part of “Moondance.”

Our drummer Michael Shapiro came up with this groove, and Lani had an idea how to play it, and all of a sudden it ["What Now My Love"] felt right. It didn’t sound anything like the TJB recording, which I certainly didn’t want to recreate, so it just kinda fell into place.

Lani Hall: "Sometimes when we’re rehearsing, Michael Shapiro our drummer or Bill Cantos our pianist will start playing an abstract rhythm or a random chord, and suddenly a song will pop into our heads. That’s what happened with “Blackbird.” Bill was playing these unrelated chords, and I suddenly started singing “Blackbird.” As for “Here Comes the Sun,” we had this rhythm we were using on another song, and decided we didn’t like the song but wanted to save the rhythm. Then Michael started playing it one day and we just started doing “Here Comes the Sun.” And, as you can hear on the album, the rhythm never lets up. It’s like a train going through, and just keeps building and building. It’s almost relentless. I thought it was so fitting for that song."

There’s something about June Christy’s version [of "Something Cool"] I always loved, and I adore the melody. We kind of played around with the gender so it would work. Lani produced it. We recorded it three different ways, and the last version we [got in one take].

I Feel You Press Release

Puttin' On the Ritz Press Release

SOURCES:
A Man of Many Talents Herb Alpert Follows His Many Artisitic Passions. Aaron Leibel. Washington Jewish Week, February 9, 2011.
'Creativity is what we need more of, if we're going to survive in this world.' Paul Freeman. San Jose Mercury News, August 17, 2011.
Alpert Thrives AFter 50 Years of Hit-Making. Miriam Di Nunzio. Chicago Sun-Times, June 9, 2011.

Herb Alpert & Lani Hall: Together Again for the First Time. Christopher Loudon. JazzTimes.com, February 14, 2011.

Steppin' Out by Herb Alpert featuring Lani Hall peaked at #10 on the Traditional Jazz Album Chart. The album won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Album.

In the Mood was released as a Herb Alpert recording. Lani was credited as vocalist and producer. This album peaked at #3 on Billboard's Jazz Album Chart and #172 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. It debuted at #2 on the Traditional Jazz Album Chart.