Herb Alpert and Lani Hall in Concert

2009_Herb_Lani_Perform_HiRes[1]This past Sunday (November 15th), we were fortunate to see Herb Alpert, Lani Hall and their stellar band in concert at the Wharton Center in East Lansing, Michigan.  Despite my usual aversion to anything Spartan-related (inside joke), we made the trip and had an enjoyable evening of music.  Touring with Herb and Lani are Hussain Jiffry on bass, Michael Shapiro on drums and percussion, and Bill Cantos on piano and vocals.

The set list for this gig was pretty much the same as other stops on the tour, but the whole musical approach is open and flexible.  It is as though the whole group comes in with their rough sketches of the songs beforehand, and completely colors them in during the performance, with the lucky audience able to witness the artistry firsthand.  In other words, a lot of the music is improvised, but it still follows the basic arrangement on which it is based.

The idea behind the Anything Goes tour was to take familiar music (such as popular standards) and give them a new twist.  If you think about it, this is a reflection from the days of Herb’s immensely popular Tijuana Brass and, for that matter, Lani Hall’s tenure with Sergio Mendes: both Alpert and Mendes reinvented many of their songs through their unique arrangements in the 60s, 70s and beyond.  “A Taste of Honey” would never be the same once Alpert’s version had stormed up the charts during the 60s!

Fun?  You bet!  There is a lot of musical interaction happening.  And to watch them perform?  Lani and Herb genuinely enjoy each other’s performances onstage.  And between the other members of the combo, a lot of looks, laughs and gestures are exchanged during the tunes.  The resulting music is as fun to listen to as it obviously is to perform, with something happening every evening.  (Herb even joked that Mike Shapiro never played the same thing once!)  In addition, Alpert and Hall also took questions from the audience, some with humorous results.  The smaller setting of the Wharton Center theater made it even more intimate.

The set list included familiar American pop standards such as “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” (partially sung by Alpert), “Laura”, “Let’s Face The Music and Dance” (with a fine Lani Hall vocal performance), “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” (which opened the concert as a vocal duet with Lani and Herb), a sultry remake of “That Old Black Magic”, and an instrumental version of “Paper Moon” featuring Herb’s unique dual-bell trumpet (one open, one with a mute, with the ability to switch between bells with a trigger).

The set also featured a generous helping of Brazilian standards as well, including Edu Lobo’s “Viola Fora de Moda” and “Zanzibar” (based on Lani’s version from the Brasil Nativo album), a medley of Antonio Carlos Jobim tunes including “One Note Samba” (which included the famous Brasil ’66 twist: including a few bars of “Spanish Flea” during the chorus), and “O Pato”.  Bill Cantos contributed his own caffeine-charged tune “Morning Coffee” to the set, a “new standard” for us to enjoy!

Aside from a few familiar tunes Lani had recorded as part of Brasil ’66, Tijuana Brass fans also got a few snippets of their favorites.  “Spanish Flea” got its nod during “One Note Samba.”  A few bars from “If I Were A Rich Man” peppered the beginning of another tune, and “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” was tagged with “This Guy’s In Love With You” at the end.  And toward the end of the concert, Herb actually stepped out beyond the microphones and played part of his hit “What Now My Love”, unamplified, to the audience.  The band, also unamplified (save for Hussein’s bass), joined in briefly.

And I can’t finish up this review without mentioning the stellar band.   Bassist Hussein Jiffry, playing his 6-string bass during a few of the tunes, was able to provide a few guitar-like colors to the overall sound, in addition to the bass line. Jiffry also played a body-less upright bass which he used to fit the mood of many of the songs.  Mike Shapiro is an incredible drummer, able to coax more sounds and textures out of his basic kit than most others who take up residence behind their huge walls of drums and cymbals.  Bill Cantos was fantastic as always, providing vocals to a few of the songs along with his flavorful work on the Steinway.

One moment that really struck home for some of us was Alpert’s lone “soapbox moment”: encouraging us to support arts in our schools.  In our brief meeting with Herb after the show, this is the one topic we brought up and heartily agreed with.  If our schools don’t support the arts, our children will never have the artistic enrichment and expression they need to succeed in life.  We won’t have artists like Herb, Lani and the rest of the band in the future if this doesn’t happen.

If you haven’t yet seen the Anything Goes tour and it is scheduled for your area, be sure not to miss it!   You’ll find, like we did, that you will be treated to an intimate, unique performance by some incredibly talented individuals who truly enjoy what they are doing, and how they are doing it.  It’s a rare chance to hear standards like you haven’t heard them before.  It was a highly enjoyable and unforgettable evening for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!