Herb Alpert – Wish Upon A Star (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Herb Alpert – Wish Upon A Star (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:41 minutes | 875 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Herb Alpert Presents

Legendary musician, artist, record label executive and philanthropist Herb Alpert has announced that his new album Wish Upon A Star will be released on September 15.

The 49th studio album from the prolific trumpeter, Wish Upon A Star is filled to the brim with new takes on classic songs from Jerry Reed, Elvis, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, and The Carpenters among others. Produced by Alpert and recorded at his home in Los Angeles, the album continues to serve up the unmistakable trumpet playing of the Tijuana Brass master, who just turned 88 this year.

Wish Upon A Star will be the followup to 2022’s Sunny Side of the Street which reached #7 on the Billboard Current Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and 2021’s Catch the Wind which reached #2. Herb’s Grammy-winning album and title track Rise, released in 1979, again surged to the top of the 2022 charts, 42 years after it last dominated the airwaves, thanks to the classic soundtrack of the NETFLIX hit film, Spiderhead, starring Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller.

Alpert’s extraordinary musicianship has earned him 9 GRAMMY® Awards (the latest from his 2014 album Steppin’ Out), 15 Gold albums, 14 Platinum albums and has sold over 72 million records. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass propelled his sound into the pop music limelight, at one point outselling the Beatles two to one.

A pop trumpet icon for his work with the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s, Herb Alpert has become something of a journeyman since the late 2000s. Beginning with 2009’s Anything Goes, Alpert (who was 88 at the time of this recording) has released a steady mix of covers albums that showcase his warm trumpet style and storied knack for hooky, danceable melodies. He even won a Grammy for 2013’s Steppin’ Out and picked up his 24th nomination for 2016’s Human Nature. 2023’s Wish Upon a Star continues this latter-career resurgence and finds Alpert offering sweetly attenuated takes on classic pop and jazz tunes. Leading off the album is his jaunty rendition of Jerry Reed’s “East Bound and Down,” a twangy country number best known as the theme song to the Burt Reynolds action-comedy Smokey and the Bandit. It’s a tune that you could easily imagine Alpert having covered in the ’70s when the film was first released and nicely evokes his classic Tijuana Brass sound. Equally inventive stylistic blends pop up throughout, including an electronic-reggae version of the standard “Angel Eyes” and a ukulele-centric, Latin jazz take on the Beatles’ “And I Love Her.” Particularly compelling are Alpert’s more romantic, bossa nova-inflected moments, including his orchestral reading of “On the Street Where You Live” and his take on the Roger Nichols and Paul Williams classic “We’ve Only Just Begun,” the latter of which was made famous by the Carpenters and recalls the warm intimacy of Alpert’s own 1968 hit “This Guy’s in Love.” The album ends with a poignant rendition of the classic Disney title track with Alpert’s trumpet tone as wistful as ever. – Matt Collar

Tracklist:
1-1. Herb Alpert – East Bound And Down (02:42)
1-2. Herb Alpert – Angel Eyes (02:31)
1-3. Herb Alpert – We’ve Only Just Begun (02:51)
1-4. Herb Alpert – On The Street Where You Live (02:36)
1-5. Herb Alpert – Father And Son (02:59)
1-6. Herb Alpert – (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame (02:32)
1-7. Herb Alpert – Sacudelo (Shake It) (03:52)
1-8. Herb Alpert – Sensibility (04:40)
1-9. Herb Alpert – Poinciana (03:09)
1-10. Herb Alpert – Waltz For Stan (04:49)
1-11. Herb Alpert – Slow Down (03:09)
1-12. Herb Alpert – It’s All In The Game (04:19)
1-13. Herb Alpert – And I Love Her (02:51)
1-14. Herb Alpert – When You Wish Upon A Star (02:35)

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