Nobody learned more from Sam Cooke than did Herb Alpert. At Cooke’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Alpert told a story about an amazing singer with exotic looks and style. Alpert was impressed, but Cooke (who called him Herbie) asked him to listen again to the singer with his eyes closed. Alpert confessed that upon that blind listen he was unsure how good the singer was. You don’t appreciate music with your eyes, Cooke told him—you feel it in your gut.
Very few musicians learned more from Les Paul than did Herb Alpert. Paul is remembered more for his technique and guitar making than he is for his music, and Alpert latched onto Paul’s electronics to create the effect of multiple trumpets. Thus was the “Tijuana Brass” born; at first, Alpert used studio musicians to complement his trumpet, but he saw the limitations of that approach fairly quickly, and by the third album he had a backing band, none of them remotely Mexican.
In his more than sixty years in music, Alpert has re-done his hits to suit the times: “Rise,” his last number one Billboard hit, has spawned a collection of remixes, as has the entire album “Whipped Cream and Other Delights.” Alpert has also remade lesser charting singles than “Rise,” but the standard I never expected him to cover and re-cover was “Flamingo.”
“Flamingo” was a big hit for Duke Ellington in 1941. Singer Herb Jeffries was stopped at the stage door by the song’s composer, who couldn’t get backstage but wanted Ellington to hear it. Soon after, Ellington’s pianist Billy Strayhorn was playing it, to which Ellington replied “whatever you’re playing, make a chart of it.” You can listen to a recording of the 1941 here:
The melody, though major throughout, rises and falls, alternating full chords and diminished chords, making for a soar, then a glide, repeating three times (and each in a lower register) before rewinding.
Alpert’s three recordings of “Flamingo” mirror the eras in which they were recorded. The first was released in 1966 on the album “S.R.O” by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It charted number 28 on the pop charts and number 5 on the easy listening charts, and it’s easy to see why, despite the lack of a lead vocal: the arrangement soars. I especially like the use of bells and the rising background vocals—very few of Alpert’s recordings could ever have been described as “downbeat,” and this is not. (It’s also the shortest of the three covers, barely lasting two and a half minutes.) You may listen to it here:
Alpert’s second go at recording “Flamingo” came on his album “Second Wind” in 1996. By now Alpert’s template had been copied to death by legions of “light jazz” artists, making what’s well-described as hotel-lobby music, or muzak with a beat. Alpert had sold his stake in A&M records a few years earlier, but didn’t care to retire, and got help from Jeff Lorber, himself a “light jazz” keyboardist. I’m not a huge fan of “Second Wind” or this cover of “Flamingo,” either, but you get a much better picture of the melodic structure, as this version runs longer than the others, almost four minutes. It helps that trumpet and keyboard dominate; I barely noticed the rhythm section. You may listen to it here:
Fortunately, Alpert took another swing at “Flamingo” on his 2017 album “Music Volume 1,” and he and his team nailed it. The latest version runs a shade longer than three minutes but features two solos, one an extended take on the melody and another a bit of vamping towards the close. The arrangement is clean but not classic: it appears that a three-piece combo is backing him, but the piano is electronic, and I detect a few subdued vocal effects. It’s not jazz as defined by members of the band trading intrepid solos, but it swings and never overstays its welcome. You may listen to it here:
Alpert turns 87 next Spring. I don’t anticipate his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (though if only as co-founder of A&M records he deserves it), and neither do I expect another cover of “Flamingo,” but you never know. He doesn’t seem short on new ideas at an advanced age!