Customer Reviews

Lost Treasures

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A fixture on the music scene in the '60s, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass racked up many hits, and many fans along the way. Those of us who've remained loyal have been rewarded with this new LOST TEASURES album, a wonderful album of new material from the legendary Tijuana Brass.

The songs are leftovers and half-finished recordings from Herb and the boys way back when, newly finished off by Herb with some new trumpet parts and remastering by Bernie Grundman. Some are well-known tunes like Spanky and Our Gang's "Lazy Day" and the Burt Bacharach classic "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head", while others are unfamiliar songs by Herb himself, longtime sidemen Julius Wechter and John Pisano, and label-mate Cat Stevens.

Completist fans will recognize five of the tunes as having been released before on a less-than-successful '70s album called YOU SMILE - THE SONG BEGINS. Two other tracks had come out before on lesser-known singles, but that still leaves fifteen wonderful "new" songs by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.

Since getting this album back in February, I've scarecely had it out of my CD player!

Shout Factory has done a superb job of reissuing Herb Alpert's A&M catalog and this generous helping of mostly previously unissued tracks is just the icing on the cake. [Or should I say whipped cream?] The twenty-two songs on LOST TREASURES were recorded between 1962 and 1972 and they all hold up well alongside tracks from classic albums like The LONELY BULL and WHIPPED CREAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS. [The former has already been reissued, the later is forthcoming.]

There are a couple of originals hear ("Tradewinds" and "Speakeasy"), but most of the tracks are covers of popular tunes of the era given the Tijuana Brass treatment. In addition to four Bacharach-David songs (notably "(They Long To Be) Close to You," a big hit for labelmates The Carpenters), Alpert also covers James Taylor ("Fire and Rain"), The Beatles ("And I Love Her") Cat Stevens ("Whistlestar") and even Gilbert O'Sullivan ("Alone Again (Naturally)").

Even before Alpert's rise to fame with the TJB, he was a writer (notably "Wonderful World," which he co-wrote with Sam Cooke and Lou Adler), a producer (with Adler he produced Jan & Dean's first hit "Baby Talk") and record executive (he formed A&M Records with Jerry Moss). Over a two-year period from 1965 to 1967, Alpert and the TJB placed a dozen hits in the Top 40. If you enjoyed hits like "A Taste of Honey," "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea," this album is a goldmine. Enjoy! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I preordered this from amazon and got it the day after it dropped. I am on the young end of the spectrum that remembers Herb and the TJB (late 30's) but am an ardent fan thanks to my mother's record collection and a collection that includes all his solo recordings through Colors. Having read that Herb prefers to live in the present, I had doubts I would ever see the TJB recordings rereleased while he lived. But life is full of pleasant surprises and this "Lost Treasures" CD is definitely one of them. From the opening, jazzier version of "Up Cherry Street" to the bittersweet closer "Whistlestar", this CD is fully deserving to be ranked with any of Herb's best releases. For me the highlights are his newly recorded "Happy Hour" and "Julius and Me" (in honor of the late Julius Wechter, the marimba player on most of the TJB recordings. I was thrilled to discover Herbs distinctive arrangements of "Fire and Rain", "Promises, Promises", and "Popcorn". But there is not one clunker on the CD. As a bonus, all the recordings pop in crisp digital sound and the packaging and booklet are excellent!
These tracks were bounty that there wasn't room for on earlier TJB releases - not duds to be hidden. I can imagine Herb getting jazzed about the opportunity to freshen the sound and present them to, hopefully, a new audience as well as his diehard fans. Get "Lost Treasures" and you are in for either an exciting discovery or an exciting treat.

In the 1960s, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass provided the background music at a million parties thrown by the parents of the baby boom generation. The kids, hooked on rock and roll, generally thought it was music for squares. The kids were wrong. Herb and his band had an easy groove that sounds pretty hip today. This release, "Lost Treasures," gathers up 22 rare and unreleased cuts that did not make the nine or so LPs the Tijuana Brass released in the 1960s. There are some real finds here; "Flowers on the Wall" takes the country classic and sets it swinging, "Popcorn" (yes, the early '70s synthesizer annoyance) becomes a neat workout for the rhythm section, "Killing me Softly" becomes a samba - perfect for a summer night, "Tennessee Waltz" is transformed into a near-Dixieland march, even "Fire and Rain" loses it's maudlin feel and becomes a breezy toe-tapper. Herb Alpert has always been underrated as an instrumentalist, and here he sweetly stamps his unmistakable trumpet style on songs well-known and obscure. This is not an exercise in nostalgia - Herb worked on this Shout Factory! release (all of the Tijuana Brass CDs will be newly remastered for release) and added a few overdubs where needed to finish a cut. His work is rewarded - "Lost Treasures" stands stands with Alpert's best work. My Dad was a huge Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass fan - he wore out 2-3 copies of each new release. He would have loved this disc.

Is a fact, but is the true. Herb Alpert surprises us (all his fans worldwide) with these very "rare" musical joys.

I was thinking, in which place of earty were hiding these fantastic themes? Really I always had in my mind Herb Alpert will hit us with magnificent lost treasures, and nobody can deny this 'cause track by track all of them are treasures.

The first step, I've heard "Up Cherry Street" (a Julius Wechter masterpiece) for first instance in the South Of The Border LP in the earlies 70's (the original LP was made in 1962 but in my country I've discovered it for a closer friends of my family, maybe was 1973 and I remember they give me this LP as like a gift, now is a rare treasure), but again I've heard the modern "jazz" version in the "Your Smile, The Song Begins" with modern changes but remaining the Trumpet sounds in the Alpert's trademark.

Another four in this CD are includes that were recorded in the "Your Smile..." and are "I Can't go on living babe, without you", "Promises, Promises", "Alone Again (naturally)" and the incredible "I Might Frighten Her Away" (just for me, this song pays all the CD), but all those tracks have some arrangements that are not included in "Your Smile..." album, in "Up Cherry Street" the trumpet makes a "duo" in first instance. Herb maybe "overdoubbed" some tracks in their process, I don't know, but the results are great.

And another songs very popular are "And I love Her", "(They long to be) close to you", "Raindrops are falling on my head", "Popcorn", "Whistlestar", "Fire and rain", but always with the unique Alpert's touch, nothing similar with the originals, nothing about "clones" or "just likes", TJB only as they are!!!

Bravo Herb, You and the people from Shout! Factory give the real gift for all the TJB fans: your lost (and very succesful) tresures.

Learning of this "Lost Treasures" disc really caught me by surprise, & I was even more surprised upon viewing the track listing. By all means, if you truly love Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, you should just go right ahead & get this if you haven't already--the disc contains 22 tracks, runs roughly an hour, and contains solid, extensive liner notes including some great, characteristically warm and tender passages from Herb himself. The booklet also contains lots of photos, and the packaging is excellent all around. I think Herb will always be a badly underrated artist--there's no doubt that he's received plenty of ridicule over the years for his music with the TJB being 'falsely Mexican' (for lack of a better phrase). Granted, the more uptempo stuff does tend to be a bit corny--however, for years and years Herb had an incredible ear for melody, a huge key to what has made so much of his music, both with & without the TJB, so excellent. There's another big thing also; when it comes to lush, romantic, timeless ballads, this guy was unbeatable, and that's something I've never seen pointed out anywhere; for proof, you needn't look any further than track 11 here--the sumptuous, dreamy, Bacharach/ David-penned "I Might Frighten Her Away"--one of Herb's best tracks ever; his breezy samba version of "Killing Me Softly" is another great example. All that said, this leads into the ways in which I'm disappointed in this collection. Although the flow from track to track on this disc is nice, anyone familiar with Herb's early '70s releases will realize that this is actually kind of a weird collection. Five of the tracks here originally appeared on Herb's 1974 album "You Smile--The Song Begins" (an album that any serious Alpert fan needs)--however, they don't all appear here the way they did on that album; some additional recording was clearly done, which possibly has something to do with the booklet not including recording dates for each individual track; for instance, the aforementioned "I Might Frighten Her Away" is mostly left alone, but there is some clumsily added percussion toward the very end of the track, and I can only ask... WHY? The original album version of this track is terrific as is, & this new version ends up being slightly inferior. It's made clear in the liner notes that Herb has recently added/ re-recorded trumpet parts to certain tracks here (some had never even been completed), and for anyone who's heard Herb's 1999 album "Colors", his newly-recorded parts on tracks such as "Fire and Rain" will be impossible to miss, which is not to say they aren't carefully done. I realize I may sound overly critical to some, but I'd be greatly disappointed if this disc ends up 'taking the place' of a full-fledged reissue of his "You Smile--The Song Begins" album, because even though he's got 5 tracks from it on here, he still managed to miss such absolute gems as its title track, "Song For Herb", and the vocal duet with his wife Lani Hall "Save the Sunlight". By all means, "Lost Treasures" is an album worth having--the wonderfully mellow "Wailing Of The Willow", the characteristic Alpert composition "Tradewinds", & the aforementioned "Killing Me Softly", to name a few, are lost treasures in the true sense of the word. Also, it's extremely interesting to finally hear Herb's vocal version of "(They Long To Be) Close To You", although his vocal on it is indeed disappointingly weak. Alpert proved he was actually a great vocal stylist with "This Guy's In Love With You" which makes it disappointing on a certain level that he didn't sing more, but it's okay because, quite obviously, Herb truly used his trumpet as his voice--he was an instrumental performer and a brilliant one. In closing, I really hope this "Lost Treasures" disc will be just be the beginning as far as reissuing Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass' '70s records on CD is concerned as opposed to the last word.

This Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass album is going to rock the house.For old Tijuana Brass fans & new ones this album hammers home just how versatile & broad the Tijuana Brass can sound.You can listen to it all day & never get tired of it.I've listened to the Brass for the last 43 years, never tiring ,allways inspiring,and with Lost treasures, I have to fight with my 15 & 19 years for the CD!!This is definately worth trying out & a wellcome addition to an existing collection!
Ole' Marty

There are numerous reasons that make this cd such a gem. One, it is always great when Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass's music appears on compact disk. Another reason is, some haven't heard a new Tijuana Brass song in over 40 years. And during the 80's and 90's, when one waited for the latest Alpert release, though rather an enjoyable listen, they lacked the color and emotion, and nostalgea of the earlier Tijuana Brass recordings.

Some might say, if these tunes weren't good enough to make the cut then, why would they be now. Some might say, "just give me some new Tijuana Brass music." Clearly the main reasons these songs didn't appear on the albums that were being released when the tracks here were recorded, were that there wasn't enough room, or they just didn't fit with the theme of the album. Well now, this disk is the perfect place for them.

This disk may take a little getting used to. But after a few listens, it grows on you so much! The bossa nova rhythm takes over the majority of the songs on this release, but songs as "Happy Hour, Julius And Me, Tenesse Waltz," and "Flowers On The Wall," clearly resemble their classic 1960's sound.

Great listens include, Whistlestar, Popcorn, and Close To You, which are all excellent, by the way. And several additional takes of TJB tunes that appeard on the You Smile The Song Begins album in 1975, that include Up Cherry Street, I Can't Go On Livin' Without You, and Alone Again Naturally.

Besides the music, which is top notch, the release comes with a full page booklet of rare photos and literature by Herb, with many stories behind the music, and why you are hearing the tracks you are hearing on the "Rare And Unreleased," album.

This release kicked off the re-issue of all the Tijuana Brass albums from 1962-1975. Many fans who are hearing new Tijuana Brass material for the first time in over 40 years are especially in heaven with this release, and new comers to Alpert, will enjoy the music on this disk, though it won't have the same meaning to a fan from the beginning.

This was a good job by Shout Records. They have made many peoples' dreams complete with this rare and stellar release! Good job, Shout!

Happy Listening.

Not sure why I am writing a review, since so many people have already given this 'new' release from the classic Tijuana Brass period such a gracious welcome. But like an additional trumpet harmony to the chorus, let me add, it is not only a thing of beauty, but enough songs to represent a DOUBLE album, and one that would easily rank among the very best of the entire catalog!

With that said, why did these tracks fail to find release back in the day? Herb asks the same question in his liner notes and really couldn't recall! Only that he was shocked to find so MANY lost treasures that he had forgotten existed or were even recorded. In any case, it was a lucky stroke of genius to overlook them the first time around so that we could enjoy such a beautiful set of numbers alongside all the re-releases of this golden era of heart-warming classic TB albums.

In addition to hearing Alpert's own sung version of "(They Long to Be) Close To You", which was originally to be a Tijuana Brass release before deciding to hand it over to The Carpenters to record for their own A&M release(!!!...the rest is history), this album closes with a gorgeous and unique production of cat stevens' "Whistlestar" which would be worth the entire cost of the album all by itself. It's a stunner.

Learning about material "in the vaults" by other artists over the years since the CD boom, why would I think Herb Alpert and the TJB would be any different? To my delight and I'm sure other TJB fans, this complete brand-new collection of vault material is an absolute treat. Granted, some is not the greatest, but it all isn't half bad! When hearing the original released material and finding a familiar song in the TJB style, and not seeing the track name, I always played a guessing game with "I know that one, but what is it?" Definitely did that here with FIRE AND RAIN, finally figuring out it as a take on the James Taylor classic. Also with POPCORN and ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY.

With the rest of the TJB catalog coming out on Shout! Factory, I hope the label keeps up the fabulous work they've already started. Excellent booklet material, history & comments from Herb himself. Sound is incredible, as most of my original albums were Mono. Several surprises I'm sure are to come, as WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS follows on April 19, with some bonus tracks.

Granted, for the other two releases accompanying LOST TREASURES, those of us from the 60s remember the Teaberry Gum commercial, but who remembers the actual Teaberry Shuffle dance? Later albums will feature music used on game shows of that era as well, particularly the original "Dating Game".

Enjoy! Lost Treasures is worth the investment.