The Pop Culture Road Trip

I wanted to let you know that I’ve started a new blog here at beliefnet.net – The Rock and Roll Road Trip - which is where you can now follow me.

Thanks for continuing the ride….

Charlie and I made it back from the Actic and it was more spectacular than we imagined it would be.

I’ve already written an article about it…

“Maybe it was the deep isolation in a blue and white ice world; maybe it was the spectacular nature or a combination of both. Whatever it was, I could not wait to visit the land of the “midnight sun” with Quark this year, and this trip has left me reeling, just as the last one did.

We flew from Oslo to Longyearbyen, a small town on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic. From there, we boarded our Russian expedition ship, the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, with about 70 other passengers.

The rest.

Something special – recently I sat down at the home of Phil Collen from Def Leppard – he shared some of the new live album that’s coming out this week, “Mirrorball” – which includes three new studio tracks as well. More to follow once the album is released, but here’s a glimpse of our visit…

From an article I wrote recently…

“It’s not often that you get to speak with a musical legend as lasting and impactful as Herb Alpert. Given that he will be performing May 20 in our backyard at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, I thought you might enjoy this.
The numbers alone are staggering. One hundred million albums sold. Eight Grammys. Recipient of Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Thirteen million records sold in 1966. Four albums in the top 10 simultaneously. Top 10 singles in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Five No. 1 singles.
And who could ever forget Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass?”

I recently had the pleasure of seeing jazz trumpet legend Herb Alpert appear in concert with his wife, noted jazz singer Lani Hall. The pair is touring to support their latest album, “I Feel You” which is an evocative, lush, ravishing collection of standards.

The show took place at the famed Segerstrom Hall here in Orange County, a premier concert hall that was packed for the duo.

Alpert is of course vaunted for his Tijuana Brass days among many other major musical accomplishments, but this show was not a nostalgic jukebox. You got some of the older hits, but more than that, you got a hefty dose of modern jazz singing and playing that looked more to the future than the past.

Utilizing the same group onstage as they did on the new album, Alpert and Hall moved easily through a diverse musical landscape including Berimbau, Night and Day, and Let’s Face the Music and Dance.

Herb’s past came back in the form of the hits Rise, The Lonely Bull and A Taste of Honey, but again, the night was not about time machines.

Blending in some Cole Porter chestnuts along with Fever, Blackbird and some other familiar-but-maybe-not-so-familiar-when-rethought-in-this-inventive way classics, the pair & band thrilled the audience in a set that seemed to fly by a bit too fast.

Alpert took questions and comments from the audience as well, which allowed him to show off his low-key and humble humor that is as charming as it is refreshing.

The new album is terrific, the live show is stellar.

Don’t miss either, if you can help it (the tour is over for now but stay tuned)