Dan Rodricks: A conversation with Herb Alpert, almost 91, playing the Lyric Baltimore on March 27

Herb Alpert is scheduled to perform with the new Tijuana Brass to a sold-out audience at the Lyric Baltimore on March 27. Four days later, he’ll turn 91. In a telephone interview last week, I asked Alpert if he recalled playing the trumpet in Baltimore back in the 1960s, when the Tijuana Brass, having produced several hits, went on tour. “Oh, definitely,” he said. “But I don’t remember anything about it.” “Was it at Painter’s Mill Music Fair or the Civic Center?” I asked. “Those names aren’t familiar, but I know I’ve been to Baltimore a few times.” If he didn’t recall the venue, Alpert is easily forgiven. He’s had a huge life in professional music, sprawled across seven decades. Born to East European immigrants in Los Angeles, he took trumpet lessons at age 8 and ended up, 10 years later, in the marching band at the University of Southern California. He wrote songs for others in the 1950s and early 1960s. His first big trumpet hit was “The Lonely Bull” (El Solo Toro) in 1962. He developed a unique sound — “Ameriachi!” — and started producing hits all over Top 40 radio. Alpert was the extravagantly handsome leader of a band that became known as the Tijuana Brass and sold millions of albums in just a few years. They enjoyed peak popularity in 1966 and went on tour. “I’m betting you played the downtown Civic Center,” I told him. I looked it up and I was right: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass first played the Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena) in April 1966. Ticket prices ranged from $2 to $5. (The latter would be $50 today, according to a Federal Reserve calculator.) Alpert and his band came back to the Civic Center in April 1968, with the top ticket price set at $7. Herb Alpert in concert “You’re playing the Lyric this time,” I told him. “It’s a beautiful old opera house.” “That’s what I heard, that’s great,” he said. “How’s the sound in there?” “It was built for opera and symphonies back in the day,” I said. “Sound is good. . . . Hey, I gotta say — breaking a rule about people I interview — I’m a fan. I’ve always loved your music, and when I was a kid, I learned to practice drums with your albums. The late Nick Ceroli was your drummer. I think it was the 12 drum beats to start “Taste of Honey” that got me into the Brass.” “We had a fabulous band,” Alpert said. Here’s more from my conversation with the great Herb Alpert, edited for brevity and clarity. DR: So you’re coming to the Lyric Baltimore March 27. How often are you doing concerts? HA: About every other month. DR: Is that a good pace? HA: You know, I have so much fun doing concerts, I wish they would be a little closer together. The reception has been wonderful. DR: The Baltimore show is sold out. HA: I guess that is happening everywhere, every place I play. It’s almost embarrassing, because I didn’t expect this. You know, I’m 90 years old. DR: I know, almost 91. HA: My nephew put a lot of [Tijuana Brass] music on social media, and it just started escalating. Somebody on TikTok picked up a song I did [“Lady Fingers”] 60 years ago in the “Whipped Cream” album, and I’ve had over 4 billion streams. I never expected this to happen, you know, in this period of my life. But I’m having a great time. People are loving it. So it’s a win-win for me. DR: I have a son and daughter in their 30s and I have to explain to them that, back in the day, we had Top 40 radio. You would hear a Beatles song, followed by the Rolling Stones, followed by maybe a Peggy Lee song, and then, you know, Herb Albert songs. HA: The extreme of that is happening sometimes in England, where they’ll play songs like that, then throw in some classical music, which is kind of beautiful. DR: So, in light of the Top 40 thing, I always wanted to ask you if, given the way British and American rock burst out in the Sixties, after the arrival of the Beatles, were you surprised at your own success and popularity? In 1966, your albums outsold the Beatles. HA: I didn’t know I was gonna have a hit record. I had the first hit, “The Lonely Bull,” in 1962 and I thought, well, that might be the end of my career as a recording artist. But I kind of got spurred on by our distributors . . . . So I said, “Let me see if I could do that again.” But I didn’t want to do it sideways. I wanted to take that sound that I thought was really good and, you know, scramble it up, do it different ways. And it caught on. DR: The album you’re celebrating on tour is probably your most famous, “Whipped Cream & Other Delights,” fr