Rise

Herb Alpert’s accomplishments as a musician are legendary, including five No. 1 albums and 28 albums total on the Billboard Album chart and nine Grammy Awards. He was also one of my big musical influences. My first concert was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass at the Tulsa Assembly Center in 1966. I played cornet in the band, and spent a lot of hours trying to get the same smooth sound out of my horn that I heard on his records.

Last fall I got another chance to see Herb Alpert at the Tower Theater in OKC, and spent a lot of time listening to his music both before and after that concert. One of those songs was Rise, a song which won Alpert a Grammy in 1980 for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The song blended Alpert’s trademark mariachi rock with a disco tempo that helped the song get spins in dance clubs. This is my version of Rise, in which I’ve replaced the disco beat with a latin vibe. I've tried to channel a little trumpet on the Strat, but kept the 99 bpm tempo of the original.

Olé!