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Herb Alpert at 89: The Legend Talks Making 50 Albums, the Death of His Friend Sergio Mendes & Upcoming Tijuana Brass Band Tour

Herb Alpert talks new album '50,' the death of Sergio Mendes, Christmas and his upcoming Tijuana Brass Band Tour.

“I have to explain to her that it gives me energy to do it,” Alpert — who just released his 50th studio album, appropriately titled 50 — tells Billboard via Zoom. Moss passed away 13 months ago, and another of A&M’s stalwarts, Brazilian keyboardist and Brasil ’66 bandleader Sergio Mendes, died earlier this month — another death that hit close to home for Alpert, who signed the group to A&M and produced its 1966 debut album, which remained on the Billboard 200 for more than two years and was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012. He plans to release a recording of “The Christmas Song” for this holiday season (“It touches me, and I feel like a lot of people might feel the same”) and reports that “I have another Christmas album in my head.” And while he and Hall have concert dates books into mid-December, next February Alpert plans to hit the road with a revived version of the Tijuana Brass, the band he led from the early ‘60s into the mid-70s and released hits such as the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 “The Lonely Bull” and the Billboard 200-topping 1965 album Whipped Cream & Other Delights.

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