Herb Alpert – Midnight Sun (1992/2015) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

Herb Alpert – Midnight Sun (1992/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 51:18 minutes | 975 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | Front Cover | © Herb Alpert Presents

With 1992’s “Midnight Sun”, released on his own label, Herb Alpert indulges himself with vintage standards. A strong jazz feel imbues the relaxed atmosphere. The soloist’s treatments of “All the Things You Are” create a cool and mellow version of the Hammerstein-Kern classic. Alpert reprises his 1965 hit, “A Taste of Honey”, with a blue jazz feeling. After pop concerns dominating his work for the previous 30 years, it’s refreshing to hear this album of timeless songs. „Midnight Sun“ is not so much concerned with finding a hit through today’s trends but rediscovering an appreciation of the great music that’s been forgotten.

Having recently sold A&M to PolyGram for a cool $500 million, and with his short but hugely affecting association with the late Stan Getz on his mind, Herb Alpert finally took the plunge and recorded what he called a jazz album, his last for the label he co-founded. But this would not be a conventional blowing session; rather it is an intimate, inward, wee-small-hours kind of album where, muted and not, Alpert’s horn sighs, laments and sings over a conventional rhythm section and underneath a blanket of lush strings. Without a doubt, Miles Davis in his introspective ’50s mode is Herb’s primary inspiration — always has been — and he uses space between the notes in similar ways, but always with his own tone and distinct phrasing. Two old favorites from the TJB days, “A Taste of Honey” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” are revisited; “Taste” is completely transformed into a dark elegy that breaks into the light before turning back to the shadows. One track, “Friends,” was left over from 1990, where Herb was joined by a luminous-sounding Getz; they really play like intimate friends together. This is not a terribly spontaneous album — Alpert is too much the master of structure to leave very much to chance — but it creates a mood of melancholy serenity that is difficult to resist. ~ Richard S. Ginell

Tracklist:
01 – Midnight Sun
02 – All The Things You Are
03 – Someone To Watch Over Me
04 – In The Wee Small Hours
05 – Friends
06 – A Taste Of Honey
07 – Mona Lisa
08 – I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face
09 – Silent Tears And Roses
10 – Smile

Produced by Herb Alpert.

Download:

mqs.link_HerbAlpertMidnightSun19922015Qbuz24882.rar