Infirmity for the wiiiiiiin!

Friday, October 3, 2025

We went to see Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. We got there early, because Keith was very excited. We had seats (Keith called lousy) (I always figure if you have a seat in the room, you are winning) way way way up in space, nearly to the back. We wandered the lobby looking for an elevator. I’d estimate it was three floors worth of stairs to get to the top and that was NOT going to go well for me. We had 20 minutes until showtime and I figured it might take that long to get there. We asked an usher where the elevator was and she said they didn’t have one. I could use the stairs at the other side of the lobby.

Huh.

A lady in a pretty dress and a name tag had welcomed us in and I went straight back to her. I figured if anyone could get me into a freight elevator it was her. I asked for the elevator and she apologized that they don’t have one and immediately offered to seat us on the main floor.

Um.

We said no. I could get up the stairs, it would just take time and…she was not taking no for an answer. She escorted us to the box office and the man clicked the computer buttons and seated us on the left aisle of row I. As in the 9th row. Beautiful seats. Perfect view. I felt really guilty, but got over it once the show started.

I’ll let Keith tell you about the show…

Herb Alpert is 90 years old. By all counts he shouldn’t even be able to play trumpet anymore, let alone host a nearly 2-hour show without an intermission. He hasn’t toured with the Tijuana Brass since the mid ’70s (50 years ago and 60 years have passed since his first TJB album), although he toured as a solo act and with his wife, Lani Hall, a number of times since the TJB were together.

The show was excellent from beginning to end. It had lots of TJB favorites and a few others, including a Sergio Mendez tribute medley by Lani (who was part of Sergio’s band for many years). Herb told stories, sang, and played trumpet a lot more than I expected. There is only one other living member of his original TJB band (the bass player), so the entire band was new and mostly fairly young. The other trumpeter (Kris Bergh) was from the Twin Cities (although not someone I know, even though he also went to UWEC [many, many years after me]). The band was excellent and mostly authentic to the TJB original sound. I could only hope to have Herb’s energy when I’m 90. What made the show especially fun was the many video clips of his early days with the original TJB. Herb did seem to have spent an unusually large amount of time in the late ’60s running down the beach carrying or playing his trumpet.

A couple weeks ago, I saw that resale of tickets for this show were going at high prices. We didn’t have good seats, so I definitely considered it. I mean, how good could Herb still be at 90? How disappointing would it be if the new band wasn’t truly honoring the original TJB? Would it be a bummer to see it from the very back of hall, way up in the balcony? I’m so glad that we kept the tickets (and that we got the amazing ticket upgrade). It was a very memorable concert that was way too good to have missed.

It’s Barbara – I’m back. I was texting with Maren when we got home and she mentioned she wanted a sandwich. So I made sandwich and took it over. It felt very neighborly.