Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Whip It Good at the Hollywood Bowl, Returning After 59 Years for a Great Sugar Rush of a Show: Concert Review
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- Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass returned to the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday for the first time in 59 years, with the 91-year-old declaring from the stage, "This is a dream come true for me."
- Paul Williams delivered a lengthy laudatory opening speech recounting how Alpert and Jerry Moss founded A&M Records "on a handshake" in a garage, pivoting at one point to urge that artists be paid and retain a right to refuse AI training on their work in 2026.
- Alpert mostly performed seated but still pulled his full share of trumpet solos alongside just two horn players, Kris Bergh (trumpet) and Ryan Dragon (trombone), none of the rest of the band being original Tijuana Brass members.
- The set mixed '60s staples ("The Lonely Bull," "Spanish Flea," "Mexican Shuffle," "Tijuana Taxi") with a stretched-out nine-minute version of the 1979 Billboard No. 1 "Rise" and 1982's "Route 101," plus newly added "Casino Royale" theme and encore-closer "Up Cherry Street."
- Lani Hall, Alpert's wife, did not perform but appeared repeatedly on the Bowl's overhead screen in "lovebird two-shots" projected above the stage throughout the show.
- The music finally started moments after the Mexico-England World Cup game ended, a delay the reviewer jokingly linked to last-minute horn retrieval from home.
Why it matters: The 59-year gap and instant upgrade from sold-out theaters last fall to a sold-out Hollywood Bowl validates the pitch Alpert's family and partners made that a purposeful nostalgia tour would draw bigger, more celebratory crowds — and positions the 91-year-old as a rare legacy act whose catalog still sells tickets without needing to chase contemporary radio formats. The Williams pivot to AI-era artist compensation also turned a tribute concert into an ASCAP platform moment.
