Herb Alpert kept checking in about his pin stripes, asking a rapt audience, some of whom traveled from Florida just to hear him perform at the Café Carlyle for opening night this week: “Was I wearing this suit?” Like a woman who does not want to repeat an outfit for the same group, he joked, told stories, and played that sweet trumpet, bringing in the crowd for an entertaining night of his greatest hits. Beside him was his wife of 42 years, Lani Hall, whose crystalline vocals in Portuguese and Spanish perfectly put everyone in the Tijuana/ Jobim mood. “I love it when she talks to me in Yiddish,” he laughed, as their ensemble with Bill Cantos on piano, Hussain Jiffrey on a six-string bass he can play like a guitar, and Michael Shapiro on drums created a musical dialogue all their own.
As the audience, including Robert Redford, cheered for each medley, with anecdotes about giving “Close to You” to The Carpenters, and a segue to Carole King’s “Up on the Roof,” “The Fool on the Hill,” “The Look of Love,” and so on, many components of the evening felt improvised within the context of a well-honed music genre. Guaranteed: this is a show you may want to see more than once.
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