World-renowned trumpeter, vocalist on stage in Whitefish

Legendary trumpet player Herb Alpert, along with his wife and award-winning vocalist Lani Hall, return to the Flathead Valley for a performance at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

Creator and innovator, musician and producer, artist, and philanthropist, Herb Alpert is a man with a profound passion. Born in Los Angeles, the future trumpeter came of age in a house filled with music. At age 8, he was drawn to the trumpet in a music appreciation class in his elementary school.

“I was very fortunate that I had that exposure to music and was encouraged to stick with it,” Alpert says.

Alpert’s extraordinary musicianship has earned him five No. 1 hits, nine Grammy awards, the latest from his 2014 album, “Steppin’ Out,” 15 Gold albums, 14 Platinum albums and has sold over 72 million records.

And he’s still at it.

Alpert’s upcoming new album, “Music Volume 3: Herb Alpert Re-imagines The Tijuana Brass,” will be released Oct. 19.

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass propelled his sound into the pop music limelight, at one point outselling the Beatles two to one. In 1966, they achieved the since-unmatched feat of simultaneously having four albums in the Top 10 — and five in the Top 20. Alpert also has the distinction of being the only artist who has had a No. 1 instrumental and vocal single.

As an industry leader, Alpert’s commitment to artists with personal vision guided A&M Records (with partner Jerry Moss) from a Hollywood garage operation into one of the most successful independent record labels in music history that started in 1962 with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Stars including Janet Jackson, Quincy Jones, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, Stan Getz, Cat Stevens, Supertramp, The Carpenters, Carole King, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, The Police and scores of others that are evidence of the consistent quality and diversity of the A&M Records family.

In 2006, Alpert and Moss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in recognition of their accomplishments and are a part of the Grammy Museum’s ”Icons of the Music Industry” series. In 2013 Herb Alpert was awarded The National Medal of Arts Award by President Barack Obama for his musical, philanthropic and artistic contributions.

Alpert explains, “There is a certain satisfaction and energy that comes from playing the horn – a feeling that I am really in my element. I am passionate about what I am doing, whether painting, sculpting or playing the trumpet. I am just trying to create whatever comes out in the spontaneity of the moment.”

Hall began her musical career in 1966 as the lead singer for Brasil ’66. Not long after the group formed, it was signed to A&M Records by Alpert, which is also how the two met.

Since then Hall has won two Grammy Awards and recorded more than 22 albums. She is perhaps best-known for her recording of the 1983 “Never Say Never Again,” the title track for the James Bond film by the same name.

After establishing a successful solo career in music, and becoming a wife and mother, Hall began to explore new creative outlets for her writing. In the early 1980s, while singing in Mexico City, she started writing in short-story form in order to empty her mind of her vivid imagination.

In 2012 Hall released her first book, “Emotional Memoirs and Short Stories.” The 10 short works of fiction and non-fiction are all set against the living, breathing backdrop of Chicago. Each story is woven into the next via a winding personal narrative, as she takes a refreshingly honest look back at her own life. While still just a teenager, Hall would write and sing as her two major forms of self-expression. They were her way of exploring and releasing what was inside of her.

At 19 she was discovered by Sergio Mendes at a local Chicago nightclub where he asked her to be the lead singer for the new group he was putting together called Brasil ’66. Hall then relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles, where, just 5 months later, Brasil ‘66 was signed to A&M Records by the co-founder of the label — and future husband — music legend Herb Alpert.