While walking from his sculpture and painting studios to his recording studio on a typically Pacific-breezy afternoon, trumpeter, A&M Records co-founder and philanthropist Herb Alpert paused to describe his first brush with a horn.
It was at a music appreciation class when he was a kid, Alpert, 82, said during a tour of his oceanfront Malibu property. He arrived to find a table full of instruments, including a trumpet.
Alpert had invited a guest to his compound to discuss his relentless creative output, specifically his two recent albums: “The Christmas Wish,” his first holiday record in 50 years, and “Music, Vol. 1,” a collection of cover songs that, he writes in the liner notes, fulfills his desire to “make uplifting music at a time when the whole world feels like it could use some.”