If Los Gatos has a rep for being sleepy, that wasn’t the case Tuesday night when Herb Alpert — sans the Tijuana Brass but with his vocalist wife Lani Hall — brought some fantastic energy to Jazz on the Plazz’s annual gala to support art and music education in the town.
The outdoor lawn at La Estancia, the spacious Los Gatos home of Larry Arzie and David Stonesifer, provided the perfect evening backdrop as the legendary trumpet player took the crowd of more than 300 people on an hour-long stroll through his 1960s favorites, with a few more modern detours. They cheered and danced and sang along with Alpert on his 1968 hit, “This Guy’s in Love With You,” and Hall — the original singer for Sergio Mendes’ Brasil ’66 — on “Mas Que Nada.”It was well past dark when the performance wrapped up, amazing when you realize Alpert — at age 82 — was probably older than nearly everyone. If he could keep going, nobody was getting up to leave.
“We are delighted to be here. Seriously, we love the arts,” Alpert said before telling the audience about his early music education in Los Angeles. “Every child should have that opportunity to express themselves creatively.”
The show was the climax of a fundraiser that brought in thousands of dollars for the nonprofit Los Gatos Music & Arts, which produces the weekly Jazz in the Plazz summer concert series. And it was due to the contributions of many people including presenting sponsor Linda Lester, Andrea Skov, Ginger McDonald, Jonathan Knowles, MichaelJacobi and Teri Hope.
Hope, the president of Los Gatos Music & Arts, actually figured into one of the evening’s most entertaining moments that didn’t involve a trumpet. She and Los Gatos realtor Rebecca Jepsen got into a bidding war over a 40-person lobster dinner to be hosted by Dennise McNulty-Carter. After one-upping each other through a few rounds, the pair joined forces and bought the dinner together for $10,000.