Herb Alpert Is...

Trumpet virtuoso Herb Alpert is a cultural singularity. There's never been another instrumentalist with his string of hit singles and albums, his enormous celebrity, and his ability to launch and support other popular music artists (via his enormously successful A&M records).

So it's no wonder that Herb Alpert Is.. is an often-fascinating recounting of his remarkable life. When it drills down on a subject — A&M's artist-friendly headquarters, or Alpert's discovery of The Carpenters and Sergio Mendes — it's great. And there are some fine interviews with people close to Alpert (Jerry Moss, the other half of A&M) and celebrities who owe their careers to him (Paul Williams, Sting), as well as countless vintage clips and photographs.

What director John Scheinfeld fails to settle upon, however, is a guiding structure for his movie. There's chronology, sure, but the most frequent refrain here is the gimmicky fill-in-the-blank title, which generates a lot of talking heads trying to summarize Alpert in a couple sentences, an exercise antithetical to insight.

There are also huge information gaps, including the date and location of nearly every clip and photo; the origins and personnel of Alpert's band, The Tijuana Brass (one guitarist gets a couple sound bites); and the reliance of Alpert's many smash hits on a series of largely unknown songwriters (exception: Burt Bacharach, who gets a cameo). And don't even think the words "cultural appropriation" (mariachi experts not invited). There's also much more coverage of Alpert's second career as an abstract artist than is needed — good for him, but it's not what made him famous, for good reason.

Fortunately, Alpert himself gave Scheinfeld a generous and often revealing series of interviews, at his home and at locations important to his biography, and that makes the film must-see viewing for anyone who admires his accomplishments. Plus, all those pre-MTV music videos are remarkable, and the music is as sweet and buoyant as ever.

Grade: B-minus. Not rated, but PG equivalent. Available to rent starting Oct. 2 via fineartstheatre.com

(Photo: Grandstand Media)