Photo Above - Lani Hall Alpert with the band of Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66  - 1960's

Two-time Grammy Award-winner, Lani Hall Alpert, started her singing career in 1966.

While still just a teenager, Lani 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 years of age Lani 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.  Lani was up-rooted 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 Lani’s future husband), music legend Herb Alpert. 

While Lani performed throughout the world her rich imagination traveled with her, and her past was never far from her consciousness. While her singing career took her on the road, she also focused on her writing—committing to the page her personal impressions of the world around her, as well as a great deal of poetry. Writing has always come just as naturally to Lani as music. Even as a young girl, she was already a passionate poet. As she moved through her life experiences, she traveled with pen in hand, expressing her private feelings and thoughts. Sergio Mendes further expanded her writing experience by asking Lani to write the English lyrics for many of the band’s Brazilian songs. 

Lani has the distinction of recording more than 22 albums in three different languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish), 4 alongside her husband since 1973, Herb Alpert, and in 1983, she sang the title song for the James Bond film, Never Say Never Again. In 1986 Hall Alpert walked away with her first Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance for her album, Es Facil Amar.

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

At the peak of her success in the mid-80s, Lani contracted a debilitating case of Epstein Barr Virus, and was forced to take a reprieve from performing. Losing the energy to sing was devastating to Lani. In her own words, “Whether I write or sing, it’s to ‘clear myself.’ I feel a pressure building inside of me, and I have to sing or put it on paper to release it.” Lacking the physical stamina to express herself through song, Lani poured her heart and imagination onto the printed page. Her short story, Inland, addresses this difficult period of her life