!Shoot-out! TjB vs. BMB -- Round VII: 1970-71 (Final Round)

Select the group that in your opinion issued the best LP during 1970-71

  • Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

    Votes: 8 72.7%
  • Julius Wechter and the Baja Marimba Band

    Votes: 3 27.3%

  • Total voters
    11
I've long been curious about the release of Summertime... It was 1971, a good year into Herb's "retirement." So was this one final album that was in the works before he disbanded the brass, juast quickly whipped out for a fast buck or to keep his name out there??? Or was it a bunch of previously unreleased tracks from 1969 to 1970 that were put together, essentially a "prototype" of the distant future Lost Treasures album?

I've thought about that too.... but since the Summertime doesn't really sound like anything from the albums that came ahead of it, it seems to have been recorded separately. The Lost Treasures album can often (usually?) be sort-of guesstimated as to when the tracks were recorded by comparing them to other similar-sounding tracks....but the backing instrumentation on Summertime is quite different from The Brass Are Comin' and Warm. Some (not all) of the Summertime tunes sound like demos to me. The album has such a casual feel to it.
 
I've long been curious about the release of Summertime... It was 1971, a good year into Herb's "retirement." So was this one final album that was in the works before he disbanded the brass, juast quickly whipped out for a fast buck or to keep his name out there??? Or was it a bunch of previously unreleased tracks from 1969 to 1970 that were put together, essentially a "prototype" of the distant future Lost Treasures album? And, doing the math, 1971 for Summertime and 1973 for the "Last Tango"/"Fire and Rain" single puts his sabbatical at merely two years -- not the four that are historically noted.

--Mr Bill
I think to answer your Summertime question I think it was tracks recorded between 1969 and 1971 i also think Herb might have Recorded in Dribs and Drabs so to speak as a way of staying active Remember also Herb did say the Tijuana Brass was more of a sound than a group so my response here should be in the context of The TJB It's possible Herb during this time might have been Considering dropping the TJB moniker all together as he disbanded it. I could guess until the cows come home and still be wrong even though I too have been curious myself about these things nevertheless at this point it doesn't really matter how long Herb was retired we can be thankful he re-emerged when he did and slowly but surely had A Breakthrough hit With Rise by the end of the 70s
 
Julius didn't like making "As Time Goes By", but it happens to be my all time favorite BMB album. Herb's "Summertime" is also an all time great album so I'll call it a tie..
 
I think if Julius had remained with A&M and been allowed to experiment more, we'd have more tracks like "Samba for Vicky," "Jorjana #1" (a big favorite here) and "Big Noise from Encino," all of which point towards the jazz that Julius was familiar with from the early

It’s interesting to note tha
Julius didn't like making "As Time Goes By", but it happens to be my all time favorite BMB album. Herb's "Summertime" is also an all time great album so I'll call it a tie..
He didn’t? Can you elaborate?
 
That's a shame since it had the potential to be a top notch album. Hindsight being 20/20, and the possibility of using a more sympathetic producer, I would have billed the album only to Julius, dumped a few of the MOR tracks, rearranged a few others, and made it more of a jazz album. Tracks like I mentioned above were nice departures from the tired Baja format.
 
I'll vote for Herb Alpert and Summertime. The songs I like from this album are Hurt So Bad, Jerusalem, and Strike Up The Band. These remind me most of the 1960s Tijuana Brass, and that will always be my favorite sound and music by far.
 
That's a shame since it had the potential to be a top notch album. Hindsight being 20/20, and the possibility of using a more sympathetic producer, I would have billed the album only to Julius, dumped a few of the MOR tracks, rearranged a few others, and made it more of a jazz album. Tracks like I mentioned above were nice departures from the tired Baja format.
One way to approach the validity (for lack of a better term) of ATBG is to compare it against Julius' "promotional issue" LP, The Music Of Julius -- as that LP, which I believe is also from the early 1970s, would seeming be representative of how Julius himself would want others to regard his music.
 
THE MUSIC OF JULIUS WECHTER (LP 8076)

1645965888763.png

All mono tracklist:
Spanish Flea - TjB / B66 / Jerry Fielding Hollywood Brass
Brasilia - TjB
Up Cherry Street - TjB / Pete Jolly
Warm -Karen Philipp vocal / TjB
The Nicest Things Happen - TjB
Fowl Play - BMB
Bean Bag - TjB
The Nicest Things Happen - female vocal still unconfirmed
Blue Sunday - TjB
Spanish Flea - Mantovani

Just today, I turned SoundHound onto the final track and it identified it as a Mantovani recording, which is confirmed by YouTube:



We still have not identified the vocalist on that second version of "The Nicest Things Happen". An old thread had Cissy Wechter reporting it as Jeannie King from The Blossoms, but that recording is also out there and it's nothing like the one on THE MUSIC OF JULIUS WECHTER.
 
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THE MUSIC OF JULIUS WECHTER (LP 8076)

1645965888763.png


All mono tracklist:
Spanish Flea - TjB / B66 / BMB / Jerry Fielding Hollywood Brass
Brasilia - TjB
Up Cherry Street - TjB / Pete Jolly
Warm -Karen Philipp vocal / TjB
The Nicest Things Happen - TjB
Fowl Play - BMB
Bean Bag - TjB
The Nicest Things Happen - female vocal still unconfirmed
Blue Sunday - TjB
Spanish Flea - Mantovani
Harry, I'm guessing then that the first Spanish Flea track has those four artists' version segued in sequence...
 
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Woops. That BMB in the first track shouldn't be there. Bad copy and paste job on my part.

The original theory was that the last section must have been a different recording by the BMB, but SoundHound identified it as Jerry Fielding and the Hollywood Brass. You can find that recording on YouTube.

And. Yes, the three sections of the song are segued at logical points. B66 is the whole section of Ba doe ba dope dwee dwee doo doo, then the Fielding track finishes it out.
 
I never heard BMB "As time goes By" Not sure why I never purchased it upon release, as I loved and still spin regularly it's predecessor "Fresh Air".

"Summertime ", at least to me, always felt like a compilation of leftover stuff from the vaults with a few newer tracks added on.
 
This is only the final round as Herb Alpert stopped or went into something else. Julius kept touring here is a performance recorded for Public Tv and needs to be issued on DVD somewhere.

Wow..a bass trumpet!!

The boys coulda had an endorsement from a cigar maker!

Thank you for posting the video.
 
The boys coulda had an endorsement from a cigar maker!
Corona! To match the beer, of course. 😁

I never heard BMB "As time goes By" Not sure why I never purchased it upon release, as I loved and still spin regularly it's predecessor "Fresh Air".
It is a different style of album--there are still a couple of tracks that sound like the Baja of prior albums, but the others are more jazz oriented. It's a refreshing change! Although the lead-off track is pure MOR (strings and voices) and can easily be skipped--won't hear much of Julius in this one.
 
I may upload this one to YouTube shortly--decided to do a quick needle drop of it since I have the system fired up.
 
In that Baja Marimba Band show, the first lady that Julius brings up to dance is actress/comedienne Beverly Sanders. In the Mid-Atlantic region, a hamburger chain known as Gino's used Ms. Sanders in this commercial:

 
Wow! I had no idea that inner sleeve even existed. Amazing. Now, I need to go on the hunt to find one.
It was in the original copy that I bought and still have. Once the lp was discontinued, I starting looking for copies as mine was wearing out but so far, none have had that sleeve. I still keep looking.
 
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