TJB tribute bands

[stefandaystrom]

Jon the Brasil Nut posted over in the Sheet Music thread:

We have a local band here in the San Francisco Bay Area called, "A Band Called Herb." They do TJB music exclusively. They're sensational. They opened for Sergio at Bimbo's 365 Club a couple of years ago. Although they work at a slightly faster tempo than the TJB, they have the sound down pat. Intead of working with a marimba, they have a synthesizer in its place. If I recall properly, they used the synth for drums as well (Brandon Bergeron may be able to recall if they had a drummer or not -- I don't -- but I don't think so.) Either way, they're so good that Sergio took them to open his show in Seattle the next evening. "Hey," Sergio said backstage to the leader of the group, "you guys have anything going on tomorrow night?" "No, why?" I recall the leader saying. "Wanna open for us in Seattle tomorrow night?" Man! The leader flipped out, "We'd love to! Thanks Sergio!!" It was a kewl moment. That was one heck of a great evening.

1) I recently got the double CD from Europe called THE MUSIC OF JAMES LAST & HERB ALPSERT (item C2616805 at www.musicselection.com, for much less than the seller who keeps posting it on eBay), where the Alpert cover disc is credited to Tijuana Sauerkraut. It's unfortunately a pretty ho-hum overly MIDIfied cover "group" (hard to tell if there's more than one person when it's all MIDIfied ).

2) I also finally got a tribute CD called TIJUANA TRUMPET by the Tijuana Taxis from Austrilia (item C2448797 at www.musicselection.com). This one is much more interesting, in that they seem to have done their own arrangements (inspired by, but not strictly copying, the original TJB arrangements). For example, there's a bit of surf guitar thrown into The Lonely Bull, So What's New has some cool ragtimey piano, and Casino Royale is dicofied! There's also a good number of non-TJB songs (what could the TJB have sounded like doing "Tequila" or "C'Est Si Bon"?). So it feels as much a good-natured tribute to TJB clones of decades ago (Mexicali Brass, etc) as to the TJB itself.

The credited line-up of Tijuana Taxis is: Mal Jennings trumpet, Jo Bloomfield piano, Russell Bayne guitar, Dennis Ashton bass guitar, and Andy Walker drums. Interestingly Mal Jennings talks at length in his liner notes about the importance of a trombone to the TJB sound, but he didn't find a trombonist (or learn how to double-track trombone) for this project. And a few tracks feel a bit too loungey. Still, the most interesting trumpet-based* TJB tribute (OR clone reissue) CD I've heard to date. (*I had to qualify by trumpet, since the SURFIN' SENORITA tribute is so different.)

3) Last month I flew cross country at the VERY last minute (thank you CNN crawls, thank you thank you Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards with welkup-equivalent award tickets!) to Cypress Gardens ("Florida's Oldest Theme Park") for its last day (April 13). On the handout with the map of the park, they had a schedule of "Cypress Gardens 2003 Concerts". I was looking over it for curiosity, and saw:

** March 10 Tribute to Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass **

(** Added Show as of 2/1/03, 1:00 Show Only)

So either "A Band Called Herb" has been touring the whole country, or there's more than one of these out there.

Btw, Jon, I can't find a trace of anything about this band called "A Band Called Herb" on the web. Do they still exist? If so, it'd be great if you could post any info about them. I'd love to hear a (good) TJB tribute band live sometime!

 

[Mr Bill]

They still exist, but according to the liner notes on Surfin Senorita they are better known not as "A Band Called Herb" but simply "Herb."

--Mr Bill
who just got a demo from a local brass wedding band (The Westwind Brass) that features a tune called "A Tribute to Herb Alpert"... Will report on this later... THe quintet consists of two trumpets, a trombone, a Freedom Horn and a Tuba

 

[stefandaystrom]

They still exist, but according to the liner notes on Surfin Senorita they are better known not as "A Band Called Herb" but simply "Herb."

Thanks, but that begs another issue: How do you find info on the web about a local band somewhere with a single-word name where that word is also a common first name?

Especially when I already know there are other local bands named Herb elsewhere in completely different genres (this I know from searches on "band called herb" on the web last week ).

(I don't know offhand where my copy of Surfin Senorita is right now , so I can't check for the obvious -- whether there's a URL or something for the band in the liner notes.)

 

[Mr Bill]

From a review of a "Multi-Act Lounge Show" in San Francisco:

The last band of the evening was Herb, a Herb Alpert tribute band. I've always thought it takes a hell of a lot of nerve to form a tribute band in the first place -- I mean, at what point does someone think, "My idol is Herb Alpert -- why not imitate him for a living?" That said, I like the idea of a Herb Alpert tribute band. I'd just like to see someone other than these guys do it.

On the other hand, when you reach a certain level of drunkenness, it becomes quite fascinating to watch the brass players drain the spit out of their instruments. For this reason and others, I was glad that Herb went on last.

Overall, this was an astonishing show. If I'd missed it, my soul would be poorer. Of course, I wouldn't know any better, but then, we humans so rarely do. Enlightenment such as this comes only through chance; to see it, you have to look the other way.

Also worth a look:

http://www.pollodelmar.com/words/cosmo/right.html

http://pollodelmar.com/words/senorita.html (Pics of the band)

http://www.rockphotographer.com/herb.htm (more Pics)

I'm still looking for a band website. I KNOW they have one because someone once popped in here with the info, but that was in the old forum...

--Mr Bill
noting that for Mr Bill, this is post number 666...

 

[Jay Maynes/Juan Oskar]

I was listening to a couple of songs of some TJB copy bands and they were flat gross. TJB had a sence of humor but these copy bands of the 60s and 70s were bad parodies. Herb Alpert was never insultive to the music of the Mexican culture. These copy bands are as bad as the middle age bad singing karaoke Elvises that are still wondering around in our free society. Happy Memorial Day :usflag: Jay