Baja Marimba Band ‎- Heads Up! (1967) [Vinyl]

As chronicled in drummer Earl Palmer's autobiography, trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert saw a brass band playing in front of a bullfight arena in a Mexican town and the rest was history. There is no denying that the resulting successful if indirect intrusion into the international pop instrumental charts on behalf of street music from south of the border was a lively addition to the sounds of the '60s. Albums such as Heads Up!, one of at least a dozen by various versions of the Baja Marimba Band, demonstrate that things could have been even livelier if the performers hadn't wimped out so much. The Baja Marimba Band, led by a marimba player, arranger, and composer named Julius Wechter, started out as a spinoff of Alpert's acclaimed Tijuana Brass. Disc jockeys marching in front of the hit parades were kind and even partial to instrumentals in this decade. The sound of marimbas can go well beyond purely attractive to the downright intoxicating, so it is no surprise that Wechter's outfit got some airplay, most notably with a strange arrangement of "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky." The group was in its fourth year of recording when Heads Up! came out, and it suggests more than just a general reluctance to truly feature the wondrous marimbas.

In fact, if any detail warrants a "head's up!," it is the strong disconnect between image and reality with this band. The front cover is a wonderfully sepia-toned photograph of a band that from appearances could have held its own during the shoot-out at the end of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, perhaps utilizing their music stands to ward off machine-gun fire. Individual mug shots of the nine bandmembers on the back cover continue what can be considered something of a deception. Facial expressions and costuming suggest an off-the-wall element that is really pretty difficult to find in the music itself. It is like buying a copy of Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica and finding an Ed Ames album inside. Wechter, obviously mining for hits, packs the less than 30-minute opus with bland arrangements of topical hits. The opening take on "Georgy Girl" sets the pace, not much of a pace at all, and not much of a reaction from the listening public -- as this single barely made it into the Top 100. Covers of "Born Free" and "They Call the Wind Maria" are even worse, fairly typical small-band brass and reed arrangements shrouding the marimbas like a corrupt building contractor covering a gas stove with a tarp so he won't have to face the mechanical inspector. Guitarist Bud Coleman contributes an original entitled "The Odd One," while Wechter slips two of his own pieces onto the second side. Although not grandly memorable or even particularly distinctive, these performances are at least some improvement over the schlock. At least things conclude on a lively note, with echoes of Spike Jones and Mickey Katz: an arrangement of "The Cry of the Wild Goose," a lovable old folk song, romps and stomps like a drunken klezmer band trying to run a wedding band out of town. Drummer Frank DeVito provides the vocal on the obligatory cover of "Winchester Cathedral."