Encouraged by his comeback album,
Herb Alpert
assembled a new version of
the TJB
-- including a hotshot second trumpeter,
Bob Findley
, and jazz piano whiz
Dave Frishberg
-- and hit the studio and road in 1975. Yet
Coney Island
was a brave, nearly complete departure from the old
Tijuana Brass
, where the jazzers were given carte blanche and the rhythm section encouraged to do more complex things. As a signal of independence, the new
Brass
tackle
Chick Corea's
"Senor Mouse"
head-on, where
Frishberg
runs wild and even longtime marimbist
Julius Wechter
is affected by the adventurous spirit.
Alpert's
own playing on trumpet (and now flugelhorn and piano) is a bit freer as well, and he goes out on a limb as a composer with the experimental, not-quite-coherent "Carmine."
TJB
tradition is also served by a loose, swinging version of "I Have Dreamed," and an older legacy pops up in the
Alpert
/
duet on
Jelly Roll Morton's
"The Crave." But this edition of
the Brass
was short-lived; the public didn't get it and
soon moved on to solo projects, leaving this sole LP as its legacy. ~ Richard S. Ginell