The Western motif on the double-fold album jacket -- with
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
in costume -- signals this as another companion album to a TV special. But there is a deeper significance to this LP, for shortly after its release, a burned-out, personally troubled
Alpert
disbanded
the Brass
and retired from music for awhile. Indeed, stretches of this record reveal a tired group and a leader whose trumpet has lost much of its old zip. Even so, as on all
TJB
albums, there are several gems -- the stunning shifts in texture and tempo that enliven the worn-out
"Moon River,"
the chugging bluegrass-tinged arrangement of
Villa-Lobos'
"The Little Train of the Caipira" that masquerades under the name of the title track, a haunting rendition of
the Beatles'
"I'll Be Back," the fast samba treatment of "Anna."
Dave Grusin
and
Shorty Rogers
contribute an occasional orchestration, and
does a modest vocal turn on the lush "You Are My Life." But this time, the old sales magic was gone;
the Tijuana Brass
had suddenly become unhip in polarized 1969. ~ Richard S. Ginell