Tijuana Dance Party: Pablo Rotero & His Mexican Brass Boys - Fontana 1969

The story goes that, back in the early sixties, Herb Albert was at a bullfight down Mexico way when he heard the sound of a mariachi band for the first time. Suitably inspired, he cut a series of albums with a Mexican flavour under the banner of 'Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass' and in so doing kick-started a musical style and craze that, for a while at least, was bafflingly popular around the world. Baffling to me anyway; I can't say I've ever cared for Herb's one trick Latin gimmick myself but plenty of others did and, wherever there's a coattail, you're inevitably going to get hangers on. Like the folk behind this release.

Try as I might, I can't find any information on Pablo Rotero or any of his Mexican Brass Boys, but I'd bet the farm that they were a bunch of jobbing session musicians from closer to south of the river than south of the border. 'Tijuana Dance Party' appears to be their only ever release, but what's interesting is that it seems to be a straight re-release of a 1966 album on Phillips by the same act with the same title (albeit with a different cover). That would both make sense and add fuel to my theory of an album 'on the make' - 1966 was the year that Albert had his biggest UK hit with 'Spanish Flea' and also the year Bert Kaempfert made his only UK singles chart appearance with 'Bye Bye Blues', both of which appear on this and only heighten the whiff of 'quick cash in' that surrounds it.

But speculation aside, where does all this leave us? Well with a bit of a mess all told; as I've said above, I've never been much of a fan of Herb's outfit and I've never 'got' what he was trying to do, but there's no doubt his band (mainly Herb himself on trumpet backed by The Wrecking Crew) were a group of crack musicians with chops to burn who could give any popular tune a Mariachi spin and make it sound at least halfway convincing. Pablo and his Brass Boys, on he other hand,  sound rather less assured in their playing. They're ok when they're following Alpert's boilerplate to the letter (as on 'Spanish Flea' and 'Tijuana Taxi'), but less so when they veer off piste and start to grate where they should be gliding; I don't think the world has ever been crying out for Tijuana Brass versions of 'These Foolish Things' or 'Strangers In The Night', but Pablo hands us both and both lurch around with all the grace and subtlety of a burro drunk on tequila. The remaining tracks have the aura of being selected purely on the basis of the Mexican/Tijuana theme in their titles and it makes 'Tijuana Dance Party' something of a curate's egg, a knocked together grab bag from a tacky Mexican border souvenir stall selling sombreros stamped 'Made In Japan'. All that's missing is a version of 'Speedy Gonzales'.

So, not my thing at all then - I've never been to a Tijuana Dance Party and I've no idea what one would entail, but if it involved someone breaking this out on the turntable to provide the entertainment then that would be me done I'm afraid. I'd be making my excuses and leaving; Tijuana Dance Party? Ah don' need no steenking Tijuana Dance Party.