Herb Alpert & the T.J.B. - Coney Island

US import

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/Frishberg duet on Jelly Roll Morton's "The Crave." 

Richard S. Ginell