Jazz: The Newest Sound

The crowd shoehorned into Manhattan’s Basin Street East last week was itching for action. “Ole!” they shouted. “Ole! Ole!” Thus encouraged, the Tijuana Brass let loose with its patented version of The Lonely Bull. It was ole all the way. Grinning and joking like a bunch of frat brothers at a stag party, Trumpeter Herb Alpert and his side-burned sidemen served up a dozen tamale-flavored numbers that had the audience rocking in their seats. It is the middle-aged man’s answer to rock ‘n’ roll, and it is called Ameriachi.

Ameriachi was born not in Old Mexico but in the recording studios of Hollywood. Alpert is of Jewish descent, his sidemen of Italian and Russian. Their Ameriachi is one part cool jazz, one part hot mariachi, with a dash of rock ‘n’ roll. Twin trumpets carry the melody, and trombone, drums, piano and two electric guitars add a heavy bass line and a chugging beat.

Alpert’s arrangements are strictly north-of-the-border: slick, deceptively simple, sprinkled with tambourines, maracas and assorted percussive hardware. At worst the result sounds like Cugat a go go; at best it is bouncy, foot-tapping, happily infectious music. With three albums on the bestseller charts and guest appearances scheduled on virtually every major TV variety show, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass are the year’s hottest new instrumental group.

Suspended Mike. Snappy as an Ivy League caballero in his black suit, ruffled shirt and bow tie,” Alpert, 28, is an ex-Army trumpeter who has played taps for as many as 18 military funerals a day. Experimenting with a tape recorder in his garage one day, Alpert found that by overdubbing one trumpet solo on top of another, he could produce an intriguing “Spanish flair.” The effect proved most rewarding in Twinkle Star, a song written by a friend.

A few days later, while in Tijuana attending his first bullfight, Alpert hit on the idea of adding the sounds of the bullring and mariachi band to Twinkle Star. By suspending a microphone from a wire stretched across the center of the arena, he recorded the roaring oles of the crowd and tacked the sound onto the beginning and end of Twinkle Star. Alpert then scraped together $200, produced the record under the title The Lonely Bull. It sold more than a million copies, and Ameriachi was born.

On records, Alpert plays both parts of the trumpet duet, achieves a two-dimensional effect by slightly altering the synchronization and recording one trumpet line a shade sharp or flat by a process he keeps secret in order to discourage the many imitators that have cropped up in the wake of the Tijuana Brass’s success. And aficionados of pure mariachi, who once scorned Ameriachi, are now buying it. One of the ten best-selling records in Mexico City last week was the Tijuana Brass’s Whipped Cream.