Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, Vol. 2

Audio Remasterer: Bernie Grundman.
The follow-up LP to The Lonely Bull, in the great tradition of follow-ups, tries to duplicate its appeal right off the bat with another leadoff track featuring bullfight sounds and an authentic bullring tune, "The Great Manolete." Alpert is beginning to expand his reach beyond Baja, California without losing the ambience of "The Lonely Bull," sharpening his skills as a producer and exploring other moods and rhythms. In doing so, he comes up with the greatest stripper record this side of David Rose, "Swinger from Seville," a mocking version of Leonard Bernstein's "America" to a lively guajira beat in a wild simulated nightclub, and covers of '60s standards like "More" and "Spanish Harlem." He also receives some more haunting contributions from Sol Lake, including the wistful "Winds of Barcelona" (later recorded by Wes Montgomery) and a marvelously produced, Spanish-tinged tone poem, "Marching Through Madrid." Though released in 1963, this record didn't really start selling until 1966, when TJB albums were monopolizing the upper reaches of the charts en masse. ~ Richard S. Ginell