Tijuana Voices - Sing Merry Christmas With Brass

The '60s, baby they were the best of times, they were the worst of times. On today's instalment of what the fudge were they thinking, we have the Tijuana Voices Sing Merry Christmas an album that's deliberately packaged to make you think this is The Tijuana Brass, or a cheaper knock off of Julius Wechter and The Baja Marimba Band. The difference was that Julius was on A&M the home of the Tijuana Brass and Mr. Alpert was the A in A&M. Whereas the Tijuana Voices were on Pickwick/33 a budget label, known for repacking stuff at a discount. Yeah we have the pseudo Mexican moustaches and sombreros that screams '60s kitsch. You could be forgiven for thinking this was Herb Alpert, at least that's what I'm telling myself, because I feel like I got suckered. Except that it's exactly what I had hoped it would be, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

For all that it was a dollar well spent. Like I said, this delivered exactly what I was expecting to hear. The vocals are taken right out of the 5th Dimension's playbook (extra points if you thought of balloons), and would have fitted nicely on just about any late '60s variety show. Dang if I can't actually see this in my minds eye complete with spinning plates and sequins and bell bottom jump suits. The kicker here is this album predates The Tijuana Brass' Christmas album by a year. So while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery it makes you wonder who influenced whom here. Did I use that correctly? I can never tell.

As to the Tijuana Voices, there isn't much if anything out there on who was in the ensemble. From what I can see this may well be their only record. As to credits, there aren't any on the jacket or the record. Just who took the cover photo and did the album design. Some guy without a last name named Daniel designed this, and George Pickow took the picture. By all accounts Mr. Pickow was a celebrated photographer and this was likely one of his pay-cheque jobs.

The album itself is heavy on vocals or should I say, Tijuana Voices along with harpsichord (I actually really love the harpsichord) and brass arrangements driven by breathy staccato trumpet notes. The arrangements are pretty standard for the most part but there are some rather tasty moments on the album. One of my favourites is the all too short "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" that clocks in at an even two minutes. Long songs are not the hallmark of Christmas Carols. Get in. Say your bit. Get out. If you take too long you've overstayed your welcome. Of the dozen songs on the album only one song breaks three minutes. I'm not saying this is a minus, it just means you have to get up to flip it over just as you get comfortable. Then again, this is why the old record player had the giant spindles you could balance a half dozen or more records from.

Regardless, this is one of those albums that is firmly rooted in time. The "Tijuana" sound probably lasted longer than the psychedelic era, like that lends it credibility ... for all that I found myself enjoying this a lot more than I expected.