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." But this edition of the Brass was short-lived; the public didn't get it and
Alpert soon moved on to solo projects, leaving this sole LP as its legacy.