A Taste of Tequila: The Mariachi Brass, Featuring Chet Baker

Saturday, March 26, 2022

A Taste of Tequila by The Mariachi Brass! Featuring Chet Baker (World Pacific) 1966

There is something sad when a great musician like Chet Baker has to do a waterdown cross-cultural version of Mariachi music with one of the great arrangers of the 20th-century, Jack Nitzsche. Music industry circa 1966 at its worst. Perhaps the ultimate ‘say no to drugs’ type of record, but still, there is some charm in its recording. I’m not sure who was in the Mariachi Brass, but I’m presuming that it was The Wrecking Crew, the famed in-studio musicians who put diamond dust on lots of great recordings of the 1960s. If one listens closely, you can hear the magic of Nitzsche’s arrangements, and the oddness of Chet’s flugelhorn playing that seems to be made in a different galaxy or universe.

A Taste of Tequila is very much a mediocre album, but when it comes to the issue of taste, there are avenues one can go on to appreciate such a record. A bad album made by great talent is sad, but like watching a car accident taking place in front of one’s eyes, it’s hard not to look away, no matter how horrific it is. Part of the journey is acknowledging Baker’s up and down career, and then of course, his sad death. Taking this album in that context, it’s an interesting listening experience. The same goes with Jack Nitzsche. The album by the way is engineered by Bruce Botnick who worked with The Doors and Love.