Baja Marimba Band Biography

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Baja Marimba Band
Pop Music | 3 CD Set
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It's easy to spot a bit of irreverence in the Baja Marimba Band. As an offshoot of the more popular Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba Band took a little different tack, a tongue-in-cheek attitude that separated the two successful bands that played mariachi music. The Tijuana Brass, under the direction of trumpeter Herb Alpert, was all the rage in the early 60s. The group did no vocals, at least on record, and dressed in a more formalized mode. Julius Wechter's Baja Marimba Band, on the other hand, was a bit different. Wechter once said the Baja band was like the Tijuana Brass' bad little brothers. He said Alpert's group dressed in tuxes and put on a tight and very professional show while the Baja Marimba Band looked more like a group of banditos with pasted-on mustaches, big, floppy sombreros, beer and cigars. But the Baja Marimba Band did achieve a fair amount of attention and had an audience, selling eleven albums on the A&M label (Alpert's very-own recording company) and touring with the Tijuana Brass. But finding a lot of biographical material on the Baja Marimba Band is difficult; nothing exists in most reference books, but a visit to Julius Wechter on the Internet will get results. Wechter, born in 1936 in Los Angeles, was a studio marimba player who hired out on vibes and marimba. Known as a jazz player then, he had his first recording on the Jazz West label in 1959, "Linear Sketches". And he was also on several records released by the Martin Denny group as well as said to have been involved in recording the Top 40 pop charts, beginning with "The Lonely Bull" in 1962 and including seven in 1966 alone and four in 1967. Wechter is said to have known Alpert in high school and through this relationship Herb asked Julius to play on his forthcoming song, "The Lonely Bull". This was the beginning of the Tijuana Brass and Wechter played on several of the band's recordings. This led to his own band, the Baja Marimba Band, which toured with Alpert's group and created its own attitude. It was Alpert's idea that Wechter put together an Americanized version on the Tijuana Brass Mexican mariachi sound and the result was the Baja Marimba Band. The Baja Marimba Band's first hit was "Comin In The Back Door", also the album title and subsequent theme song. While never gaining the success of the Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba Band did record eleven albums for A&M. Alpert's band quit as the 60s segued into the 70s but the Baja Marimba Band continued on for a few more years before calling it quits when Wechter returned to studio work that consisted mostly of television gigs. He did some movie work and became active in the Tourette's Syndrome Association as a result of his lifelong problem with nervous tics. In 1986, he and wife Cissy wrote and produced a musical revue, "Growing Pains", that toured around Los Angeles. In 1990, he brought the Baja Marimba Band back with new musicians and played several Los Angeles clubs. He later took an interest in psychology, gaining a degree from Antioch College and working as a counselor. Wechter's songwriting skills were part of both the Tijuana and Baja bands, and one of his songs, "The Spanish Flea", was a chart hit for the Tijuana Brass but also ended up being covered by a host of bands, from the Doodletown Pipers to Homer Simpson. He died in 1999 of lung cancer. His son, David, is also a professional musician. As an odd addendum, none of the Baja Marimba Band's recordings ever made the transition to CD in America, although one saw brief life in Japan. The boxed set of three CDs available through TimelessMusic helps correct that error.

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