I thought Bobby McFerrin was an old white guy at first, based on Blackbird.
Hal Blaine was also the drummer for the Partridge Family.
I do indeed, and I went to see them when they performed in Dublin. Great bunch of guys. As you say, not exactly the same thing. Perhaps what I’m looking for actually only exists in the mind of
As for Mr Alpert’s looks - well, there are Germanic names in central and south America, and he has kind of Hispanic coloring, so no, I never considered that he wasn’t Mexican. Bear in mind, too, that the last time I saw a record of his was probably about 20 years ago…
ETA: look! Here’s an album my parents had. Why’s a little English kid going to think anything other than he was Mexican?
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Oh! God! My eyes!
I guess I always assumed that the Brass were Latin just like Outback Steakhouse was Australian. Hadn’t given it too much thought.
But as a kid, man, did I love that album cover…I crushed on that model just like I did on Lori Partridge…
And Blaine is a good example of a top-notch studio musician: one who can perform well in any genre.
Anyone see the cats that toured with the Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba band, perform live? They sashayed on stage, taking their own time, lacking any coordination, while one of their songs played on the PA. Seemingly unconcerned, looking heavily stoned, they dragged their instruments on the floor, carried them in pieces, and gradually assembled both the instruments and themselves on stage. They just happened to be in place to start playing live at a certain part in the song to make the transition seemless.
A cute bit, and carried thruout the show. One guy would wander around the set, and just as you thought he was about to fall asleep, would just happen to be holding a mallet and be in the right place and time to play a one-note solo, then doze off again.
Oops:
…an early-sixties record exec.
I never for a moment thought that the Tijuana Brass was actually from Tijuana. I always assumed that Albert just named the group that to give it a little South-of-the-Border cachet.
This just in: the Kingston Trio was not, in fact, from Kingston. And the Beach Boys were not born on a beach. Nor are they, any longer, “boys.”
Hey, you 're beginning to make me think the 360 Mafia aren’t Italian. Errr, I mean, insofar as what Americans automatically think when we hear the word mafia.
And they never were surfers, except in song.
Dennis was.
Chuck Mangione?
Mariachi bands were mostly all-strings until radio programmers convinced them that horns would give the sound more “oomph.” (What’s Mexican-Spanish for “oomph”?) Here are historical recordings by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan This is old stuff, but should give you an idea of how things developed.
“El Mejor Mariachi de Mundo” was record company hype–originally. But nobody has successfully challenged Mariachi Vargas for the title. Check out some of their newer stuff here–very polished.
Then, there’s* Banda* music. Are there any radio stations in your area that cater to recent immigrants? I’ll bet they play some Banda. Some of these bands are* all * horns & woodwinds. Others have a few stringed instruments–or are going synthetic. Quite a unique sound–especially when accompanying narcocorridas.
I don’t have everything recorded by Perez Prado, who was not only latin but Cuban and actually when I have a moustache I’ve been told I look a little bit like him, but as far as I know Perez Prado never recorded mariachi music. He played son, guaracha, rumba, and a whole lot of mambo, but no mariachi.
Imagine my disappointment to find out she was covered in shaving cream and not whipping cream! Doesn’t make want to stick my tongue in it quite as much…uh, huh-huh huh-huh…
…slinks out of the thread.
You could, of course, wipe it off. 
And she was a few months pregnant at the time. She’s still around, too–I remember seeing a flurry of articles on her a few months back.
Ah, here we go:
Bah. Next you’ll be telling me that the Spiders from Mars weren’t really from Mars.
Now hear this! The Grateful Dead aren’t grateful. Or dead (most, anyway).
By my count the mortality rate in that band is a whopping 42%*, so the ones who aren’t dead better be grateful.
*Deceased: Garcia, Pigpen, K. Godchaux, Mydland, Welnick; Alive: Lesh, Weir, Kreutzmann, Hart, Constantin, D. Godchaux, Hornsby. Did I forget anybody?
Come to think of it, 10,000 Maniacs grossly overstated their membership.
And the Ben Folds Five moderately less.