Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Julius Wechter was born on May 10, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois and studied and learned to play the vibraphone and percussion, which he did with the Martin Denny group by the time he was out of highschool in the 1950s. The early Sixties saw him moving to movie soundtracks, television and session work for the Beach Boys, the Monkees, Sonny & Cher, and various Phil Spector productions.

His long and successful association with Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass started when he played percussion on their first hit, The Lonely Bull in 1962. He later composed Spanish Flea. He went on to play marimba and vibes on many of Alpert’s songs in the 1960s, as well as writing at least one song on most of those albums.

Encouraged by Alpert, he formed the Baja Marimba Band which was quite successful, hitting four chart songs in Billboard’s Top 100, and numerous on its Easy Listening Top 40. Disbanding in the mid Seventies, Julius turned his attention to television and movies again, but continued to play with Alpert.

In his later years, he devoted himself to psychology, earned a master’s degree, and served as vice president of the Southern California chapter of the Tourette Syndrome Association.

Marimba and vibraphonist Julius Wechter died on February 1, 1999 at his home in California of lung cancer, at the age of 63, a day after his song Spanish Flea was used in The Simpsons episode Sunday, Cruddy Sunday.

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