Mendoza -

Mendoza was a Swedish jazz-rock band that released a 1972 self-titled album on CBS.

Members: Lennart Palmefors (lead vocals, keyboards), Rolf Öhlin (guitar), Arne Gustafsson (guitar, flute), Björn Larsson (trumpet), Anders Hogman (bass), Anders Östryd (drums)

Background

Mendoza coalesced in Linköping, where singer/keyboardist Lennart Palmefors (b. 1947, Malmö) and guitarist Rolf Öhlin (b. 1948, Stockholm) teamed with guitarist Arne Gustafsson, trumpeter Björn Larsson, bassist Anders Hogman, and drummer Anders Östryd.

Palmefors cut Swedish beat singles with The V.I.P.s and Magazine Story. Larsson cut a 1968 single with the Undecayeds’ Jazz Blues Band. In 1969, Gustafsson cut an album of easy-listening pop covers with Rune Öfwerman & Funky Strings.

Mendoza (Self-Titled)

Mendoza released their self-titled debut album, Mendoza, in April 1972 on CBS.

Mendoza moves between guitar-led rock structures and lighter passages colored by piano, trumpet, organ, and flute. “Jojk” opens in a tight instrumental charge with active guitar and prominent keyboard-and-horn interplay, while “Steamship” keeps a firmer rhythmic pull and similar ensemble detail. “Sinful Man” narrows the arrangement to a straighter guitar-led attack, and “Land of Little Rain” slows the pace into a piano-and-vocal ballad with a softer surface.

Elsewhere, “Hello Hello” and “The Great Salesman Co.” combine several lighter ideas in shorter forms, “Summer Days, Winter Cold” turns toward tropical and Latin-colored rhythm, and “Green Bamboo” stays closer to a pop-shaped structure. Across the album, the guitar carries much of the front-line action, with piano, trumpet, organ, and flute adding extra contour to the denser pieces.

A1. “Jojk” (7:20)
A2. “Steam Ship” (2:15)
A3. “Hello Hello” (3:30)
A4. “A Sinful Man” (1:56)
A5. “The Greatful Sales & Co” (3:09)

B1. “Land of Little Rain” (5:45)
B2. “Summer Days, Winter Cold” (4:43)
B3. “Jambalaya” (3:30)
B4. “Green Bamboo” (3:14)

Sessions occurred in Stockholm at EMI and Europa Film Studios in Stockholm with producer Björn Håkanson and engineers Björn Almstedt and Lasse Rosin.

Swedish CBS issued “Jambalaya” as a single (b/w “Hello, Hello”) in an orange monochrome sleeve.

In 2022, Mendoza reappeared on Paisley Press, the German archivists behind reissues of classics by Ablution, Abraxis, Airlord, Alpha Ralpha, Anna Själv Tredje, Chetarca, Coma, Crossfire, Crypto, Ethos, First Light, Flight, Ginga Rale Band, Heavy Joker, Ma Banlieue Flasque, Plamp, Pop Workshop, Plat du Jour, Skywhale, and Womega.