Big Bambu


 * Big Bambú is also a work of art by artists Doug and Mike Starn.

Big Bambú is the second album by Cheech & Chong, released in 1972. The name Big Bambu is a reference to a type of rolling paper made by the Bambu company; the original LP sleeve was designed by Ernie Cefalu and manufactured to look like a giant rolling paper package, and originally contained a giant rolling paper with the record. Vinyl copies with the rolling paper have become hard to find. The original CD packaging has been slightly reformatted, and does not contain rolling papers.

In a mixed but mostly positive review published in Rolling Stone, Janet Maslin singled out the duo's voice work for particular praise. "The thing Cheech and Chong are great with is voices. Each has terrific ears for dialect, anything from spare change wino to jiveass soul, and there are at least 20 distinct personae showing up here, all of them cleverly done."

The album was nominated for Best Comedy Recording at the 15th Grammy Awards, but lost to George Carlin's FM & AM.