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People to Know
Know your Exotica!
Here is a brief history to teach you about the history and legacy of Tiki and Exotica Music.
Right off the bat you are listening to a quick clip of the Martin Denny version of Les Baxter's tune,
Quiet Village. This is considered to be THE quintessential Exotica song. Now let's learn some more...
GI's station in Hawaii or the South Pacific were exposed to Polynesian delights never imagined before. When they came back to their white bread American homes,
many brought the spirit of the islands with them and popularized the phenomenon of Polynesian Pop during the Postwar period.
Exotic drinks were popular at cocktail parties and folks built tiki bars and mini waterfalls in their back rooms and garages.
In 1948 Thor Heyerdahl went on an expedition to the South Seas and wrote about it in a bestselling book,
The Kon Tiki Expedition.
A subsequent film about the trip won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1951.
Aku Aku, written in 1955 about an expedition to Easter Island also contributed to the continuing popularity of the style.
Postwar movies glamorized the South Pacific and the music soon followed. Since then there have been many legends in the Hawaiian-Exotica-Tiki Band Genre...
Orchestra leader and composer Les Baxter
has been called the father of exotica and mood music.
His album Le Sacre du Sauvage (Ritual of the Savage) is considered to be the quintessential Les Baxter and the definitive "exotica" album.
It established a new musical idiom and Les Baxter as its chief exponent.
Baxter had a love for Brazilian percussion and went on to influence countless musicians and produce extensive work including Hollywood films so that his musical mark can be felt everywhere during the Postwar period.
Martin Denny
is considered the chief exponent of "exotica." He lived in Hawaii in the 1950s and played nightly to a fresh group of eager tourists each night.
He took Les Baxter's compositions and replaced the strings "native" instrumentation.
His recordings were always wrapped in the most exotic and enticing jackets with voluptuous wahines and erupting volcanos.
Denny arranged covers of Hawaiian standards and other composer's music, such as Les Baxter's all time classic Quiet Village.
The sound was filled with lush sounds, strings, piano and of course bird calls. Later works in the 1960s and 70s included Moog synthesizer and sitar.
Arthur Lyman
sat in one night as vibes player for the first Martin Denny Group and was the first one credited for making bird calls a definitive characteristic of exotica.
The audience loved his caws and shrieks so much it became a requested feature of the act.
He went on to produce a number of solo albums of cocktail jazz, Led Baxter covers and other Hawaiian music style.
Yma Sumac
with her range of four octaves endures as exotica's single greatest singer.
Her first 10" LP on Capitol was recorded with Les Baxter and throughout her career she sang about Andean and South American themes:
sun gods, virgin sacrifices, headhunters.
Surf Sounds
Another related cousin of exotica is surf music. Traditional surf sound is characterized by a rhythm section comprised of the bass & drums and rhythm guitar.
The lead guitar is heavily reverberated 'wet sounding' guitars and the sound is often augmented by an organ or raspy saxophone.
Few chords are used and the songs are almost always instrumental.
Some of the best known songs are Chantays' "Pipeline," Dick Dale's "Miserlou", or the Lively Ones "Exotic."
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