Exotica (Martin Denny album)

Last updated

Exotica
Exoticamartindenny.jpg
Studio album by
Martin Denny
ReleasedMay 1957
RecordedDecember 1956
Genre Exotica
Length30:36
Label Liberty
Producer Martin Denny (uncredited)
Simon Jackson
Martin Denny chronology
Exotica
(1957)		 Exotica Volume II
(1958)
Singles from Exotica
  1. "Quiet Village"
    Released: October 15, 1958
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Exotica is the first album by Martin Denny, released in 1957. It contained Les Baxter's most famous piece, "Quiet Village", and spawned an entire genre bearing its name. It was recorded December 1956 in Webley Edwards' studio in Waikiki (not, as often reported, the Aluminum Dome at Henry J. Kaiser's Hawaiian Village Complex). The album topped Billboard's charts in 1959. [2]

Contents

The album was recorded in mono. It was re-recorded in stereo in 1958; by then, however, Denny's sideman Arthur Lyman had left the group, and was replaced by Julius Wechter. Denny preferred the original mono version: "It has the original spark, the excitement, the feeling we were breaking new ground." [3]

In 2025, Uncut ranked Exotica at number 408 in their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1950s", with contributor Jason Anderson writing that "Denny's landmark reelease remains a shimmering jewel of ersatz "world" music." [4]

Track listing

  1. "Quiet Village" (Les Baxter) – 3:39
  2. "Return to Paradise" (Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington) – 2:19
  3. "Hong Kong Blues" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 2:15
  4. "Busy Port" (Baxter) – 2:50
  5. "Lotus Land" (Cyril Scott) – 2:22
  6. "Similau" (Arden Clar, Harry Coleman) – 1:57
  7. "Stone God" (Baxter) – 3:07
  8. "Jungle Flower" (Baxter) – 1:46
  9. "China Nights" (Shina No Yoru [5] ) (Nobuyuki Takeoka [6] ) – 2:01
  10. "Ah Me Furi" (Gil Baumgart) – 2:08
  11. "Waipio" (Francis Brown) – 3:11
  12. "Love Dance" (Baxter) – 2:29

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Sisario, Ben (March 5, 2005). "Martin Denny, Maestro of Tiki Sound, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  3. ↑ Exotica/Exotica II (CD). Martin Denny. New York: Scamp Records. 1996. p. 11. R2 70774.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  4. ↑ Robinson, John, ed. (April 2025). "The Ultimate Record Collection: The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1950s". Uncut: The Archive Collection (8): 18.
  5. ↑ 支那の夜 (in Japanese)
  6. ↑ 竹岡信幸 (in Japanese)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.