| Tamboo! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Les Baxter, His Chorus and Orchestra | ||||
| Released | 1955 | |||
| Genre | Easy listening, exotica | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Les Baxter, His Chorus and Orchestra chronology | ||||
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Tamboo! is an album by Les Baxter, His Chorus and Orchestra. It was released in 1955 on the Capitol label (catalog nos. T-655). [1] [2]
Contents
The album debuted on Billboard magazine's popular albums chart on January 28, 1956, peaked at No. 6, and remained on that chart for two weeks. [3] [4]
Ralph J. Gleason of the San Francisco Chronicle in 1955 described the album as "an odd LP", "really musically very dreary" but a "hi fi fan's dream" with its great recording and unusual sounds. He predicted "it could be a big hit as it is unlike anything else but, perhaps some of Baxter's own previous work." [5]
Philip Hayward, in his 1999 book on exotica music, compared the album to the work of Maurice Ravel:
All of the tracks utilise the same limited set of musical devices techniques which closely resemble those used by Ravel. Especially conspicuous is Baxter's use of the textless choir -- what Mickey McGowan has dubbed "pseudo-head hunter oogum-boogum . . . Like the wordless choriuses in Daphnis et Chloé and Sirenes, Baxter's "native chanting" serves to position the exotic other in a mythic time and place." [6]
AllMusic gave the album a rating of four-and-a-half stars. Reviewer Jo-Ann Greene wrote: "It's brilliantly done, and helped to broaden American minds and widen musical views." [2]
