MARTIN DENNY - Exotica (+4 Bonus Tracks) (Limited Edition)

NUMBER ONE ESSENTIALS

£16.11

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: 291004
Barcode: 8436563185571
Release Date: 26 Jul 2024
Genre: Jazz

American piano player and composer Martin Denny (1911-2005), developed a new musical genre. In the mid-'50s, he combined lounge jazz, Hawaiian music, Latin rhythms, bird calls, and then-exotic ethnic instruments like koto, gamelans, and Burmese temple bells into the sound that became known as "exotica." Best known as the "father of Exotica," he was responsible for the genre's biggest hit of all time with his version of Les Baxter's "Quiet Village," included in this, his first LP. Exotica was his debut album. First released in May of 1957, it topped Billboard's charts in 1959.
Originally recorded in mono, the album was entirely remade in stereo in 1958 with Julius Wechter in place of Arthur Lyman, who had left the group. However, Denny always preferred the original mono version (presented on this edition).

THE COMPLETE LP + 4 BONUS TRACKS - 180-GRAM VIRGIN VINYL - LIMITED EDITION

Exotica” is only a misprint away from “erotica”, and it’s by no means far-fetched to locate Martin Denny’s music within a culture that had just seen the publication of the Kinsey Reports, the launch of Playboy magazine four years earlier, and the arrival of a young and, as it were, downwardly mobile Elvis Presley. But Denny’s music is perhaps more sensuous than sensual. When set alongside some of the other creative music released that same year – Miles Davis’ Miles Ahead, Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West, Charles Mingus’ Tijuana Moods, albums by Gene Vincent, Bill Haley and Little Richard – it might not seem very original or radical, and for a time Denny was contemptuously consigned to the “easy listening” bins. Time has told now, and this music is now recognized as profoundly innovative, exerting an influence on the whole spectrum of modern music. “Quiet Village” by Les Baxter, another musician who has enjoyed a strong critical revival, is as much the sound of a new age as any of the albums above.

Side A
1. QUIET VILLAGE 3:38
2. RETURN TO PARADISE 2:20
3. HONG KONG BLUES 2:16
4. BUSY PORT 2:51
5. LOTUS LAND 2:23
6. SIMILAU 1:58
7. STARDUST 2:10
8. THE ENCHANTED SEA 1:56

Side B
1. STONE GOD 3:08
2. JUNGLE FLOWER 1:48
3. CHINA NIGHTS [Shina No Yoru] 2:03
4. AMI WA FURI 2:08
5. WAIPU 3:12
6. LOVE DANCE 2:30
7. MARTINIQUE 2:59 *
8. MISIRLOU 2:38 *