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Les Baxter’s own music of the sixties was mostly soundtrack work. He made a few albums for Reprise — Soul Of The Drums (which featured the great Olatunji on percussion), The Primitive And The Passionate (an exotic record), and Les Baxter’s Balladeers (an attempt to cash in on the folk boom which featured a pre-Byrds David Crosby). While ...
Les Baxter is a pianist who composed and arranged for the top swing bands of the '40s and '50s, but he is better known as the founder of exotica, a variation of easy listening that glorified the sounds and styles of Polynesia, Africa, and South America, even as it retained the traditional string-and-horn arrangements of instrumental pop.
Baxter claimed Ravel and Stravinsky as influences on his work. In 1957, Martin Denny covered Les Baxter's "Quiet Village", with exotic bird calls and a vibraphone instead of strings, which established the sound of the Polynesian styled music. The song reached #2 on Billboard's charts in 1959 with Denny's Exotica album reaching #1.
Wake the Town and Tell the People by Les Baxter . 140. 5 US. written by Jerry Livingston & Sammy Gallop. 1956. 11. 02/1956. ③ Poor People of Paris by Les Baxter ...
Aug 11, 2023 · Les Baxter was an early and important composer of the easy-listening sounds of paradise known as exotica. Born in Mexia, TX, in 1922, Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music before moving to Los Angeles, where, at age 23, he joined Mel Tormé’s Mel-Tones vocal group. He displayed an early interest in otherworldly ideas with ...
Les Baxter, far a field from his native Texas, was the most sophisticated of world travelers – being equally at home in New York, Paris, Rome, Buenos Aires, Rio, or Marakesh – and his music has always reflected the lavish and exotic colors and sounds found in the far-flung corners of the world. His first record album, Music Out Of The Moon ...
Jul 14, 2023 · Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and composer. Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer.
