Exotica (Martin Denny album)

Exotica
Studio album by Martin Denny
Released May 1957
Recorded December 1956
Genre Exotica
Length 30:36
Label Liberty Records
Producer Martin Denny (uncredited)
Simon Jackson
Martin Denny chronology

Exotica Exotica Volume II
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

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

The original album was recorded in mono. It was re-recorded in stereo in 1958; by then, however, Denny's popular 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]

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) (Takeoka) – 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 (2005-03-05). "Martin Denny, Maestro of Tiki Sound, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  3. ↑ Exotica/Exotica II (CD). Martin Denny. New York: Scamp Records. 1996. p. 11. R2 70774.