Les Baxter
Born:
March 14, 1922;
Mexia, TX
Died:
January 15, 1996;
Newport Beach, CA
An accomplished Big Band era composer, conductor and arranger Les Baxter’s ultimate honor will always remain that of single-handedly creating the “Exotica” genre of music.
Baxter got his start as a child piano prodigy, learning to play at age five.
Later, after a brief stay at the Detroit Conservatory of Music in the 30s, he left to study composition at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
To make ends meet, he played backup piano and tenor sax in jazz clubs around Los Angeles, and during the 40s, sang, conducted and arranged music with legends such as Mel Torme, Artie Shaw, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Nat “King” Cole.
In 1950 his first foray into the world of strange and unusual sounds came with Harry Revel's Music Out of the Moon on which he served as arranger and conductor.
Most striking about the music was the presence of the theremin, a hands-free instrument with an electromagnetic field that created an eerie, hauntingly ethereal sound. Although used in movies such as Spellbound and The Lost Weekend to accent feelings of paranoia and mental instability, on this record it was perfect for conjuring a mysterious universe of distant stars.
Today, Music Out of the Moon, is recognized as a groundbreaking classic of “Space Age” pop, a narrower genre of Exotica.
While Tiki Exotica stirred America’s imaginations and yearnings beyond their own shores, Space Age Exotica took them beyond the stars. And like the former, Space Age pop contained the same cheerful whimsy and wonder of faraway places waiting to be discovered, reflecting American’s optimism towards what Tomorrow Land could bring.
(Baxter’s other venture into Space Age pop came nearly eight years later with his own *[Space Escapade][3]* . However, without use of the theremin, for many listeners the music takes a backseat to its priceless record cover.)
[3]: http://www.amazon.com/Space-Escapade-Les-Baxter/dp/B001UJSTNA
By the turn of the 50s, Baxter was under contract with Capitol Records and finally able to record his own music.
In 1951, he pioneered the “Jungle” variety of Exotica with his groundbreaking *[Ritual of the Savage][4]*, the gold standard on which all future Exotica music would be based and which inspired Exotica giants Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman.
[4]: http://www.amazon.com/Ritual-Savage-Passions-Les-Baxter/dp/B000FJHWAM
Many other albums that followed over the next twenty years: Tamboo! , Ports of Pleasure, Skins! Bongo Party, African Jazz, Soul of the Drums, Jewels of the Sea, The Primitive and the Passionate, to name a few.
Hit releases included Simba, Mozambique, Quiet Village, Jungle River Boat, and a novel arrangement of Unchained Melody.
In a 1996 tribute for Wired magazine, writer David Toop summed up Baxter’s contributions to Exotica:
"Baxter offered package tours in sound, selling tickets to sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboo emotions before lunch, view a pagan ceremony, go wild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home hi-fi comforts in the white suburbs."
During his heyday, Baxter also found time to compose musical scores for a over 250 films and television programs such as Lassie, Buck Rogers, The Milton Berle Show, Black Sabbath, Black Sunday, Pit and the Pendulum, Beach Blanket Bingo, Untamed Youth and many, many more.
(Small wonder why he was eventually given a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.)
Like other Exotica artists, Baxter's musical output slowed down significantly during the 1970s and 1980s.
Regardless, his musical contributions were so varied and immense that it would take anyone several lifetimes to fully appreciate them all.