Les Baxter | Artist

Leslie Baxter was an American musician and composer born 1922 in Mexia, Texas. After establishing himself as an arranger and composer for swing bands in the 1940s, he developed his own style of world music-influenced easy listening "Exotica" music during the 1950s-1960s. Along with Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman, Baxter is seen as one of the creators of Exotica music. Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. From 1943 he played tenor and baritone saxophone for the Freddie Slack big band, then turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records. Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950, and conducted the orchestra in two early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young". He also recorded Peruvian songstress Yma Sumac's first album Voice of the Xtabay which can be considered one of the first recordings of exotica. In 1951 he made the original recording of "Quiet Village" which years later became a hit for Martin Denny. In 1953 he scored his first movie, the sailing travelogue Tanga Tika. Baxter worked in films in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked on movie scores for B-movie studio American International Pictures where he composed scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror and beach party films including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, Muscle Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo. Baxter's exotic music was inspired by the imagined sounds of distant and fascinating places, such as the Pacific Islands, the Orient, and South America. He also explored the Sci-fi realm with space-themed works such as Music Out Of the Moon (1947) and Space Escapade (1958). Although Baxter's work has been labelled 'easy listening', the scores, orchestration, and playing are first rate, as is the stereo production on his records, which often were used as hi-fi demonstration records. Baxter's sound was particularly noted for its exotic percussion elements, borrowed from folk and ethnic tribal music sources. He was also one of the earlist adopters of electronic instruments in popular music, with his frequent use of the theremin to produce shimmering "spooky" sounds. Outstanding albums include soundtracks to the movies Barbarian (19690), Quiet Village (1963), and Bora Bora (1961), plus non-movie works Tamboo! (1956), Space Escapade (1958), African Jazz (1959), The Primitive and the Passionate (1962), and Que Mango! (1970). Also recommended is the 1996 archival compilation The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter. The early nineties saw a resurgence of interest in the music of Les Baxter, with record collecters searching out old titles in thrift stores, often making their choices based on record cover art. The rediscovery of exotica was largely to cover design — the way records by Les, Martin Denny, and Korla Pandit looked. Fifties easy listening went from being a neglected genre to a subterranean collector’s movement, and Les Baxter, who released his last album in 1970 and died in 1996, has become something of a retro-icon to many young record collectors.

Artist Website: wikipedia/Les_Baxter

Featured Albums: Les Baxter

Related Artists: Les Baxter and his Orchestra, Yma Sumac