Artist:  Martin Denny

Title:  Exotica

Date:  December 1956

Label:  Liberty Records  LRP 3034

Cover Photography:  Garrett - Howard

Notes:  You can blame it on Henry Kaiser. He's the person credited with discovering the Martin Denny Combo. These guys had been playing at the luxurious Shell Bar, and later the lounge of Las Vegas' Royal Nevada. Nightly they would treat the tourists to a mish-mash of Oriental rhythms, percussion beats, bird calls and various other exotic sounds. People would come back to the mainland from Hawaii and try to recreate the mood with Denny records spinning away through the night surrounded by tiki torches, loud shirts and sweet drinks. Come to think of it, that's still a favorite summertime pursuit for many folks. The cover features the face of Sandy Warner, "The Exotica Girl". We'll be seeing a lot of her in the future.

Line Up

Martin Denny: piano
August Colon: bongoes
Arthur Lyman: vibes
John Kramer: bass

Track Listing

Side 1

Quiet Village
Return to Paradise
Hong Kong Blues
Busy Port
Lotus Land
Similau

Side 2

Stone God
Jungle Flower
China Nights
Ah Me Furi
Waipio
Love Dance

Plus a selection of glasses, small cymbals, bamboo sticks, drum heads etc...