Post #144568 by Futura Girl on Fri, Mar 4, 2005 3:32 AM

From Urban Panda:

"The High Preist of Exotica" and my mentor, my pal and all around great and fascinating guy, Martin Denny has passed away at 93 at his home in Hawaii Kai ...

He had an amazing career and life, a loving wife June and a wonderful daughter Christina with whom he was living at the time of his death

He was a really great guy ...

Martin Denny was born on April 10, 1911 in New York, raised in Los Angeles, California. He studies classical piano and at a young age tours South America for four and a half years with the Don Dean Orchestra. This tour begins Denny's fascination with Latin rhythms.

After serving in World War II, Denny returns to Los Angeles where he studied piano and composition under Dr. Wesley La Violette and orchestration under Arthur Lange at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. He also studies at the University of Southern California

In January of 1954, Don the Beachcomber's (which later became Duke Kahanamoku's) brings Denny to Honolulu, Hawaii. He performs here for ten years, forming his own combo in 1955 and signing to Liberty Records. The original combo consists of Augie Colon on percussion and birdcalls, Arthur Lyman on vibes, John Kramer on string bass, and Denny on piano. Lyman soon leaves to form his own group and future Herb Alpert sideman and Baja Marimba founder Julius Wechter replaces him. Harvey Ragsdale later replaces John Kramer.

Denny describes the music his combo plays as "window dressing, a background". It is the perfect compliment to the exotic setting of Hawaii. "A lot of what I'm doing", he states in Incredibly Strange Music Volume 1 "is just window dressing familiar tunes. I can take a tune like "Flamingo" and give it a tropical feel, in my style In my arrangement of a Japanese farewell song, "Sayonara", I include a Japanese three stringed instrument, the shamisen. We distinguished each song by a different ethnic instrument, usually on top of a semi-jazz or Latin beat Even though it remained familiar, each song would take on a strange, exotic character." Denny built a collection of strange and exotic instruments from several airline friends. They would bring Denny back these instruments and he would build arrangements around them. His music is a combination of ethnic styles: South Pacific, the Orient and Latin rhythms. It is the music a lot of people believed came from the islands. A musical fantasy created by Denny.

During an engagement at the Shell Bar, Denny discovers what would become his trademark and the birth of "Exotica". The bar had a very exotic setting: a little pool of water right outside the bandstand, rocks and palm trees growing around, very quiet and relaxed. As the group played on night, Denny became aware of bullfrogs croaking. The croaking blended with the music and when the band stopped, so did the frogs. Denny thought this to be a coincidence, but when he tried the tune again later, the same thing happened. This time, his bandmates began during all sorts of tropical bird calls as a gag. The band thought it quite amusing, but as nothing more than a joke. The next day, though, someone approached Denny and asked if he would do the arrangement with the birds and frogs. While at first he thought it was ridiculous, the more Denny thought about it, the more it made sense. At rehearsal, he had the band do "Quiet Village" with each doing a birdcall spaced apart.. Denny did the frog part on a grooved cylinder and the whole thing became incorporated into the arrangement. It caught on like wildfire and everyone wanted to hear "Quiet Village".

The seminal "Exotica" album was recorded in the Webley Edwards Studio (not, as often reported, the Aluminum Dome at Henry I. Kaiser's Hawaiian Village Complex) in Waikiki in Novenmber of 1956. In 1958, Dick Clark hosts Denny on American Bandstand. "Quiet Village" reaches ..2 on Billboard's charts in 1959 with the "Exotica" album reaching ..1. He rides the charts of Cashbox and Variety also. Denny has as many as three or four albums on the charts simultaneously during his career. He also has national hits with "A Taste of Honey","The Enchanted Sea", and "Ebb Tide"."Part of the reason my records caught on was that stereo had just appeared on the market, with its amazing separation into right and left channels. People were interested in sound per se - and that included my so-called exotic sound." (Incredibly Strange Music Volume 1) This interest in stereo shows itself most in "Tse Tse Fly". Denny wanted the feeling of irritation with being trapped in a room with a fly. The whole idea focused on the stereo effect of a fly crossing a room from channel to channel. Augie Colon made a high pitched sound with his lips.. When it was recorded, it was done by transference from one side to another which gave the sound the stereo effect.

In his career as Exotica's founding father, Denny produces 38 albums and sells over 4 million copies.

[ Edited by: Futura Girl on 2005-03-04 03:36 ]