Post #494332 by Kaiwaza on Tue, Nov 17, 2009 3:23 PM

An interesting piece of exotica out of Peru, Inti Raimy, seems to be an orchestra interpretation of ancient Inca dances & ritual...ala Elizabeth Waldo, who it very much reminds me of. If you like Ms. Waldo, you'll like these interpretations by the Cuerpo Nacional de Ballet.

I think the first track on the album, Tropical safari, stands on it's own as exotica great if only because the bird calls and monkey shrieks are so loud they nearly drown out the actual music. Jungle adventure in music & sound features the Don Randi Trio, Curtis Amy & The Exotic Strings. It definitely worth a listen, but I think a few tracks are strange using prerecorded jungle drumming & their own compositions over it & they don't rhythmically seem to match up too well.

I was surprised when I came across this album several years ago..I'd never heard of it. I know we all love Les Baxter but it is very refreshing to hear someone other than Les Baxter or Martin Denny playing Baxter's exotica compositions. Don Tiare has a different approach, completely exotic and small comboish, but they just sound DIFFERENT interpreted by someone else. Don Tiare also recorded several traditional steel guitar type records & a few very lush beautiful string orchestra albums of Hawaiian & Tahitian songs. Several originals were composed for this album as well. Tracks include : Quiet village, Bangkok cockfight, Sampan landing, Crickets of Karachi, Girl behind the bamboo curtain, River of dreams, Cockatoo, Sunrise at Kowloon, Jacaranda, Jungle trail, Corazon, & Qui bir hackeim.