Post #629410 by OnyaBirri on Tue, Mar 20, 2012 10:47 AM

There are plenty of references in Les Baxter bios, explaining how his "Nature Boy" arrangement got him hired to to the other Cole tunes I mentioned. Additionally, aural evidence would confirm this: The arrangement uses all sorts of signature devices that can be heard in Baxter's other exotic music from this period, including the Theremin albums and Voice of the Xtabay. It was not necessarily common to list the arranger on a musician's union log unless the arranger is also the conductor. The fact that "arranging" can come in multiple stages, e.g. one person doing a sketch and another writing the full arrangement, can further obscure these situations.