Post #807859 by rupe33 on Thu, Feb 9, 2023 6:37 AM

That's a super question and a fun one to think about with morning coffee today!

With Baxter, Denny, and Lyman... they definitely all explored the genre over multiple releases across years, if not decades. Baxter is particularly diverse in his soundtrack work and the other two got there as their careers continued onward: they eventually were recording movie and Broadway themes that moved quite far from their earlier exotica work.

Looking up Ken Auletta on Discogs - I can only see one other record that's exotica-adjacent, and it's more Hawaiiana than exotica it looks like: "For The Young At Heart."

Feels like "The Big 3" are called that because of their commitment and exploration of exotica music. It also applies since they were essentially establishing the genre in the first place, and years before Ken's "Exotica" was released. Baxter's "Ritual of the Savage" was 1951, and Denny's "Exotica" '57; Ken's release came out 1962.

That said - there are a slew of artists who did explore this area in shorter excursions the way Ken did. A few names that come to mind: Robert Drasnin, Frank Chacksfield, Frank Hunter, Gene Rains... all of whom have records that are fun and worth exploring!

[ Edited by rupe33 on 2023-02-09 06:38:31 ]