Mr. Ho's Orchestra - Third River Rangoon ... a review.

In 2010, Mr. Ho decided to release a series of albums over the next few years under the title "Exotica for Modern Living." These records will attempt to take the best elements of mid-century living, music, and culture and merge them with modern life to provide listeners with a "retro futuristic" listening experience.

The beautiful  artwork by Javier Garcia

The series opened with "The Unforgettable Sounds of Esquivel" featuring 23 musicians playing Mr. Ho's transcriptions of the lost arrangements of Mexico's king of space-age pop. Following this came "Third River Rangoon," featuring third-stream exotica music.I've recently downloaded this and I'm not regretting it... particularly when you can pick up the digital download and CD for $9.99 from their official website.... almost double that on iTunes!

It truly is a wonderful piece of modern exotica. I could give you a review but would rather leave it to the professionals who can far more eloquently articulate what I want to say...

"… Mr. Ho's new album Third River Rangoon, by his shapeshifting ensemble Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica may have been inspired by that subgenre, but it's considerably more magical. It leaves far more to the imagination, a lushly nocturnal collection whose most impressive feat of sorcery is getting a simple lineup of vibraphone, bass flute, bass and percussion to create the sweep of a hundred-piece orchestra. The production is genius…"Lucid Culture. 2011.

"… a perfect cocktail of mid-century 'space age bachelor pad' music deliciously accented with chamber, jazz, classical, and world music…"—Jonathan Perry. Boston Globe. 2011.

Go get it...

Webley Edwards presents Paradise Island Capitol Records 1959 ...

I've been doing a little reading around the marketing of Hawaiian music in the 1950's. I found quite an informative article which highlighted its growth, and this Webley Edwards album is a classic example. There are tracks which mark your arrival and departure on the island by boat... you kick back in your favourite armchair and are transported to a Paradise Island aided by the impressive sleeve notes and full colour booklet which acts almost as a travel brochure.

Extract from article...

"Hawaii-inspired music marketed via popular record albums, radio shows, and Hollywood film soundtracks aided Hawaii’s transformation in the popular imagination from a mysterious ‘primitive’ paradise into the 50th U.S. state. Indeed, by constructing and capturing the temptingly tropical so-called ‘sounds’ of Hawaii on the latest hi-fi recording equipment, the music industry offered up Hawaiian music as an achievement of modern technology, promoting these U.S. islands as an acoustic, as well as a tourist, paradise."

"Record albums are useful sights for material culture studies for several reasons. They are durable. Records from the 1950s remain widely available today, collected and coveted by consumers, and recirculate as retro icons. Used records are sold by the thousands in vinyl stores, at record fairs, and on the Internet; and, surprisingly, vinyl has rebounded as a viable niche within the music industry. Furthermore, old records are often re-released on compact disc, thus enjoying a new life. Although images from 1950s and 1960s advertisements usually appear hopelessly dated, record cover designs enjoy new life on compact discs that cash in on ironic trends or retro fashions."

Enjoy a trip to Webley Edwards' Paradise Island.

A Honeymoon in Hawaii ...

It's been a long time between Mai Tai's for me with things very busy here on the Secret Island. Still as things settle down and we edge towards a Southern Hemisphere winter here there will be plenty of time to dust off the keyboard and again bring to you something to wet those Tiki Tastebuds!

Today I thought that I would take a long board and ride the wave of Wedding fervor that seems to have crashed on to the shore this week. As a former inhabitant of the Royal Island I still take quite an interest in the Royals. I'm not the biggest Royalist but Will and Kate (... sorry Catherine!!) do have the potential to reinvent them in the same way that Princess Diana did so successfully.

Anyway enough of all that. While the destination of their Honeymoon might still be a secret I can think of nothing better than a Honeymoon in Hawaii. Will and Kate not convinced? Well sit back and listen to this....

The beautiful poster girl Rosemarie Alvarez.

Enjoy - Hilo Hawaiians Honeymoon in Hawaii. Ono Records. 1960

This album is a treasure that was almost lost, deleted on vinyl the master tapes have only recently been discovered allowing the release of this title on CD. In the Honolulu Magazine feature on the Best 50 Albums of Hawaii; The Hilo Hawaiians, Honeymoon in Hawaii album came in at Number 34, amazing when you consider that the whole thing was recorded in just one session. The album is considered a must have for Hawaiian Music Collectors as it showcases the unique talents of Bunny Brown, Kihei Brown. Arthur Kaua, Mona Kalima, and Buddy Brown at their best.

Les Baxter The Sounds of Adventure Capitol Records 1965 ...

Les Baxter needs no introduction and in this release he's at his atmospheric best. Each track on this double vinyl sounds like a movie soundtrack from days of old.

Its not all exotica by any stretch but its a great album which more than holds its own. My personal picks are "Blue Jungle", "Bustin the Bongos" (I which it sounds like the player is doing just that!) and will I ever tire of "Quiet Village?"

Enjoy The Sounds of Adventure.

Leo Addeo Great Standards with an Hawaiian Touch Camden Records 1962 ...

For your listening pleasure I bring you another album from Leo Addeo. This time he takes some popular tunes from the time (1962!) and gives them the tropical treatment.

"For those that yearn to be part of the Island Life
this will be an invitation to sail or jet Westward"

It's a great record for fans of exotica and lounge.  Enjoy Great Standards with an Hawaiian Touch.

Martin Denny Exotica Today Liberty Records 1966 ...

While Australia battles through a heatwave, category five cyclones and floods, friends of The Secret Island in the US are rugging up against the extreme cold. What a crazy world. To take our minds off the weather for your listening pleasure I present Exotica Today by Martin Denny, a 1966 Liberty Records release.

Think Martin Denny... think Exotica! When his first record, "Quiet Village," was released, Martin Denny immediately became the spokesman for paradise.In this particular album, he selected some of the most popular tunes of the time and have them a beating with the Exotica stick. For true fans of exotica he may have not gone far enough, but for those wanting a lounge feel with the odd bird call then this is for you! My pick is "The Shadow of Your Smile" which has more than a hint of Quiet Village about it.

Enjoy some Exotica Today.

Les Baxter Teen Drums Capitol Records 1960 ...

For your listening pleasure I bring you all the way from 1960 Les Baxter's Teen Drums.

Part of the marketing of rock & roll as youth music back in the day meant trying to figure out how to sell kids and what were the sounds that they would dig. The record labels tapped everyone for ideas. One of those people was Les Baxter he had already established himself as one of the princes of Exotica and a duke of easy listening. He had backed Nat King Cole & Frank Sinatra. He helped create Yma Sumac's classic the Voice of Xtabay. His classic exotica records, Ritual of the Savage and Tamboo!, were released. He was a success. Still, Capitol tapped him for a teen record and Les Baxter's Teen Drums was made.

One of the great record sleeves.

Les Baxter recorded these swinging tracks with various Pacific Coast drum stars, jazz, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and Porto-Rican skin-thumpers. No music was written. They all simply sat down in a studio on Hollywood's Vine Street and started pounding. Les came up with a batch of mad percussion effects, even farther out than those he achieved in "Skins". He's one of California's hottest bongo-beaters and he dashes about the streets in a turquoise Thunderbird with a souped-up engine.

A follow-up to the popular Skins! of 1957, Les Baxter's Teen Drums marks a return to pure beat territory. "Ting Ting Ting" and "Brazil Nuts" start the album off with furious bongo bashing  busy rhythms, but then things slow to a more sedate pace as  Teen Drums delivers its skeletal arrangements and tightly restrained beats. “I dig” swings along nicely but my pick is “Calypso.” Les Baxter's Teen Drums is exotica of sorts, perfect for the average space-age bachelor's cocktail party or simply load the surf boards (.. and the bongos!) for the perfect listen on your next surf safari.


This animated sequence by John Moore features Baxter's I Dig as its soundtrack. Take a look and listen... its a good indication whether you'll get with the beat of Teen Drums!



Enjoy - Les Baxter's Teen Drums.

Stanley Wilson Pagan Love Capitol Records 1961...

Stanley Wilson was a key figure in Hollywood's music industry in the 1950s and 1960s, and rarely recorded specifically for record audiences, however his Pagan Love album is considered a classic piece of Jungle Exotica. In the late 1950s, he joined the new television arm of Universal Studios as head of creative activities, which meant he was in charge of putting music behind all of the studio's productions, hiring and assigning composers, arrangers, orchestrators, and conductors. In this position, Wilson employed many of the other arrangers and composers most notably, Juan Garcia Esquivel, with whom he composed the signature melody that accompanied the Universal emblem at the end of all the studio's shows.

Here's a quote from the sleeve notes...

One of the most colorful and important facts of Pagan Life is the Courtship Ritual. But while the idea of Ritual is common to all primitive societies, pagan love rites run a startling gamut. From the death defying land diving of the New Hebrides through the perilous ballet of the Malayan Pinchak knife fight to the innocent witchcraft of Zulu love magic. Composer and conductor Stanley Wilson here artfully weaves these varied threads of aboriginal amour into richly colored music alive with brilliant and impressive sounds. Blending western instruments with those of the south seas, he has created love themes which are at once exotic and familiar. Alternately sensual, sublime, melodramatic, and comic. these pieces were first conceived by Stan as the score for a colorful documentary called the Mating Urge! "Here the music stands alone as a magnificent evocation of "Pagan Love"

Enjoy some Pagan Love.

The Sound of Tiki ...

No self respecting Tiki fan would be without their own copy of the Book of Tiki by Sven Kirsten which is widely considered the Tiki Bible.

I was therefore expecting a lot from The Sound of Tiki a seventeen track cd featuring some interesting selections of exotica music.

Having been fortunate to have met both (and seen perform) the two foremost practitioners of Exotica music, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman before they joined the Big Luau in the Sky, urban archeologist Kirsten is now applying his vast knowledge of Tiki culture to throw new light on the themes and concepts of Polynesian pop. By assembling a cornucopia of songs and visuals that evoke the time of Tiki, this compilation brings the escapist fantasies of yesterday back to today's much too real world. Contains a 52-page booklet with beautiful colorful rare images and insightful text that complements the musical experience.

My picks from it are the Don Ho - Hawaii 5-0/Quiet Village Medley and House of Bamboo by Andy Williams, neither of these feature in the YouTube sampler. Still available from Amazon and good record stores.

101 Strings. Romance of Hawaii 1969 Alshire Records ...

101 Strings was the brand for a highly successful easy listening symphonic music organization, with a discography exceeding a hundred albums and a creative lifetime of roughly thirty years. Record label mogul David L. Miller came to prominence by releasing the first Bill Haley & His Comets’ records in 1952-1953 on his own Essex label in the United Kingdom.

Following the rise of popular mood music artists Mantovani and Jackie Gleason Presents, Miller subcontracted the Northwest German Radio Orchestra of Hamburg conducted by Wilhelm Stephan to play in-house arrangements of popular standards. The first 101 Strings album was released in late 1957; an astounding 24 titles were released in 1958. These records were pressed by Miller’s own plants and released through his own distribution channels such as grocery stores, part of the reason why they are so common in dusty thrift store record piles.

In 1964, Miller sold the franchise to Al Sherman, a successful record label distributor, who renamed the label Alshire (based in Los Angeles, California) and moved recording to London. The Alshire era is characterized by large-scale expansion of product, attempts to branch out into younger markets and, beginning in 1969, eventual stagnation despite some late efforts from Les Baxter released under the 101 banner!

This pre the stagnation (in my opinion)release titled Romance of Hawaii...

Conjures up pictures of surf on sun drenched beaches, azure skies, shimmering corals, blue lagoons, lush jungle and exotic flowers!

Enjoy 101 Strings - Romance of Hawaii. 1969

Like Bongos! Time Records 2000 Series ...

For your listening pleasure I have Like Bongos! a Time Records release from the 2000 Series.

I found it quite difficult to find out much about this record. However I do know that it does feature Johnny Pacheco: Latin all-star, chief exponent of the pachanga, and (at this early date) sideman Latin percussionist. Some of these tracks featured on other Time Record releases, particularly "Monterrey" and "Bongolina."

... I'm not the biggest bongo fan in the World however the version of "Caravan" is worth the download alone. You too will Like Bongos!

Hal Aloma - Sweet Leilani. Dot Records 1959 ...

For your listening pleasure from The Secret Island today we have Sweet Leilani from Hal Aloma, one of the most versatile and popular Hawaiian artists.

The slightly less exotic sounding Harold David Alama began his career with his brother Sam Alama at the Alexander Young and Moana hotels in Honolulu. He then went to New York with Lani McIntire and played at the Hotel Lexington's Hawaiian Room for nearly four years. He played at New York's Luau 400 for seven years and joined Tommy Dorsey's band for several years. He toured extensively and was the band leader at the Polynesian Village for the grand opening of Disney World. He appears with Tommy Dorsey in the MGM film Ship Ahoy.

Hal was also a composer and sixty five of his songs were recorded, including 'Echoes of the South Pacific,' 'Lokelani,' 'Wiki Wiki Mai,' 'Pretty Maori Girl' and 'When It's Luau Time in Hawaii.' This release features and is titled "Sweet Leilani" a song from the 1937 film, Waikiki Wedding. Which at the time won an Academy Award for Best Original Song and was popularized by Bing Crosby who recorded it in 1935.

Enjoy Hal Aloma

Sandy Warner - The face of Exotica ...

If Denny, Lyman and Baxter are the sound of Exotica then surely the face must be Sandy Warner.

The girl who featured on sixteen Martin Denny sleeves was born on the 14th March 1935 in New York. While still in her teens, she appeared along with her twin sister, Sonia, in several B-movies and at least one A-movie, "The Human Jungle," in bit parts. Sandy appeared in several other films, including Nicholas Ray's "Party Girl" and Don Siegel's "Point Blank," and in episodes of "Perry Mason," "The Twilight Zone," and "The Fugitive."

Denny recalls ...

"She was a stunning model, extremely photogenic. She posed for at least the first dozen albums I did. They always changed her looks to fit the mood of the package."

It was a standing joke among disk jockeys that many of them discovered only later that there was a record inside the dust jacket. For all her exposure, Warner was able to pull one over on Denny himself when they first met.

He later recalled...

"I'm playing the piano, and right on the edge of the stage, there's a young couple sitting there, a very attractive gal. I finish the show, and she motions to me to come over to her table, so I did. She says hello, I say hello, and she says 'You know. we have a lot in common.' I say, 'How come'?' And she says, 'Well, I'm the girl on the cover of Exotica.' I looked at her and by God she was! She was on her honeymoon with her new husband. She was a model on at least ten of my albums, and on each one she has a different characterization, a different look and everything. A very stunning girl."

She also went on to appear as a cover girl for other artists as well as releasing an album of her own Steve Allen Presents Fair and Warner featuring liner notes by none other than Martin Denny. Unfortunately, Mayfair didn't see fit to invite Warner to as many return engagements as a singer as Liberty did as a cover model.

Going APE ...

Tonight here on The Secret Island I've literally been going APE listening to Jungle Gems from the band by the same name.

"APE formed amidst the rocky shores and crashing waves of San Francisco's windward side in 1998. Eric Rindal had already successfully circumnavigated the world of instrumental surf music with his band The Swami's, but now he was restless. Like Thor Heyerdahl in Kon-Tiki, he set out upon a journey across the musical ocean, in search of adventure. For crew he signed on tiki carver Crazy Al, shameless pineapple fondler Mitch Tobias, fellow ex-Swami (and now leader of the Badass Chickenbones) Lane, exotic drummer Kevin Woodhouse, and Hawaiian steel & uke nut Frank Novicki (of the Waikiki Steel Works). Together they created the unique sound and look of APE."

In this clip APE perform Jumping Beans at Tiki Oasis 6 ...

If you enjoyed that then there is plenty more like that on this release. However one word of caution listening to Jungle Gems may result in the consumption of multiple Mai-Tais. Mia Huna Moku urges you to drink responsibly. Please do not attempt to guide an outrigger canoe while listening to this CD.

No download links as this is still very much available... so get your self to Bone Productions and pick up the sixteen track CD for only $15 cool bananas!

Leo Addeo More Hawaii in Hi-Fi RCA Records 1960...

Here's another classic slab of wax from Leo Addeo and his Orchestra. This was the second installment following his first effort Hawaii in Hi-Fi in 1959.

I'm not sure what the Hula Maiden is looking for on the sleeve ... but I can kick back, listen to this and hope it's me! ;0)

A1 The Sheik of Araby
A2 Isle of Paradise
A3 Near You
A4 Song of India
A5 Harbor Lights
B1 Third Man Theme
B2 Moon of Manakoora
B3 To You, Sweetheart, Aloha
B4 Song of the Islands
B5 Red Sails in the Sunset

Enjoy Leo Addeo's More Hawaii in Hi-Fi.

Richard in Your Mind Candelabra

Listening to the radio here on The Secret Island heard something strangely familiar amongst all the other stuff. It was a track by a band from Sydney Australia called Richard in Your Mind which features a very Quiet Village-esque bass line.

Having done a little digging around about them it would seem that Richard In Your Mind are full of inventiveness and spark, offering up genuinely odd, mind-bending music, the kind as likely to veer off into a hip hop verse as it is an extended sitar workout. They once described their sound like this

“Live it’s just your standard guitar/bass/drums/vox/synth/sax/harmonica/megaphone kinda thing, but in recording we love experimenting with heaps of stuff like harmonium, sitar, tabla, juju shaker (with a voodoo curse), gongs, bells, samples and any toy that makes a cool sound. Then we just put delay on everything…”

Love this record sleeve on so many levels!

Four years after starting out, the newly expanded five piece has reccently offered up "My Volcano", their keenly awaited second lp. With stand out tunes like this they are sure to capture imaginations here and on the mainland!

Triple J Unearthed - Richard in Your Mind.

Paul Whiteman - Hawaiian Magic. Grand Award Records. 1966 ...

Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz."

Using a large ensemble and exploring many styles of music, Whiteman is perhaps best known for his blending of symphonic music and jazz, as typified by his 1924 commissioning and debut of George Gershwin's jazz-influenced "Rhapsody In Blue". His popularity faded in the swing music era of the 1930s, and by the 1940s Whiteman was semi-retired from music. In his autobiography, Duke Ellington declared, "Paul Whiteman was known as the King of Jazz, and no one as yet has come near carrying that title with more certainty and dignity."

This release was originally released in 1956 with the rather more attractive sleeve below. The 1966 re-release featured what some vinyl websites describe as a "striking cover" ... I'd call it pre school collage but that's my opinion!

The record features "Lush strings, full and colorful, with bright guitar passages the reflect so splendidly the rich romance of the haunting music of Hawaii." My pick would be the Moon of Manakoora.

Enjoy - Paul Whiteman - Hawaiian Magic 1966.