Results for "Martin Denny"

Martin Denny

Born: April 10, 1911

Martin Denny was an American pianist and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing up to 3 weeks prior to his death, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and original songs that celebrated Tiki culture.

Denny was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. He studied classical piano and toured South America for four and a half years in the 1930s with the Don Dean Orchestra. This tour began Denny's fascination with Latin rhythms. Denny collected a large number of ethnic instruments from all over the world, which he used to spice up his stage performances.

Trio San: Hibiki

by Dan McClenaghan
November 13, 2023

Put a vibraphone into a small ensemble, listen in and the label “exotica" might come up--that exotic music pioneered by Martin Denny and Juan Garcia Esquivel. The pairing of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito--a duo they call Futari--on their two terrific albums, Beyond (2021) and Underground (2022), both on Libra Records, sounded like exotica ...

The Saxophones: To Be A Cloud

by Gareth Thompson
June 4, 2023

The monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh had a saying, “I have arrived, I am home." Hanh's writing was an influence on this third album from husband-and-wife pairing The Saxophones, namely Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdice. Hanh's use of clouds as a metaphor for impermanence became a keystone for them, but his thoughts on going ...

Astrocolor: Moonlighting--Astrojazz Vol. 1

by Dan McClenaghan
April 9, 2023

Considering the title of the recording, Moonlighting--Astro Jazz Vol. 1, and its futuristic cover art, the Canadian ensemble Astrocolor brings to mind the mid-1950s/early-1960s music that claimed the tag “Space Age Jazz," an offshoot of exotica or lounge music. It was a music considered by some at the time as schlocky, lacking a serious intent. It ...

Collin Sherman: Arc of a Slow Decline

by Dan McClenaghan
November 8, 2020

Music is typically a collaborative affair. A given number of players comes together and each takes a part in the shaping of a particular sound. Teamwork is the word. But sometimes a musician just has to go it alone and--in this technological age that allows such things--the recording then collaging and layering of sounds creates an ...

Jon Hassell: Words with the Shaman

by Chris May
April 21, 2020

Jon Hassell is best known as the creator of Fourth World music, an acoustic-electronic blend of jazz, minimalism, drone, ambient, traditional African and Asian instruments and harmolodic signatures. Hassell has defined Fourth World as “serious music with transcultural appeal and a smile." He unveiled the concept on his debut album, Vernal Equinox (Lovely Records), in 1977. ...

Jazzkaar 2018

by Martin Longley
July 24, 2018

Jazzkaar 2018 Tallinn, Estonia April 20-29, 2018 In the year of Estonia's celebrations, having attained a full century as a Republic, its Jazzkaar festival continues to be amongst the very best of the European range. Held annually in Tallinn, and primarily centred around the Telliskivi Creative City, the festival continued ...

Meet Davis Wilson

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
July 6, 2018

Jeopardy contestant, amateur pianist, dance teacher, actor, sailor, postal worker, our July Super Fan has lived all over the place and done it all. Now based in St. Paul, Minnesota, he met “zillions of artists" as keeper of the flame at the old Artists' Quarter jazz club. But he stumbled upon one of the most memorable ...

Escape To The Alluring Sounds Of Vintage Exotica On "Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights" On May 25

May 4, 2018

In the late ’50s to the mid-’60s, somewhere between Elvis’ last Ed Sullivan Show appearance and the Beatles’ U.S. invasion, a strange musical movement surfaced in America seemingly from some fantasy island in the South Pacific. Known as Exotica, the music blended together wildly disparate musical styles—easy listening and lounge; jazz and surf—to concoct a fizzy ...

Legendary Randy Van Horne Singers Return To Stage on September 12

September 11, 2010

The Randy Van Horne Singers, famous for The Nat King Cole Show, Hanna-Barbera cartoon theme songs The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, and many others and work with Martin Denny and Esquivel will perform live on stage at the Pasadena Central Library (CA) SECOND SUNDAY CONCERTS presents ...And All That Jazz THE RANDY VAN HORNE SINGERS ...