Yes, this blog is your 24/7 source for space age exotica mood lounge pop. At this place, we take our labels very, very seriously.
So, I found the above LP at Goodwill. I first spotted it in my third-to-last visit. I decided I didn't want it (even at 99 cents), because I figured that Axel Stordahl exotica/lounge/mood/etc. wouldn't be to my taste. By the second-to-last visit, it had vanished. In fact, all but two LPs had vanished. I figured someone had gotten a good haul.
Nope--last visit, Jasmine and Jade had returned, along with a container's worth of other titles. (Where had they gone?) I figured a good number of my listeners would enjoy the material, even if I didn't, so this time I bought the LP. You know, before it vanished again.
Never make thrift decisions casually, I always say. Turn them into drama, and then you can write about them. Anyway, turns out I like the LP well enough, except for the moments that sound like Peter Matz.
I assume this is exotica, which Wikipedia tells us was named after Martin Denny's 1957 LP of the same name. "Abstract, sirenish ululations, fierce chants, or guttural growls are common" to the style, says Hipwax. I see. Well, there are no sirenish ululations, fierce chants, etc. to be heard on these tracks, so maybe they're not exotica. Not that I care-ica, though I'm having fun-ica with this.
Whatever. Let's call it exotica, if only because of the cover photo and the track line-up--Moon of Manakoora, Caravan, Lotus Land, and so on. The average LP buyer had yet to become hip through the sounds of Elvis Presley and Eric Clapton, so he made up for his lack of hipness by purchasing music that reminded him of other lands and other people. That's the official story. I realize it makes absolutely no sense, but received ideas don't have to. Stop thinking so hard. Thank you.
I added two 1948 Morton Gould tracks to the playlist--tracks that would have been right at home on this 1960 LP. Except that exotica couldn't have existed in 1948, because 1948 wasn't 1957. And Andre Kostelanetz' 1954 version of Kashmiri Song, which can't be exotica, either-ica.
Don't question these things. Just believe.
To the music:
Caravan--Axel Stordahl and His Orch., 1960. From Dot LP.
Lotus Land--Axel Stordahl and His Orch., 1960.
Kashmiri Song (Pale Hands I Loved) (Nicholson/Woodforde-Finden)--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch., 1954. From Columbia EP.
Moonlight on the Ganges--Axel Stordahl and His Orch., 1960.
The Sheik of Araby (Ted Snyder)--Morton Gould and His Orchestra, 1948. From Columbia 45 rpm box set Do You Remember?
On a Little Street in Singapore--Axel Stordahl and His Orch., 1960.
Pagan Love Song--Axel Stordahl and His Orch., 1960.
Dardanella (Bernard-Black)--Morton Gould and His Orch., 1948.
Amazing how well those tracks flowed together, no? Especially since exotica didn't exist-ica until 1957, meaning that the three earlier tracks could not possibly have been of the same genre as the Stordahl material. So, how come it all flowed together so well? Wikipedia, get to work on this.
Two tracks I just decided to add, both pre-Martin Denny. The Novachord sounds uncannily like the "piano" patch on my long-gone Korg Poly-800 syth:
Tamboo (Cavez)--Francisco Cavez (Quintet?), circa 1953.
Estudiantina (Emil Waldteufel)--Collins Driggs, novachord, 1940. Probably arranged by Ferde Grofe. From RCA Victor 78.
Lee
9 comments:
What a nice selection of my kind of music.
Thanks, Lee!
Mel,
Certainly!
If you can track down some back issues, "Hawaii" Magazine did some nice stories on Martin Denny shortly before he died in 2006.
BTW, Alex Stordahl was musical director for the 60s tv show "McHale's Navy" and wrote that show's theme, "McHale's Navy March"
Lee,
You gotta quit getting your blood pressure up over what goofballs write on the internet. It's not worth it. Exotica music has been around forever. I did find a pretty good piece about the history of it that I thought did a nice job of explaining it, including the effect of Martin Denny's LP of the same name.
http://www.kevdo.com/exotica/evolution.html
Oh, and thanks for the music. Always something interesting to be had around here. :)
e
Sure!
Hm. The piece you linked to says, "This music had its roots in the early Fifties, reaching its apex in late 1959."
That's the myth I'm trying to debunk! Or debunkify (that's a new word I heard).
Pop music history has been wrapped up into so many little falsehoods, it'll take a century to dig the truth out of the muck.
Sorry--my rantometer is peaking again!
Lee
I would be very interested to know why you identify Collins Driggs with Buddy Cole. I had read somewhere that "Collins Driggs" was a pseudonym used by Cole, but all reference to this alleged fact has disappeared from the net. Did the RCA album you took this track from contain this information?
Thanks so much for any help you can provide with this question!
-- Tim Swanson
Hi, Tim.
A reader gave me that information, is all. That's the first time I'd heard of Driggs=Cole! I figured the reader knew what he was talking about, though maybe he was referring to a general rumor. Not too long ago, another reader assured me that Collins Driggs is Collins Driggs, and not Cole.
That is to say, I was going on nothing but that first reader's claim.
In future Collins Driggs posts, I'll include a ? after Buddy Cole. Or insert "poss." (In fact, it's time to correct this post.)
And sorry for the false lead.
Hopefully, some information will come along that can confirm or deny the Driggs=Cole claim.
Hello,
Collins Hawley Driggs is Collins Hawley Driggs. He is my Grandfather. He was born 1911 in Connecticut. He died in 1966 in Cape Coral Florida. My mother was Janet Driggs until she married my father. Buddy Cole is a different man.
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