Not Quite a Blog

Martin Denny has died at 93.

Martin Denny, the bandleader who mingled easygoing jazz with Polynesian instrumentation and jungle noises to exemplify the "exotica" sound that swept suburban America in the 1950's and 60's, died on Wednesday at his home in Hawaii Kai, near Honolulu. He was 93. [...]

Mr. Denny's recording of Les Baxter's "Quiet Village," a stately piano theme surrounded by crunchy island percussion - an instrumental but for the parade of jungle cries supplied by his band - was released as a single in 1958 and reached the Top 5 of the Billboard pop charts. His first album, "Exotica," with its image of a sultry model of indeterminate ethnicity peeking through a bamboo screen, stayed at No. 1 for five weeks in 1959. [...]

His music, along with that of Esquivel and others, faded in popularity with the spread of rock 'n' roll in the 60's, but found an underground audience in record collectors and fringe musicians, then enjoyed a full-fledged renaissance decades later as kitsch. The pioneering British industrial-music group Throbbing Gristle dedicated its "Greatest Hits" album to Mr. Denny, and through the 90's arty bands like Stereolab, Air, Combustible Edison and Stereo Total mined the exotica era.[...]

I've long been a favorite of Ultra-Lounge and the tiki sound that he and his cohorts crafted and perfected. (Michelle has about 12 of the Ultra-lounge series... and there are many, many more.)

So, this weekend, raise your tiki drinks and shake that hula ass in rememberance of the soft-spoken king of tiki sound.