Les Baxter is known these days as one of the high priests of exotica, but he also made many records in the closely related easy listening genre. Here are two EPs, Blue Tango and Blue Mirage, that present some of those early sides, along with the first recording of exotica's greatest hit, Quiet Village.
I am an easy mark for early-50s instrumentals, so April in Portugal, Ruby, and some of the other pieces here are big favorites. The harmonica player in Ruby is unidentified; I think it might be Leo Diamond, but that is just a guess.
Some of these songs feature a chorus; Baxter started out as a singer.
Capitol recycled a few of these recordings on later 12-inch LPs, some more than once.
Sooner or later I'll prepare a batch of Baxter's uncollected Capitol singles.
Thank you for this double EP post. I have been a Les Baxter fan for many years now. Thanks to you and other bloggers, I have about 20 Les Baxter records I didn't even know of.
ReplyDeleteThanks for Les Baxter. And uncollected Capitol singles...I cannot wait.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Ron
Cheers for these. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to chime in and vote for a collection of the uncollected Les Baxter. Somewhere I've got the Whatever Lola Wants EP from Mr. Baxter that contains the tracks claimed as unreleased on the Ultralounge discs. I was pretty proud of that when I found it, but it's probably old hat now.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. Looking forward to the singles.
ReplyDeleteI'd be up for those uncollected singles. Thank you for these.
ReplyDeleteJG
Thank you so much
ReplyDeleteDear Buster!
ReplyDeleteCan you reupload these albums?
Thank you very much!
Remastered version (Apple lossless):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediafire.com/file/ro8xy75zce6wiox
May I recommend what I consider Les Baxter's masterpiece, La Femme?
ReplyDeletePublished by Capitol in the mid-50s, with Frack Pourcel and his orchestra.
That's a good one - great cover, too!
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