Les Baxter

Les Baxter launched his professional path as a pianist composing and arranging material for prominent swing ensembles of the 1940s and 1950s, although he achieved greater renown by originating exotica, a branch of easy listening that celebrated the sonic textures and cultural flavors of Polynesia, Africa, and South America while preserving the conventional string-and-horn palette of instrumental pop. The style evolved into a widespread craze during the 1950s, attracting thousands of listeners who followed Baxter, Martin Denny, and the many artists who emulated them. He further broke ground by integrating the theremin, an electronic instrument distinguished by its eerie, wailing tones.

Baxter received his piano instruction at the Detroit Conservatory and at Pepperdine College in Los Angeles. After finishing his studies he set the instrument aside to pursue singing. At age 23 he joined Mel Tormé’s Mel-Tones, whose voices appeared on Artie Shaw recordings that included the hit “What Is This Thing Called Love.”

In 1950 he joined Capitol Records as an arranger and conductor, contributing to chart successes by Nat King Cole such as “Mona Lisa.” Around the same period he began issuing his own albums. The 1948 triple-78 collection Music out of the Moon helped launch space-age pop through its prominent use of the theremin. Four years later he initiated his exotica series with Le Sacre du Sauvage.

While his early-1950s singles stayed close to straightforward renditions of standards—including the number-one hits “Unchained Melody” and “The Poor People of Paris”—his albums freely adapted elements from diverse world musics for orchestral settings. During the same years he worked as musical director for the radio series Halls of Ivy as well as Abbott & Costello programs, and he supplied scores for more than 100 films, chiefly horror features and teenage musical comedies.

His most active era spanned the 1950s and 1960s. Although he continued composing and recording sporadically into the 1970s, a devoted following for his exotica albums endured well into the 1990s.