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Remembering Les Baxter, 1922-1996
Composer, arranger and conductor Les Baxter died ten years ago today in Newport Beach, California, on January 15, 1996, at the age of 73.
One of the most prolific and colorful figures in American popular music, Baxter enjoyed parallel careers as a recording artist and film composer, becoming a pioneer of the exotica movement while writing music for well over 100 films. His screen work ranged from low-budget crime pictures and westerns to teenage comedies and some of the most memorable horror films produced by American International Pictures.
Leslie Thompson Baxter was born in Mexia, Texas, on March 14, 1922. He studied piano before moving toward composition and arranging, and began his professional career as a performer. During the 1940s he sang with Mel Tormé’s vocal group the Mel-Tones and worked as an arranger and conductor, eventually becoming closely associated with Capitol Records.
Baxter first achieved national prominence through a series of lush orchestral recordings that combined traditional popular music with unusual percussion, voices and instrumental colors. His 1951 album Ritual of the Savage became one of the foundational recordings of what would later be called exotica, with pieces such as “Quiet Village” evoking imaginary tropical landscapes through percussion, strings and wordless voices. Albums including Tamboo!, Caribbean Moonlight, Ports of Pleasure and Space Escapade further established his distinctive mixture of orchestral sophistication and unabashed escapism. Read more…
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