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Exotica music covers a wide rage of styles..mostly instrumental. One of the greats was Martin Denny known by most people for his "Quiet Village". His early Lp's in particular have become sought after..great music and ...album covers!

Korla Pandit= The Godfather of Exotica was one of my earliest instrumental musical influences. He never spoke a word on his 1950's TV show. A few years back I ended up with many items from his estate. A painting done by his late wife (who was a Disney artist) was reunited with her through the help of Verne Langdon (who is another story on his own!) A bust of Korla is a focal point in my office.....you can learn more about him at http://www.korlapandit.com

George. I have never seen his show. In spite of his agility on the keyboard, his performance is a bit hypnotic. Of course, that may be the point. Must ...have... cof...fee.

kenposurf wrote:He never spoke a word on his 1950's TV show.

Ohhh, yeahhhhh... I remember when channel 5 (local TV station in L.A.) was celebrating an anniversary recently, they showed some clips of their old shows from the 50s. Besides the music, his schtick was to never speak. And wasn't it only a 15-minute broadcast?

Korla's persona was indeed interesting. He was not Indian but of Mexican and African American decent. He did embrace Eastern philosophy however. At one time he was a member of The Sons Of The Pioneers vocal group. He never spoke on his show but gazed into the camera intoxicating his fans I'm sure.

Exotica...Tiki...Bachelor Pad....buzz words for this here stuff....today we hear from the soundmaster Esquivel he recorded much of his work on RCA Living Stereo

kenposurf wrote:Korla's persona was indeed interesting. He was not Indian but of Mexican and African American decent. He did embrace Eastern philosophy however. At one time he was a member of The Sons Of The Pioneers vocal group. He never spoke on his show but gazed into the camera intoxicating his fans I'm sure.

Korla Pandit also has a cameo in Tim Burton's Ed Wood at a rap party as the organ player who backs Ed Wood's (Johnny Depp) doing a dance in drag.

lennon211 wrote:

kenposurf wrote:Korla's persona was indeed interesting. He was not Indian but of Mexican and African American decent. He did embrace Eastern philosophy however. At one time he was a member of The Sons Of The Pioneers vocal group. He never spoke on his show but gazed into the camera intoxicating his fans I'm sure.

Korla Pandit also has a cameo in Tim Burton's Ed Wood at a rap party as the organ player who backs Ed Wood's (Johnny Depp) doing a dance in drag.

Korla was proud of his film roles small though they may have been. He spent his last years up this way and most of his gigs at that point were at pizza places that had pipe organs. He was a very talented musician and showman.

kenposurf wrote:
Korla was proud of his film roles small though they may have been. He spent his last years up this way and most of his gigs at that point were at pizza places that had pipe organs. He was a very talented musician and showman.

Pizza places with pipe organs...now, there's a commonplace occurrence...

jingle_jangle wrote:

kenposurf wrote:
Korla was proud of his film roles small though they may have been. He spent his last years up this way and most of his gigs at that point were at pizza places that had pipe organs. He was a very talented musician and showman.

Pizza places with pipe organs...now, there's a commonplace occurrence...

Local chain during the 70's. 80's...The Pizza Piper

One of the great figures of the exotica movement was Les Baxter. His music covers the tropical/lounge/space and beyond. A well studied musician, he wrote the familiar whistle tune hear at the opening to the Lassie TV show. Also a singer in his own right, was one third of the folk trio of the 60's "The Balladeers" which also featured a very young David Crosby.