The Exotic Sounds Of Arthur Lyman At The Crescendo

Waltz Latino (stereo)

The Exotic Sounds Of Arthur Lyman At The Crescendo

Engineering Supervisor: Thorne E. Nogar

GNP Crescendo Records GNP 605
1963

From the back cover: The Exotic Sounds Of... Arthur Lyman At The Crescendo

From the first time the exotic sounds of Arthur Lyman are recorded "live" as they appeared "in person" in one of their regular engagements at the Crescendo on the world renowned Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Inspired by the devoted attention of a throng of faithful fans, many of them from the movie colony, the group achieves a peak of perfection possible only when artist feel the warmth and rapport of a hushed and appreciative audience (The applause was later deleted to preserve the exotic mood!)

Arthur is a masterful, sensitive and astonishingly versatile musician. He plays vibes, marimba, congas, bongos, guitar and almost every other instrument used in the group.

John Kramer, who writes in collaboration with Arthur, plays bass, flute, guitar, ukulele, clarinet and percussion.

Harold Chang is a multi-talented percussionist, who doubles on bass and a battery of exotic instruments.

Alan Soares, pianist, also doubles on guitar, glockenspiel and marimba.

All are from Hawaii and have that special ingratiating friendliness that seems indigenous to the Islands. – Gene Norman

Time Magazine Story from the back cover:

Mood Merchant

A conch shell wailed, the conga drums thump-thumped, the bamboo sticks clattered. The four men on stage were constantly on the move – clacking wooden blocks, scratching a corrugated gourd, falling away at Chinese gongs, weaving rhythms that were insistent, sinuous and hypnotic. Occasionally, when the spirit moved them, they barked like seals or whooped like cranes. The happy audience at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel rattled the rafters whooping back.

Many a stereo bug could recognized the sounds immediately – and name the man who was making them. At 29, Arthur Lyman and his group of Hawaiian musicians are staples of the pop-record market. One album alone sold close to 2,000,000 copies, and Lyman fans buy each new effort with the enthusiasm of rare-stamp collectors. Back home in Hawaii, Lyman's mistily exotic mood music draws tourists by the gross to the Shell Bar in the Hawaiian Village Hotel, where Lyman holds forth with he is not on tour (and were television's Hawaiian Eye show, on which Lyman has appeared, often stops for a drink).

A Little To Drink. The group's repertory is varied and immense – 300 songs ranging from Israeli folk music to rock 'n roll. By the time Lyman has finished arranging them, however – building in parts for castanets, chimers, tambourines, cow bells and even the jawbone of an ass – they all take on the same exotic, Oriental flavor. To give listeners the impression that they are in the rain forests of Brazil, Lyman and his men cut loose at regular intervals with what they hope are authentic bird-cries. at it's best, the group has a delicate, haunting sound that none of its imitators can match.

Arthur Lyman was born on the islands of Kauai, the youngest of eight children of a Hawaiian mother and a father of French, Belgian and Chinese extraction. When Arthur's father, a riveter, lost his eyesight in an accident, the family moved to the island of Oahu and settled in Makiki, a section of Honolulu. Arthur's introduction to music was on a toy marimba. Each day after school, Arthur's father put some old Benny Goodman records on the phonograph and locked Arthur in his room with orders to "play along with the records for the rest of the day." Arthur "hated it" but he also learned: "I mastered every (Lionel) Hampton solo."

By the time he was 14, Lyman was good enough to play with a combo in a Honolulu jazz cellar; from there he graduated to the Martin Denny Trio, which plays music something like Lyman's but with more of a jazz feeling. About that time, he married a girl from Sacramento, California, who still serves as his group's business manager.

Not Like A Bird. It was while he was with Denny that Lyman discovered the value of bird calls. One night, he recalls, he had "a little to drink," and when the trio began playing the theme from the movie "Vera Cruz," he tried a few experimental squawks. "The next thing you know," says he, "the audience started to answer back with all kinds of weird cries. It was great."

It was so great, in fact, that it became Lyman's trademark when he started his own group. He never rehearse his calls. "There's really nothing to it; you just open your mouth and yell a little bit."

From Billboard - February 23, 1964: Here's more of the dreamy misty "mood" settings for some new and old tunes as created by Arthur Lyman and his combo. His fans are bound to dig his treatment of "Days Of Wine & Roses," "China Nights," "Song Of Delilah" and others. Lots of Oriental percussion mixed skillfully into Lyman's easy paced vibes.

Similau
Days Of Wine And Roses
Te Manu Pakarua (Fishing Chant from M-G-M Film "Mutiny On The Bounty")
Waltz Latino
China Nights
Night Train
Pu Pu Hino Hino
Crickets Of Karachi
Cindy Oh Cindy
Cast Your Fate To The Winds
Song Of Delilah (From the Paramount Film "Samson and Delilah")
Slaughter On Tenth Avenue

Cast Your Fate To The Wind

The Exotic Sounds Of Arthur Lyman

GNP Crescendo 607

1965

This is the 1965 reissue of "Arthur Lyman At The Crescendo." The label flipped sides on this release (side 1 became side 2).