Les Baxter

Presented here is the cornerstone of the exotica genre: "The Ritual of the Savage". Originally released by Capitol in 1951 as a 10" LP containing eight tracks, it was reissued during the mid-late 50’s as a 12" LP with four additional tracks, which were recorded in 1955 and belong to the same sessions that produced the album Tamboo!. The Ritual of the Savage (whose title is a tribute to Stravinsky’s The Rites of Spring) marked a stylistic jumping point for Les Baxter, who would return many times to the music that makes its initial statement on this record. This masterpiece featured cuts like “Jungle River Boat”, “The Ritual”, and, most famously, “Quiet Village”, a milestone of the genre that reached #4 on the US charts when Martin Denny released his famous album Exotica in 1957 on Liberty Records. As a bonus, we have included two exotica tracks recorded in 1955 for the album Tamboo! that contains many of the stylistic approaches he would develop further in later albums.