Les Baxter

Les Baxter – Broadway ’61 (1961/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:12 minutes | 657 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Les Baxter (1922-1996) used to be an utterly talented composer and bandleader who was on the go to the max during his active years. His version and as I should say vision of jazz music was a contemporary fresh and colorful sound with an exotic vibe due to the use of many elements of latin music within a modernized big band sound.
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Les Baxter – Les Baxter’s Teen Drums (1960/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:30 minutes | 740 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Les Baxter (1922-1996) used to be an utterly talented composer and bandleader who was on the go to the max during his active years. His version and as I should say vision of jazz music was a contemporary fresh and colorful sound with an exotic vibe due to the use of many elements of latin music within a modernized big band sound.
(more…)

Les Baxter – Thinking Of You (1954/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 23:22 minutes | 265 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Capitol Records has lovingly transferred Les Baxter’s Thinking Of You from it’s original analog sources to high fidelity digital formats for this 2022 re-release! Leslie Thompson “Les” Baxter was an American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica.
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Les Baxter – ‘Round The World With Les Baxter (1957/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:31 minutes | 364 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

‘Round the World with Les Baxter is an album by Les Baxter, His Orchestra and Chorus. It was released in 1957 on the Capitol label (catalog no. T-780). The album was recorded on August 8, 1956.

Upon its release, Billboard gave the album a score of 79 out of 100 and described it as consisting of “glittering performances” with “lush arrangements”.
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Les Baxter – Broadway ’61 (1961/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 32:12 minutes | 657 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Les Baxter (1922-1996) used to be an utterly talented composer and bandleader who was on the go to the max during his active years. His version and as I should say vision of jazz music was a contemporary fresh and colorful sound with an exotic vibe due to the use of many elements of latin music within a modernized big band sound.
(more…)

Les Baxter – ‘Round The World With Les Baxter (1957/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:31 minutes | 364 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

‘Round the World with Les Baxter is an album by Les Baxter, His Orchestra and Chorus. It was released in 1957 on the Capitol label (catalog no. T-780). The album was recorded on August 8, 1956.

Upon its release, Billboard gave the album a score of 79 out of 100 and described it as consisting of “glittering performances” with “lush arrangements”.
(more…)

Les Baxter – Les Baxter’s Teen Drums (1960/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 35:30 minutes | 740 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Les Baxter (1922-1996) used to be an utterly talented composer and bandleader who was on the go to the max during his active years. His version and as I should say vision of jazz music was a contemporary fresh and colorful sound with an exotic vibe due to the use of many elements of latin music within a modernized big band sound.
(more…)

Les Baxter and his Orchestra – The Exotic Worlds Of…Les Baxter! Vol. 2 (Remastered) (2009/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 57:22 minutes | 542 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Leslie Thompson Baxter was an American musician and composer. After becoming well known as an arranger and composer for swing bands in the 1940s, he developed his own style of world music-influenced easy listening music, known as exotica, during the 1950s and 1960s. Baxter’s heyday was in the ’50s and ’60s. Although he continued to compose and record in the ’70s, his output was sporadic. Nevertheless, a cult following formed around his exotica recordings that persisted into the ’90s.

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Les Baxter and his Orchestra – The Exotic Worlds Of…Les Baxter! Vol. 1 (Remastered) (2009/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:55 minutes | 625 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Les Baxter is a pianist who composed and arranged for the top swing bands of the ’40s and ’50s, but he is better known as the founder of exotica, a variation of easy listening that glorified the sounds and styles of Polynesia, Africa, and South America, even as it retained the traditional string-and-horn arrangements of instrumental pop. Exotica became a massively popular trend in the ’50s, with thousands of record buyers listening to Baxter, Martin Denny, and their imitators. Baxter also pioneered the use of the electronic instrument the theremin, which has a haunting, howling sound.

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Les Baxter And His Orchestra – The Primitive & The Passionate (1962/2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 31:04 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records

The Primitive & The Passionate showcases conductor and composer Les Baxter’s signature “exotic” flair and brilliant orchestrations. The 1962 release features refreshing renditions of “Laura,” “A Taste of Honey” and “Little Girl Blue.” This mesmerizing hi-res release has never sounded smoother.

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Les Baxter – The Primitive And The Passionate (Remaster) (1962/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 31:04 minutes | 308 MB | Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Another in Collectables’ series of Les Baxter two-fers, The Primitive and the Passionate/Les Baxter’s Balladeers collects a pair of the composer/conductor’s early-’60s albums. With song titles like “Peking Tiger” and “A Night with Cleopatra,” 1962’s The Primitive and the Passionate is a pretty typical – and entertaining – mix of Baxter’s instrumental exotica and standards. And, while the relatively straightforward renditions of “Laura,” “Little Girl Blue,” and “A Taste of Honey” might be a little too tasteful to pique the interest of modern exotica/lounge fans, their supreme smoothness is almost as much of an accomplishment as the album’s more whimsical moments. These include the spooky, mariachi-lounge of “Fiesta Brava”; the Latin rhythms and smoky flutes on “Congalé”; and “Bird of Paradise,” a sunny, string-driven track that builds on Baxter’s quintessential hit, “Quiet Village.” Les Baxter’s Balladeers, on the other hand, goes in a completely different direction: instead of exploring and borrowing from the music of exotic cultures, on this 1963 album Baxter delves into the sounds of traditional American music in response to the era’s folk music resurgence. With its simple production and the focus on the Balladeers themselves (including Phil Campos, Ernie Sheldon, and Jerry Yester in this incarnation), this album feels less like a Les Baxter album than a solid collection of early-’60s folk-pop. However, the versions of “Ashville Junction,” “Sail Away Ladies,” and Sheldon’s originals “The Green Mountain Boys” and “Dunya” still exemplify what that sound was all about.

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Les Baxter – Les Baxter’s Wild Guitars! (1959/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 26:53 minutes | 570 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Leslie Thompson Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica.

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Les Baxter – African Jazz (1959/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 29:48 minutes | 262 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Les Baxter’s African Jazz is an album by Les Baxter and His Orchestra. It was released in 1959 on the Capitol label (catalog no. T-1117). The album consists of original music composed by Baxter.[1][2] Upon its release, the album received a four-star rating from Billboard magazine. Billboard called it an “imaginative package” with “inventive treatments”, excellent sound, and “lush, rich approaches.”

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Les Baxter – Ports Of Pleasure (1957/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:39 minutes | 365 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Capitol Records

Capitol Records has lovingly transferred Les Baxter’s Ports Of Pleasure from it’s original analog sources to high fidelity digital formats for this 2022 re-release! The project features the original Mono mixes of this classic.

Leslie Thompson “Les” Baxter was an American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica.

(more…)

Les Baxter – Sensational! (1962/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:22 minutes | 715 MB | Genre: Lounge, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia Records

Capitol Records releases Sensational!, a 1962 collection of hits featuring Les Baxter’s piano, chorus, and orchestra, now newly transferred from its original analog sources to high-fidelity digital formats! Leslie Thompson “Les” Baxter was an American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica.

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