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Arthur Lyman "On Broadway / The Colorful Percussions" (Collectors
Choice)
Hawaii-born Arthur Lyman joined with Martin Denny to invent "exotica"
on the latter's 1957 debut album. Exotica combined the melodic sounds
of the islands with unusual percussion (notably the scratching sound
of the guiro), pop changes, and human-voiced bird calls to create a
soundtrack to the late '50s fascination with all things tiki. As a
vibraphonist, Lyman's jazz background added an element of cool to
Denny's classical training. Splitting after their debut release, Lyman
created a new quartet and recorded dozens of exotica-inflected albums
for the Hi-Fi, Life and Crescendo labels. Collectors' Choice latest
series of reissues gathers eighteen of Lyman's releases from Hi-Fi and
Life, fits them two per CD, includes full-panel reproductions of both
album covers, adds a full-panel back cover and new liner notes from
Scram's Kim Cooper and David Smay.
Like his mentor and partner, Martin Denny, Lyman's lengthy catalog of
exotica-influenced LPs often looked beyond the South Seas for
material. Like Denny, Lyman looked to both Hollywood and Broadway for
melodies. On his seventh album (his third and final release in 1959),
Lyman produced an album of four medleys, each drawn from a classic
Broadway show. Two are drawn from the oeuvre of Rodgers & Hammerstein
(The King and I, South Pacific), and one each from Lerner and Loewe
(My Fair Lady) and Gershwin (Porgy and Bess). More importantly, Lyman
wrote mostly straight-ahead jazz arrangements, devoid of the exotica
flair predominant in much of his catalog. His vibraphone is heard
throughout, but played more for cool than as a florid island call.
Even South Pacific, with its shimmering melodies' natural fit to the
island sound, is played more as show jazz than exotica. Highlights
include Lyman's hot-mallet run through "I'm Getting Married in the
Morning," the blue chords of "Summertime," the triumphant Latin
arrangement of "I've Got Plenty of Nothing," and a dynamic take on
"I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair."
Lyman's tenth album, 1962's The Colorful Percussions of Arthur Lyman,
was the first to follow his 1961 top-10 pop hit, "Yellow Bird." It
opens with the theme to the film "Exodus," establishing itself with
bold chords and drums, dropping to a sparse, melancholy statement of
theme on harmonica, and then slowly rebuilding itself with a marching
beat to the dramatic climax. The film themes continue with "Never on
Sunday," and Lyman returns to Broadway for Lerner & Lowe's "I Talked
to Trees," drawn from the musical "Paint Your Wagon." John Kramer's
flute and the backing percussion on "Carabunta" bring to mind Herbie
Mann's Afro-Cuban original, and the dramatic piano of "Rhumba
Rhapsody" brings to mind the exotica standard, "Misirlou." Island
sounds waft through "Blue Hawaii," "Aloha No Honolulu," and "Tanga
Tiki" (the latter of which has a melody reminiscent of Canned Heat's
"Going Up the Country"), and the early '60s folk music revival
provides "The Wreck of the 'John B'." The album closes with a straight-
ahead rendition of Bobby Timmons' jazz classic "Moanin'."
Both albums are mastered in stereo, with only a minor glitch to be
heard at 1:11 of the "My Fair Lady" medley of On Broadway. Of the two,
Colorful Percussions is the more satisfying spin, with broader source
material, more inventive arrangements, and the band playing at the top
of their game. [(c)2008 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com] |
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