Les Baxter

Leslie Thompson Baxter (1922-1996), or simply Les Baxter, was an American musician, known for having arranged some of Nat King Cole's hits (specifically his "Mona Lisa" or "Too young") in his early days; and then for having dedicated himself almost entirely to film music, having composed the soundtracks for a good handful of them (more than 30), and for having also composed some hits that sounded in the US in the 50s of the 20th century ( "Unchained Melody" and "The Poor People of Paris").

But it seems that what Les really enjoyed was that sound he created, called "exotica"; an amalgam of jungle memories, unknown and very bizarre, brought together and assembled through the instruments of a conventional orchestra. In short, it is a subgenre of "easy listening" but with its own accent: songs like "Quiet Village", "Jungalero", or "Taboo" take us back to a kind of very exquisite tropical environment where restlessness and tranquility follow one another without that the listener can stop at every moment from appreciating the good work of this musician.

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