Mondo Exotica
Oriental Cha-Cha-Cha, the opening track of this fascinating collection, is a case in point. A perfect example of cultural and geographical estrangement. As the introductory voice of Vance Graham explains this is “a record played on Arabian instruments, a cha cha cha from Cuba, played by a Dutch Musician for an American tourist.” Exotica, the musical mode that took the United States and somehow Europe by storm in the 1950s and early 1960s, essentially aimed at this; it permitted millions of listeners to remain seated in the comfort of their own living rooms while simultaneously imagining a world so far away and yet so close.

At the height of the Cold War and the sexual repression of the 1950s, Americans countered fears of annihilation and Soviet domination with sensual dreams of “a place in the sun”, with fantasies of tropical warmth that were both distant and yet entirely familiar. Exotica came to the rescue. Adult, white, middle-class America of the 1950s began to give in to the sonorous charms of the kazoo, the ukulele, the gong, and many other percussive instruments. To animate their evenings, they turned to Exotica icons such as Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Yma Sumac, Arthur Lyman, Korla Pandit, or Robert Drasnin. These artists marked out the stylistic traits of an adult world in sharp contrast with rock ‘n’ roll, a dense, resonant space of “postcard-songs” for the most part instrumental.

When I interviewed for my book Mondo Exotica, Martin Denny, a true icon of Exotica music whose rendition of Quiet Village became a milestone of this genre, he confirmed: “My music has always been fiction, just like a book. Everything comes from my imagination, a mix of my ideas and those of the musicians that played with me. It wasn’t about authenticity, but Illusion”. Western Europe followed this path not only with an identical Cold War political mood but with an even more em otionally estranged approach. Consider that although America knew very well what colonialism was about, having engaged in adventures in Cuba, the Philippines, and Hawaii, and in encounters with Native Americans and Mexicans, at the same time it did not possess African/Asian colonies, and so - unlike various European countries - Americans could dissociate themselves somewhat from films, sounds and images that reconfirmed Europe’s rather violent colonial models.

On the contrary, Europeans knew far too well the true face of possessions in Asia and Africa, that’s why Exotica worked for them at a deeper level offering a conscious or unconscious possibility to engage in a tremendous collective estrangement. Suddenly the sounds of an imagined global colony came to life also in the “Cold War records” of many Western European artists. Their compositions - like those of their American colleagues - echoed in their titles exotic-sounding proper names.

In this connection this collection of Dutch Exotica is again an emblematic example with tracks conjuring up a plethora of stops on an attenuated virtual voyage (Malaya, Africa, Hawaii, Orinoco, Zambesi etc.). Because if Exotica was a sound it was also an idea and a place. This said, come on, get on board and bring your Chihuahuas with you. From the organ and percussion fuelled rendition of Lecuona’s Jungle Drums to the Louis Armstrong-influenced vocal frenzy of Milly Scott’s Africa, from the exhilarating calypso of Jamaica Johnny’s Pineapple Princess to the luscious orchestrations of Malando’s Orinoco, this is a round-the-world cruise you’ll never forget. And you won’t believe how it sounds!

Francesco Adinolfi
author of Mondo Exotica - Sounds, Visions, Obsessions of the Cocktail Generation (Duke University Press)

Dutch Exotica
Arranging these musical pearls to a perfect exotic necklace was a most rewarding job. ‘Dutch Exotica’ seems like a contradiction in terms, and so you might not expect to find jewels like Wout Steenhuis’ breathtaking arrangement of Bali Hai, an exotica-classic of Richard Rogers: performed many times but seldom so enchanting and so excellently played. And how about Laguestra, the artist name of orchestra leader Willy Langestraat, who’s musical fantasy enabled him to create this extraordinary musical postcard from the Orient.

Another strange but wonderful crossover is Bali Bali Boogie which combines close-harmony singing with a vibraphone that sounds like a Gamelan orchestra, evoking the atmosphere of the Dutch East Indies, one of the Dutch colonies where The Amboina Serenaders had their roots. The colonies Suriname and the Dutch Antilles also brought great musicians to the Netherlands. The Surinamer Max Woiski, one of the first musicians to introduce Latin American music into the Amsterdam nightlife, made hit-records by adapting calypso and mambo to the general taste in Holland. His son Max Woiski jr. was also a talented musician who performed in his club Tropicana, the centre of Latin American music in Amsterdam, as you can hear in his atmospheric version of the well-known standard Baiao.

A case in itself is the Dutch Hawaiian rage, which started before WW II, but found its final form in the late forties. Because of the German cultural oppression of jazz and English lyrics, the more harmless Hawaiian music became de-Americanized by adding Dutch vocals, which made one of the leading groups The Kilima Hawaiians extremely popular. The Kilima’s are present with an instumental from the early sixties which demonstrates the skills of their leading lapsteel-player Rudi Wairata in mimicking bird sounds.

Talking about bird sounds: Jan Tromps version of Beautiful Isle Of Somewhere is perhaps the most typical track for Dutch Exotica as a genre. Maybe not whistled as sophisticatedly as his American counterpart Muzzy Marcellino, but deeply emotional and highly convincing. The track becomes even more tragic in the retrospective of Pieter Verhoeffs documentary (1973), showing Jan living a modest life as a factory worker while his wife has forbidden him to whistle anymore…

Although every track has its peculiar story we would like to share with you, one final word about the last track: the Ramblers. We knew them as the band our parents liked and maybe that is why we never paid that much attention. But what fine musicians they were and how good they were in grasping that typical Exotica atmosphere we love! That’s why it’s so valuable to discover and rediscover music. Hope you feel the same.

Aloha and thanks to Marco Kalnenek (weirdomusic), Frits Jonker, Eddy de Clercq, Machgiel Bakker and Oscar Smit for their contribution to this unique compilation.

Cheers,
Bert and Arjo
Black Market Audio