Martin Denny was born on April 10, 1911 in New York, raised in Los Angeles, California. He studies classical piano and at a young age tours South America for four and a half years with the Don Dean Orchestra. This tour begins Denny's fascination with Latin rhythms.
After serving in World War II, Denny returns to Los Angeles where he studied piano and composition under Dr. Wesley La Violette and orchestration under Arthur Lange at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. He also studies at the University of Southern California.
In January of 1954, Don the Beachcomber's (which later became Duke Kahanamoku's) brings Denny to Honolulu, Hawaii. He performs here for ten years, forming his own combo in 1955 and signing to Liberty Records. The original combo consists of Augie Colon on percussion and birdcalls, Arthur Lyman on vibes, John Kramer on string bass, and Denny on piano. Lyman soon leaves to form his own group and future Herb Alpert sideman and Baja Marimba founder Julius Wechter replaces him. Harvey Ragsdale later replaces John Kramer.
Denny describes the music his combo plays as "window dressing, a background". It is the perfect compliment to the exotic setting of Hawaii. "A lot of what I'm doing", he states in Incredibly Strange Music Volume 1 "is just window dressing familiar tunes. I can take a tune like "Flamingo" and give it a tropical feel, in my style In my arrangement of a Japanese farewell song, "Sayonara", I include a Japanese three stringed instrument, the shamisen. We distinguished each song by a different ethnic instrument, usually on top of a semi-jazz or Latin beat Even though it remained familiar, each song would take on a strange, exotic character." Denny built a collection of strange and exotic instruments from several airline friends. They would bring Denny back these instruments and he would build arrangements around them. His music is a combination of ethnic styles: South Pacific, the Orient and Latin rhythms. It is the music a lot of people believed came from the islands. A musical fantasy created by Denny.
During an engagement at the Shell Bar, Denny discovers what would become his trademark and the birth of "Exotica". The bar had a very exotic setting: a little pool of water right outside the bandstand, rocks and palm trees growing around, very quiet and relaxed. As the group played on night, Denny became aware of bullfrogs croaking. The croaking blended with the music and when the band stopped, so did the frogs. Denny thought this to be a coincidence, but when he tried the tune again later, the same thing happened. This time, his bandmates began during all sorts of tropical bird calls as a gag. The band thought it quite amusing, but as nothing more than a joke. The next day, though, someone approached Denny and asked if he would do the arrangement with the birds and frogs. While at first he thought it was ridiculous, the more Denny thought about it, the more it made sense. At rehearsal, he had the band do "Quiet Village" with each doing a birdcall spaced apart Denny did the frog part on a grooved cylinder and the whole thing became incorporated into the arrangement. It caught on like wildfire and everyone wanted to hear "Quiet Village."
Sadly, Mr. Martin Denny passed on March 3, 2005. His songs, his style and musicianship will all be missed. We will do our part in this little corner of the web to keep his memory alive.
