Wasn't in the mood for rum last night so I went ahead and drank a couple martinis in the Mermaid Lounge. I know gin isn't the most tropical sounding libation but I think the drink at least photographed well with the tiki mugs and mermaids.
I listened to Arthur Lyman while sipping away. After doing a google search on him I learned a number of facts:
1) He was born in the then U.S. territory of Hawaii on the island of Oahu in 1932.
2) He was born to a Hawaiian mother and a father of mixed Hawaiian, European, and Chinese descent.
3) His father was very strict and locked him in a closet every day after school with the task of playing along to Benny Goodman 78 rpm records to learn good music and become a better musician.
4) He was known as the king of lounge music.
5) In the 1950s and 1960s his group was instrumental in mainstreaming the pseudo-Polynesian style of music that would later come to be known as exotica.
6) He played the vibes and marimba.
I've had a few of his recordings that I've listened to frequently over the past 10 years and am particularly fond of The Very Best of Arthur Lyman - The Sensual Sounds of Exotica. One of my most favorite tracks is Yellow Bird which was one of the selections of a music series I taught back in the day at a public school. I remember the kids liking it quite a bit as well. When I discovered exotica music and specifically Arthur Lyman, Yellow Bird felt like a familiar friend in a style of music I was unfamiliar with. Yellow Bird was actually Lyman's highest charting single. The song originally came from Haiti and it reached the #4 position on the Billboard music charts in July of 1961.
I listened to Arthur Lyman while sipping away. After doing a google search on him I learned a number of facts:
1) He was born in the then U.S. territory of Hawaii on the island of Oahu in 1932.
2) He was born to a Hawaiian mother and a father of mixed Hawaiian, European, and Chinese descent.
3) His father was very strict and locked him in a closet every day after school with the task of playing along to Benny Goodman 78 rpm records to learn good music and become a better musician.
4) He was known as the king of lounge music.
5) In the 1950s and 1960s his group was instrumental in mainstreaming the pseudo-Polynesian style of music that would later come to be known as exotica.
6) He played the vibes and marimba.
I've had a few of his recordings that I've listened to frequently over the past 10 years and am particularly fond of The Very Best of Arthur Lyman - The Sensual Sounds of Exotica. One of my most favorite tracks is Yellow Bird which was one of the selections of a music series I taught back in the day at a public school. I remember the kids liking it quite a bit as well. When I discovered exotica music and specifically Arthur Lyman, Yellow Bird felt like a familiar friend in a style of music I was unfamiliar with. Yellow Bird was actually Lyman's highest charting single. The song originally came from Haiti and it reached the #4 position on the Billboard music charts in July of 1961.
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