Information AboutLes Baxter |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LES BAXTER | |
| 1922 births | |
| baxter, les | |
| 1996 deaths | |
| exotica | |
| baxter | |
| american film score composers | |
| hollywood walk of fame | |
| american music arrangers | |
|
Les Baxter ( March 14 , 1922 – January 15 , 1996 ) was an American musician and composer. Baxter studied Piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College . Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé 's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love". Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950 and was responsible for the early and Clare Fischer . Baxter also wrote the "Whistle" theme from the TV show '' Lassie ''. Baxter had obvious skill in writing Latin music for strings, but he did not restrict his activities to recording. As he once told ''Soundtrack!'' magazine, "I never turn anything down". In the 1960s, he formed the Balladeers, a besuited and conservative folk group that at one time featured a slim and youthful David Crosby . He operated in Radio as musical director of '' Halls Of Ivy '' and the Bob Hope and Abbott And Costello shows; he also worked on movie soundtracks and later composed and conducted scores for Roger Corman 's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror stories and teenage musicals, including '' The Pit And The Pendulum '', '' Comedy Of Terrors '', '' Muscle Beach Party '', '' The Dunwich Horror '' and ''Frogs''. When soundtrack work reduced in the 1980s, he Scored Music for theme parks and SeaWorld s. In the 1990s, Baxter was widely celebrated, alongside Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman Group, as one of the progenitors of what had become known as the " Exotica " movement. In his 1996 appreciation for '' Wired '' magazine, writer David Toop remembered Baxter thus: :Baxter offered package tours in sound, selling tickets to sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboo emotions before lunch, view a Pagan ceremony, go wild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home Hi-fi comforts in the white Suburbs . Les Baxter has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6314 Hollywood Blvd. DISCOGRAPHY
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|