Hawaii-born Arthur Lyman joined with Martin Denny to invent "exotica"
on the latter's 1957 debut album. Exotica combined the melodic sounds
of the islands with unusual percussion (notably the scratching sound
of the guiro), pop changes, and human-voiced bird calls to create a
soundtrack to the late '50s fascination with all things tiki. As a
vibraphonist, Lyman's jazz background added an element of cool to
Denny's classical training. Splitting after their debut release, Lyman
created a new quartet and recorded dozens of exotica-inflected albums
for the Hi-Fi, Life and Crescendo labels. Collectors' Choice latest
series of reissues gathers eighteen of Lyman's releases from Hi-Fi and
Life, fits them two per CD, includes full-panel reproductions of both
album covers, adds a full-panel back cover and new liner notes from
Scram's Kim Cooper and David Smay.

This series begins with Lyman's fourth release, 1959's Bwana A,
opening with a percussive tropical forest of drums, gongs, bird calls
and chants laced by trilling flute. This evocative instrumental
creativity is a primary thread running throughout exotica, whether
it's horns mimicking passing ships, rice flowing on a drumhead to
sound frothy waves, or the insect scratch of the gourd-based guiro.
Asian influences here include the Japanese-flavored "Otome San," and
the bamboo-flute introduction to "Canton Rose." Lyman gives Schubert's
"Serenade" a Latin flavor, with piano underwritten by hand- and stick-
played drums, and vibraphone that drifts from a soft, soothing breeze
to multi-mallet strikes that double the piano's chords. The Latin
influences continue in a gentle rendering of "La Paloma," and the
dervish-like swirl of "Malaguena." Lyman turns the tables on "Vera
Cruz," slowing to a jungle crawl and lining it with bird calls. The
understated, flowing style of the islands returns in "Pua Carnation,"
and the album closes with an arrangement of The Bridge Over the River
Kwai's "Colonel Bogey's March" that steps up from woozy-bluesy to
sharp and corporal.

Lyman's sixth album, 1959's Bahia, opens with the requisite jungle
sounds and a bass-and-piano riff that inverts and echoes Martin
Denny's playing on "Quiet Village." It's an inventive surprise, given
that the title track was written by the Brazilian composer Ary
Barroso. The Latin flavor is more pronounced in the rhythms of
"Caribbean Nights" and "Return to Me," the latter winningly combining
bossa nova with the Italian charm of Dean Martin's original hit, and
even Les Baxter's frantic "Busy Port" has a Latin edge to its
percussion. Lyman steps up to several Baxter tunes here, something
he'd mostly avoided on earlier albums. "Jungle Jalopy" is spare, with
a rhythmic piano riff driving you deeper into a jungle of blue piano
and vibraphone spirals, and "Quiet Village" is rendered substantially
more serene than Denny's signature original, with vibes and flute
taking the lead and the piano chords in the bridge laid on with
restraint. "Legend of the Rain" opens with a thunderclap that gives
way to light sprinkles from Lyman's vibes, and eventually to a low,
jazzy melody annotated by the relaxing sound of slack key guitar.

Of the two LPs, Bahia is the superior, with songs more inventively
picked and arranged, and a wider range of tempos and instrumentation,
including steel, slack key and ukulele. The percussion on Bahia,
whether providing the rhythm for Lyman's vibes, or taking the lead
with bells, chimes, drums and maracas, is especially invigorating.
Bwana A is presented here in mono, apparently remastered from vinyl.
Pops and clicks can be heard on both "Moon Over a Ruined Castle" and
"Otome San." The latter also seems to overmodulate in spots. Bahia is
in stereo, and shows none of the audio defects of Bwana A. [(c)2008
redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]