|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBAXTER, Les(b 14 March '22, Mexia TX; d 15 Jan. '96) Conductor, composer. Began as concert pianist; played tenor sax in Freddy Slack band; replaced Mel Tormé in a vocal group and convinced them that five voices would be better than four when Tormé returned from military service: they became the Mel Tones '45. Music director on radio shows including Bob Hope; arranged for singers including Nat Cole. For a Cole recording session Baxter subcontracted Nelson Riddle to arrange 'Mona Lisa': it was a huge hit '50 and both have got credit for it. Staff producer at Capitol with his own mostly instrumental hits from '51 incl. 'Because Of You', 'April In Portugal' (originally 'Coimbra'), 'Ruby', 'The High And The Mighty', 'Unchained Melody' (no. 1); 'Wake The Town And Tell the People'; 'Poor People Of Paris' was no. 1 for six weeks '56 (this was originally 'La Goulante du Pauvre Jean', 'The Ballad of Poor John', as sung by Edith Piaf; 'Jean' was wrongly transcribed by Capitol as 'Gens'). His first albums were Perfume Set To Music on RCA and Music Out Of The Moon on Capitol, both written by Harry Revel and with Dr Samuel J. Hoffman playing the theramin (who had played it in the soundtrack for Spellbound '45, composed by Miklos Rosza). Moon had a twelve-voice chorus, a cello, a French horn, rhythm section and theramin ('It was a little weird. I didn't know what popular records were. I didn't know what I was doing'). (Neil Amstrong allegedly asked for the album to be played while he was on his way to the moon '70.) Nobody knew what the public wanted in the early '50s, but Baxter's descriptive orchestral pieces were popular, often with jungle/exotic flavour: 'Coffee Bean', 'Sunshine At Kowloon'; suite Le Sacre du Sauvage incl. 'Quiet Village', his best-known composition. Yma Sumac had made albums of Peruvian folksongs which did nothing; then Baxter was music director on her most successful work. Capitol albums Tamboo! and Skins! '56-7 charted; by '62 he had made about 30 albums for Capitol, then five for Reprise; four for Crescendo (or GNP, 'Gene Norman Presents') included Brazil Now, Love Is Blue, African Blue. Also a prolific composer of film scores: about 100 mostly 'B' movies '53-82 incl. beach party epics, the best Vincent Price horror flicks, etc. But some people wondered how Baxter got away with it all. At the ‘Mona Lisa' session, trombonist Milt Bernhart told Gene Lees, Nat Cole could tell immediately that Baxter could not read a score, and from then on used Riddle. Albert Harris wrote Tamboo!, the charts for Yma Sumac were said to have been written by Pete Rugolo, and people who worked on the recording of the film soundtracks said that Baxter did not notice if somebody was playing the wrong cue. But then a lot of film composers wrote in short score (for piano) while someone else did the orchestration, and Baxter did admit at one point that he didn't know what he was doing. |