Bwana A/Bahia

Arthur Lyman | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 8, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collector's Choice
• ASIN: B00133FOBI
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,421 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Bwana A

2. South Pacific

3. Moonlight Moon over a Ruined Castle

4. Waikiki Serenade

5. La Paloma

6. Otome San

7. Canton Rose

8. Blue Sands

9. Malaguena

10. Vera Cruz

11. Pua Carnation

12. Colonel Bogey s March

13. Bahia

14. Jungle Jalopy

15. Legend of the Rain

16. Bamboo

17. Return to Me

18. Caribbean Nights

19. Quiet Village

20. Tropical

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early exotica, heavy on the percussion and Latin rhythms, May 15, 2008

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bwana A/Bahia (Audio CD)

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. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I like it, August 16, 2008

By 

Ing Robert Kaiplinger (Wien) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bwana A/Bahia (Audio CD)

As someone who likes the music of Arthur Lyman especially his warm, romantic and tender melodies I am highly delighted about the release of this set of 9 CDs as a reissue of part of his recordings. The reissue appears in good quality close to the original issues of vinyls in the late 50's and 60's.

Unforunately there are a few remarks:

Examples:

1. at least on Lyman '66 "The Boy From Laupahoehoe": a rhythm error

exists at 1:33 where some portion of the recording is missing. This

could have been corrected resp. compensated easily. I have tried it

successfully.

2. "Colorful Percussions": Dropout on left channel between 2:41,900 and

2:42,700. That dropout appears on the original vinyl too. Even that (I

have also tried to correct successfully) could have been done during

mastering.

3. There are a few tracks in mono, but why the complete 12 tracks

of "Bwana á" are in mono cannot be understood.

5.0 out of 5 stars My long search is over, November 12, 2009

By 

alyce sprinkle (Poplar Bluff, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bwana A/Bahia (Audio CD)

Many years ago my grandson, who was 2 at the time; started a fire in my apartment. My entire record collection was destroyed. I had been looking for a copy of Arthur Lymans Bahia ever since. To find it on a cd was great. This music is so beautiful and soothing. I was even more thrilled with Bwana A being on the same CD. I've never heard that one, and just love the sounds.