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From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Category Archives: Latin
Discos Corona/Crown Records: A mambo, Latin jazz and exotica-ish sampler
Hi all, I put together a homemade compilation of Afro-Latin, Latin jazz and exotic-ish Latin selections on the fascinating Los Angeles budget record labels Discos Corona and Crown Records. I can be downloaded here: http://officenaps.com/discoscorona_crown_sampler.zip Note that this a ZIP … Continue reading
Black night
This is one of those weeks where three records get posted alongside each other not because they share some very specific theme or belong, musically- or culturally-speaking, in the same sub-sub-genre. (Jazz, early rock ‘n’ roll, pop, R&B and country … Continue reading
Jazz Exotique
A broader, more inclusive idea of exotica – exotica less as genre and more as creative style – is basically the central motive behind the Exotica Project, and a case I’m constantly building around here as well. What has in … Continue reading
Surf’s Latin tinge
I’ve written a number of posts that dissect rock ‘n’ roll instrumentals, that, more specifically, document my fascination with the way this strand of music treated certain motifs, phenomena, and themes, summoning them as dramatically, as physically, as visually as … Continue reading
Prestige Records and Latin jazz
There were other significant New York City-based independent record labels – Riverside, Savoy, Atlantic, Clef/Norgran/Verve – that recorded modern jazz in the post-War decades, but, Blue Note aside, few would be so closely associated with the music as Prestige Records. … Continue reading
Blue Flame: a new mix
I put together a new mix for my Dutch compadre Cortez for the fifth anniversary of his fabulous Club Cortez blog. You can find it there now. Club Cortez has been around as long as Office Naps. Cortez’s tastes in … Continue reading
Walt Bolen’s Lion Hunt
A great pleasure to hear recently from keyboardist Walt Bolen, who filled me in on the backstory behind his organ-led R&B exotica instrumental “Lion Hunt” (Pick-A-Hit 101, which I first wrote about at this ancient post), as well as some … Continue reading
The Middle East after hours, part two
In the first half of the 1960s, when this week’s selections were recorded, exotica hadn’t waned as a commercial or creative force. And the Arabic world was one peculiar, and significant, branch of the exotica tree. It was a … Continue reading
