Search - Les Baxter :: Ritual of the Savage / Passions

Ground zero album for exotica along with wordless vocal mast

Mark Welsh | Mayberry, NC USA | 08/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is my hope that all of Les Baxter's exotica albums will soon have made it to CD, and this hope is becoming a bit more of a reality, thanks to the release of these two great pieces of impressionist mood music from the master himself.



Martin Denny may have had the minor Top 40 hit with 1959's "Quiet Village", but I still prefer the original, complete with lush orchestral strings and a myriad of percussion instruments, as is featured as easily the most famous and recognizable selection off of the first true exotica album, 1951's "Ritual of the Savages". Much of the album will remind anyone over 50 of the soundtracks of old movies set in tropical locales, such as "The African Queen", "Hurricane", "Drums of Tahiti", "King Solomon's Mines", or any number of Tarzan films.



The daughter of a wealthy and prominent Jewish family in Philadelphia, Beatrice Kurzman studied voice with the intent of honoring her family's wishes that she become a cantor. However, she veered off that course and into popular music, but adapted the stage name of Bas Sheva ("Bathsheba") to attempt to at least meet her family's wishes half-way. After performing in the Jewish resorts of the New York Catskill Mountain "Borscht Belt" in the early 1950's, in 1953, she recorded, in a brash, brassy and somewhat untraditional way, an album of traditional Jewish songs on Capitol Records, the long out-of-print "Soul Of A People".



Her powerful and unique voice caught the attention of fellow Capitol labelmate Baxter, who made her the voice of woman in his 1954 tone poem "The Passions". While I have always preferred Baxter's true exotica albums over this one, it still is a very interesting and unusual album. I love wordless vocals and this is something Les Baxter also uses to good effect on his mostly instrumental exotica releases. Sheva shows a true dynamic range on this album with "Lust" being an especially good cut, featuring Sheva at her most sensual, with sounds almost simulating orgasm. I would have liked to have seen the look on her parents' faces when they heard this album.



This and "Soul Of A People" are the only known recordings Bas Sheva ever made. She returned to live entertaining and died of diabetic shock while performing on a cruise ship off the coast of South Carolina in 1960. She was only 34."

Martini Mood Music!

theatrelabsurde | Coral Gables, FL USA | 01/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An excellent genre-creating album from the '50s before rock n roll came crashing. Really takes me back. Back where? How should I know? I was born in 1966! I was listening to Rubber Soul and Revolver in the womb! What I mean is this record conjures a mood as well or better than any of the exotica, ez, space-pop or swinger hep-cat sounds of the era. Martin Denny was my gateway to finding this great stuff..."

Ritual of the Savage/The Passions

Bruce Lynn | Springfield, MO United States | 09/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My mother had these on vinyl and I listened to them growing up. I was glad to find out that they were available on CD. I will confess that my hearing is not the best, but they sounded great given what I would expect the quality of the original recordings was. I was not fond of The Passions with Bas Sheva. I believe that if you like Les Baxter and classic lounge music you will be very happy with this CD."