The Les Baxter Collection 1943-62

This is the latest in Acrobat’s series featuring the great arranger/conductor/composers of the ‘golden era’ of popular music during the 1940s and ‘50s, which so far encompassed the likes of Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Hugo Winterhalter, Ray Conniff and others. Les Baxter began his career arranging for swing orchestras in the early ‘40s, but made his name both as an arranger/conductor accompanying some the noted vocalists of the day, primarily during his time with Capitol Records, and achieved high-profile chart success in his own name with easy listening orchestral and choral chart entries, scoring No. 1 hits with “Unchained Melody” and “The Poor People Of Paris”, and a No. 2 with “April In Portugal”, plus around a dozen others. With the dawn of the LP era in the ‘50s he became famous for pioneering the recording of the style of easy listening orchestral music known as exotica. This great value 107-track 4CD set, which, like our other arranger/conductor collections, has been researched, compiled and annotated by former national newspaper showbiz journalist and photographer Geoff Wilding, traces his career during these two key decades, with examples of his work in all these sectors during that time. It features recordings by some of the noted artists with whom he worked, including Nat King Cole, Margaret Whiting, Freddie Slack, Bing Crosby, Al Martino, Yma Sumac, Jimmy Wakely, Ella Mae Morse and others. It’s a fascinating profile of Baxter’s multi-faceted talents and career.