As you all know, I take alot of time giving you the daily juice, going through various sites. I was surprised to see this on Les Baxter, via, Wikipedia. According to Milt Bernhart, Nelson Riddle was a ghost writer for Baxter when Baxter was working for Nat King Cole. Though this doesnt make any sense, because while Baxter was working (and got credited) as a conductor for Nat King Cole, he never was officially credited as a composer or arranger. Bernhart states that Riddle told him that Baxter did not write the material on his exotica albums. Bernhart states that, while working for Baxter on recording a score for a Roger Corman film, it was apparent that Baxter could not conduct competently and couldnt read the scores. According to Bernhart, Someone else had written [the music].Nelson Riddle held a grudge against Baxter for taking credit for Riddles arrangements on two Nat King Cole hit recordings. According to André Previn, when collaborating once with Baxter, in the time Previn and Riddle had finished their parts, Baxter had written just one bar for woodwinds and included a note for the oboe that does not exist on the instrument. Gene Lees states that the exotica albums were written by Albert Harris and the material recorded with Yma Sumac was written by Pete Rugolo. According to Rugolo, he was paid $50 per arrangement to ghost for Les Baxter and that he did a whole album with Yma Sumac. Which doesnt make much sense either, because arrangements and most compositions for the album (Voice of the Xtabay) were officially credited to Moises Vivanco on the original release. Les Baxter was just credited as conductor, only in 1991 the German film documentary Yma Sumac - Hollywoods Inkaprinzessin claimed that most of the album was in fact ghostwritten by Les Baxter for Moises Vivanco. In a 1981 interview with Soundtrack magazine, Baxter said that these sorts of statements were the results of a smear campaign by a disgruntled orchestrator. According to Baxter, this resulted in Baxter being denied the chance to score for a major motion picture. The job went instead to Baxters friend Bronisław Kaper. Baxter said that he would give his compositions to orchestrators to orchestrate to deal with a hectic schedule. Baxters frequent conductor and orchestrator Hall Daniels also said the criticisms were the result of sour grapes who held a grudge against Baxter for one reason or another. Skip Heller spent time working for and studying under Baxter where he witnessed various score sheets of original Baxter compositions, including Yma Sumacs Xtabay and Tumpa. According to Heller, they were all in Baxters own handwriting. Furthermore, the Les Baxter papers, which are housed at the University of Arizona, show a significant number of arrangements in his own hand.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 01:29:16 +0000
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