It is about time I feature one of my favorite Exotica albums with the most easygoing amounts of jazzy traits, and I take my time, as Rain Forest is absolutely worth it. Then again, the album was recorded on two consecutive days, so whatever led to the organ-focused arrangements which make up the majority of side B, it is up to Wanderley and Rosengarden to fill most of side B all by themselves. ![]() Side A is the pinnacle of Wanderley’s exotic cuts, as side B is more stripped down, possibly due to the unavailability of the other musicians. ![]() The Samba feeling is omnipresent, one uplifting tune follows the other, and curiously enough is the variety maintained and nurtured by the various ways in which Wanderley plays the organ and the many percussion-related treats. Rain Forest is a tremendously suave and catchy album, void of any saccharine kitsch or syrupy setting. You know the saying, they don’t produce albums like this anymore. The songs themselves are not dated at all, but the focus on the organs is. Wanderley and his team of four musicians – flutist Joe Grimm, percussionist Bobby Rosengarden (of Like Bongos! fame), trombonist Urbie Green and the rarely featured guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli – achieve something very important: killing off the gloomy tone sequences of the originals and turning them into rapturous bliss. 12 songs are presented, all of them better known Brazilian or Latin compositions. Walter Wanderley outshines the already infamous skills of his colleague due to the vivid realization and the delicate textures of his equipment. Sorry, but I have to say it: forget about famous organist Dick Hyman, at least for the moment. His exotic opus Rain Forest, recorded in New Jersey over the short period of just two days in May 1966 and released in the same year on Verve Records, is an über-vivacious work full of neon-colors and several tints of green. ![]() Walter Wanderley (1932–1986) may have been a classically trained pianist, but to Exotica fans and Lounge lovers he is best known and admired for his positively weird and downright trippy organ infusions which he unleashed in many Latin albums.
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