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| 09/24/2004: "Nature Boy"
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mthood3 (Picture)
Several years ago, I was exhibiting down in LA, and Bob Keane, the president of Del-Fi Records, happened by. He looked over my instruments and excitedly told me that he’d made a record with Eden Ahbez years ago! You may not have heard of Eden Ahbez, who wrote the biggest hit song of 1948, as sung by Nat King Cole: Nature Boy. Ahbez essentially lived on the royalties from that song for the rest of his life; he was killed in the mid-90s by a car: what a fate for a Nature Boy!
Ahbez was a sort of proto-hippie; long-haired, bearded, often seen wearing flowing white robes. He lived mostly outdoors, was a strict vegetarian, and freely spouted poetry and mystical philosophy. As Bob Keane told me that day in LA, Ahbez also made and played bamboo flutes—I hadn’t known that. Apparently these flutes were featured on the Del-Fi record, which had just been re-released on CD. Its title is "Eden’s Island." (See link in the previous paragraph.)
After returning home, I ordered a copy. Wow! This music is hard to describe, but the genre is often described as “exotica.” This album has lots of bongo-y percussion, a chorus, vibraphone, Eden’s spaced-out poetry and singing, bamboo-flute playing, and much more! The whole production has a strikingly retro early- Sixties feel. Incidentally, the name most associated with the Exotica style is Martin Denny, and much of Eden’s album is reminiscent of Denny’s sound.
The album's opening track prominently features a bamboo flute, with a rather wheezy tone-- and questionable intonation! However, it’s effective in its own way, and evokes a certain primitivism that’s part of the album’s appeal. I’ve often described this CD enthusiastically to friends, but often their reaction upon hearing it—you only have to listen to the first track for a few seconds to get the general idea—is “Whaaaa?—you’ve got to be kidding!” Obviously, it’s not for everyone, but many others do appreciate the offbeat wackiness of this stuff! You’ve just gotta suspend your disbelief and listen in a detached way to appreciate it—yeah, baby! The Beatnik vibe is strong here, too.
In the pictures I’ve seen, Eden Ahbez’s bamboo flutes appear to be very crude; they’re on the small side, and quite fat for their length. This isn’t surprising; anyone who lived under such marginal conditions as Ahbez would have been challenged as far as tools and materials are concerned. After all, it’s taken me the past three weeks to reorganize all of my stuff over at the studio! Maybe a sabbatical is in order: a few weeks on a bamboo-rich tropical island, with nothing but a loincloth, pocketknife, and a metal poker (for burning holes in the bamboo—heated by hot coals; it’s an old traditional method) would be therapeutic… Rooooomy’s Island….
Oh, about that opening picture: took it yesterday at Trillium Lake near Mount Hood, which is only about fifty road miles from home. It's been wet around here the past couple of weeks, but yesterday was sunny and bright. I couldn't stand heading to the studio, and instead went up to the mountain for some mushroom hunting! Conditions for fungus are as good as I've ever seen at this time of year, and the refrigerator is now brimming about thirty pounds of beautiful chanterelles, a highly sought-after and delicious wild mushroom. Playing nature boy really paid off, and it's time to fry up some of those yummy shrooms for lunch now. See ya...
RB
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