Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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ARTHUR LYMAN

“Yellow Bird”

Hi Fi550

(Norman Luboff, Marilyn Keith Bergman,

Alan Bergman)

No. 4   July 24, 1961

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Art Lyman (vibraphone, piano, guitar, drums) was born in 1934, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. After his

father lost his eyesight in an accident the family moved to the island of Oahu and settled in Makiki, a section

of Honolulu.   Following years of messing around with marimba’s and whatever instruments he could get

his hands on, Lyman joined a downtown juice bar jazz band.   In the early ’50s he was a member of what

would become his primary competitor, the Martin Denny Trio.   Denny and his boys and their bag of

percussive toys and jungle calls preceeded Art in the creation of what became labeled “exotic mood music.”

[Truth be: Les Baxter preceeded both in this musical form.]   Denny would also preceed his protege into the

Stateside charts.   In 1959, Martin’s “Quiet Village” exploded. Suddenly their was what seemed a bottomless

pit of interest in the romantic and rhythmic sounds of the mythical rain forests.

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By this time, Art had his stage set.   He and his sound senders, Harold Chang (boobams, cocktaiI drums,

ankle spurs, ass’s jaw, bongo, conga, samba, xylophone), John Kramer (bass, bamboo flute, ukelele), Allen

Soares (piano, celeste) and near 50 different noise makers were ready to roll.   They were to h0lding down a

residency gig in the Shell Bar at Henry J. Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village Hotel when Lewis Amiel at Hi Fi

Records approached them about recording some of their titillating tunes.   “Taboo” the title of both their

debut album (#6) and single (#55) clicked.·  While “Yellow Bird” would be Lyman’s lone excursion into the

wilds of top 40 land, Art and his sound explorers would continue to perform and to sell albums well into the

ozone.

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