Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 - March 2, 2005) was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and original songs that celebrated Tiki culture. His combo spawned two highly-successful offshoots: Julius Wechter (of Baja Marimba Band fame) and exotica vibist Arthur Lyman.

Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 - March 2, 2005) was an American musician. He was universally known as the founder and reigning king of exotica music, a type of big band music with Latin rhythms and overtones of Pacific Ocean culture that is largely scorned by critics but was extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Exotica music Martin Denny’s breakthrough album, Exotica, Denny described the music his combo plays as “window dressing, a background”. It is the perfect complement to the exotic