Taboo

HiFi Records issued Taboo (The Exotic Sounds of Arthur Lyman) in 1958 as R 806 / SR 806. Lyman had left Martin Denny’s Shell Bar group and formed his own combo with John Kramer (bass and winds) and Harold Chang (percussion), playing nightly at the Hawaiian Village while cutting sides after hours.

Most of the sessions happened inside Henry J. Kaiser’s aluminum geodesic dome on the hotel grounds. The hemispherical room gave a natural multi-second reverb. Engineer and label owner Richard Vaughn recorded live to a custom Ampex three-track half-inch machine, no overdubs, usually after midnight so traffic noise stayed down — you can still hear the dome settle on some takes.

Vibraphone, woodblock, bass, and percussion hang in stereo that was still new to living-room hi-fi. Collectors treat Taboo as the audiophile exotica disc because the masters barely need processing on CD reissues. It is the same island-lounge language as Denny, recorded in a room that becomes part of the arrangement.