Kenny de nunez biography of martin

The eldest of the two Timmons boys, Victor DiMattia's performance of kid brother Timmy was not his first time in front of the camera. Beginning his career as a voice actor in , DiMattia had television and film experience before coming to The Sandlot, most notably the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the film Sleeping with the Enemy. After the success of The Sandlot, DiMattia went on to voice a character in the Adventure in Odyssey projects before taking a hiatus in Returning to the industry in , DiMattia has focused his attention to directorial work, including the short film Last Days in Iraq.

Timmy Timmons ' shadow and "broken record" repeater was his little brother, Tommy, played by Shane Obedzinski.

Kenny de nunez biography of martin

Starting his career in as Billy in the film My Girl, Obedzinski appeared in four films from , including The Sandlot. He has not been in a feature film since. Known as the mom who tried everything to get her son and new husband to bond, Karen Allen's portrayal of Mrs. Smalls was a wholesome counterpart to the boys' antics. Allen brought a wealth of acting experience with her to The Sandlot.

Beginning her career in , she had starred in films including Animal House and Raiders of the Lost Ark. After playing Mrs. Smalls, Allen went on to portray roles in films including 's Malcolm X and went on to reprise her Raiders role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Most recently, Allen has turned to acting on stage as well as directing, with her short film A Tree.

A Rock. A Cloud winning best original short at the Manchester Film Festival. Starting his career as a comedian in the s , he went on to portray roles in films including The Matchmaker and The Thomas Crown Affair. Co-creating and starring in the television show Rescue Me, which ran from , Leary earned three Emmy nominations. He continued his career by voicing beloved characters in films such as Ice Age and A Bug's Life, and continued utilizing his voice skills as he announced the World Series baseball game.

I played solo piano for about 6 or 7 months. When Don the Beachcomber's asked Denny to assemble a band, he put together a trio with Arthur Lyman, a vibraphonist who was working as a desk clerk, and John Kramer, a bassist who worked for the Territory of Hawaii as an accountant. The group started playing George Shearing tunes, since Shearing also used vibraphone and piano.

The group was signed to Liberty Records in , the same year they were founded. Near the end of this contract, aluminum magnate Henry J. Kaiser was preparing to open the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Oahu. Around the same time, Denny asked the management of Don the Beachcomber's for a raise and was refused. The trio continued to play jazz, but not for long.

A young Puerto Rican named Augie Colon asked Denny if he could "sit in"--play as an invited guest--on bongos with them. With the addition of Colon, Denny began to arrange tunes and experiment with percussion, fusing musical sounds from the South Pacific, Asia, and South America. Colon did the bird calls heard on "Quiet Village," a song written by Les Baxter but popularized by the group.

About this same time the Martin Denny Group came to popular attention with its first long-playing record, Exotica released in Although the tiki craze was relatively short, Denny's popularity continued, keeping him touring and recording almost constantly. The group made its first appearance on the mainland at a party for the Pebble Beach Crosby Open golf tournament.

Ironically, Denny and Kaiser were at contractual odds at this point. When Denny chose not to return to the Shell Bar, Lyman left the group to form his own combo, and Julius Wechter, who would eventually enjoy a reputation as a West Coast session musician, was added to the group. Other members came and went, including Harvey Ragsdale bass and Harold Chang percussion , but Denny remained constant, and the group bearing his name continued to tour and record.

Beginning with Spanish Village, the Liberty label started recording "Martin Denny" music without Denny, and often without his approval, "ghosting" recordings while he was touring. I never divulged that, nor did the company," he told Countryman. What they did was use my name, and they used an approach that approximated my sound. But I can live with that fact that all of my earlier albums reflect my integrity and the true Martin Denny sound.

That sound, according to Shuhei Hosokawa in Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-War Popular Music , includes "piano, the vibraphone or marimba , the upright bass, and percussion. Occasionally, instruments such as strings, drums, chorus, sitar and Moog synthesizer are added More important Denny directed all the recording sessions for Exotic Moog -- among the most collectable of his recordings--but did not play the electronic keyboard instrument.

The project began after the popular success of Wendy Carlos's Switched-on Bach. It was also the last recording Denny would do for Liberty as popular attention shifted away from this form of music. Unfortunately, this meant that "[o]nly tourists visiting Honolulu had a chance to attend Denny's live performances," Hosokawa wrote, "and his name was soon forgotten by the mainstream music industry.

Ultimately, more than four million copies of Denny's 39 albums have been sold, with listeners attracted, more than likely, to the idea of paradise. According to Denny, as quoted by Hosokawa, his music was "a combination of the South Pacific and the Orient He performed in small clubs, honing his musical talent and improvisation skills.

In January , Martin signed a two-week contract at a popular club in Honolulu. In , he received an offer to work at the renowned "Shell Bar" in Hawaii. It was during this time that Martin made one of his greatest musical discoveries. While walking before a performance, he realized that sounds of nature such as frog croaking, insect buzzing, wind rustling through branches, and the voices of exotic birds could be harmoniously incorporated into his compositions.

This is where his collection of exotic musical instruments became valuable in creating the "exotic sound" of Martin Denny. With the introduction of his unique sound, Martin Denny captivated audiences, and his performances were met with applause. Inspired by this success, he ended his contract with the "Shell Bar" and recorded his album "Exotica" in December , which was released in However, the album did not achieve the expected success until it was re-recorded in It was then that Martin found his audience, and his composition "Quiet Village" became a hit, reaching the top of American charts.

Martin Denny's music became incredibly popular, attracting an intellectual, sophisticated, and bohemian audience.