Gene Rains

Vibraphonist Gene Rains was the leader of the Gene Rains Group, a Hawaiian jazz quartet that specialized in the post-World War II style known as exotica, which combined jazz, Oceania, light Latin rhythms, and other chilled-out musical island flotsam in a sort of fantasy soundscape of the tropics. The group's recording career was brief, only lasting from the early to mid-'60s, during which four albums were released, three with Decca Records: 1960's Lotus Land, 1961's Far Across the Sea, and 1962's Rains in the Tropics, and one with Vocalion Records, The Call of the Tropics. A 19-track compilation, Far Away Lands: The Exotic Music of Gene Rains, drawn from the three Decca albums, was issued by Real Gone Music in 2014. ~ Steve Leggett