Ìxtahuele - Eden Ahbez’s Dharmaland

The Guardian 0

(Subliminal Sounds)
The Swedish band interpret newly discovered sheet music from the Nature Boy composer with hip jazz, Disney-ish ditties and Afro-Cuban ballads

If you’ve heard of Eden Ahbez (1908-95), it will be as the composer of the multimillion-selling jazz standard Nature Boy, written for Nat King Cole in 1948 and since covered by everyone from John Coltrane to Lady Gaga. But that was only part of an extraordinary story. Born in Brooklyn, one of 15 children, he was adopted at the age of nine and brought up in rural Kansas before moving to California. He slept under the stars – claiming to live under an L on the Hollywood sign for years – grew his hair and beard to Christ length, embraced vegetarianism, played the piano in a health food shop, followed a Hindu spiritual guru and lived the hippy lifestyle at least two decades before the word “hippy” was coined. Nature Boy’s success made him something of a celebrity, although his only solo LP, 1960’s Eden’s Island, was a flop, and the death of his wife three years later put a stop to his burgeoning musical career.