IN WAIKIKI, where I live whenever I get the chance, a bistro known as the Daggar Bar and its accompanying Bora Bora Lounge has for sometime been the mecca of people who enjoy a new type of music. I'm one of the gang that gathers there to hear the fresh, clean tropical sounds of Martin Denny and his group."

STAR-BULLETIN / 2003 Martin Denny

So wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener on the liner notes for Denny's 1959 album, "Hypnotique."

Michener counted himself among the millions tantalized by the unusual genre, dubbed "exotica," that Denny created at a time when the world was expansive, yet to be compressed by jet travel and instant communication.

The music -- haunting and rhythmic with touches of Asian, Pacific and Latin tones and trademark "jungle noises" of croaking frogs and bird calls -- conjured up balmy nights in far-off locales, transporting a listener to places unfamiliar and strange.

For Michener, Denny's music sparked memories "of places I've been, and sounds I've loved," but that also "forced the listener to create his own world of pictures."

Though his popularity was eclipsed in the 1960s by rock 'n' roll, a new generation discovered exotica in the 1990s. Today, thousands of Web sites acclaim Denny's work, some offering downloads, others tendering guides, catalogs, collections of album covers, even paraphernalia to produce a proper tropical atmosphere in which to enjoy his music.

Denny, who died Wednesday at his Hawaii Kai home at 93, was described as a gentleman generous with time and counsel. He counted many as friends, including Michener, who says in the "Hypnotique" notes that he wasn't being "paid a nickel" to write this "blurb," but that he was doing so because he liked Denny's sounds.

"It's music to feel," he said.