Wacky Arrangements - s/d

not sure if this is what you're talking about, but maybe...

Walter Wanderley's Bicho do Mato (on the Nova Bossa: Red Hot on Verve comp)

Uri Caine? I've heard very little, but (brilliantly) wacky arrangements seems to fit.

some of Tipsys stuff might fit this description.

Bow down and worship Enoch Light ... check his version of "Caravan" which is nearly Ananda Shankar in funky sitarness. Or his album of Beatles covers as pastiches of classical composers ("Hey Jude" in the style of Ravel's Bolero, "Norwegian Wood" as Holst meant it to be, a baroque Michelle etc.)

Uh, Spike Jones? In a "this is meant to be wacky," not a "this became wacky with hindsight" way?

The Baja Marimba Band?

This one LP my parent own entitled Baroque n' Stones, which is Rolling Stones songs arranged as baroque numbers?

beat to the punch...

Ken Nordine - Colors ...without a doubt!

Are you looking for Zappa-like things too? Like "Cosmic Debris" ?

..Or Bonzo Dog Band?

...or isn't that what you mean..?

Mr. Bungle? Gentle Giant? Naked City? TFUL282?

(seconded, Uri Caine - but mind, all of his arrangements aren't that far 'out'; there're quite 'straight' jazz albums by him as well)

as for pianists, try Liberace - much of his wackiness is definitely too thin-coated and often merely cheesy, yet there're also moments of really fabulous weirdness

on the jazzy tip - Max Nagl's Quartet & Quintet recordings on November Music, for instance; as he plays mostly his own compositions-improvisations (it seems), the material might not sound as bizarre on first hearing as Caine's, say (who frequently reworks rather well-known classics)

and John Zorn shouldn't go entirely unmentioned in this context, i think...
and Mike Patton & Mr. Bungle...

...and Klaus Nomi -- yeh, yeh, he very mannered indeed and all that (but 'wacky' as hell too), yet whoever did those orchestrations - i remember there were different ppl involved, no names come to mind tho' - did occasionally come up with first-class bizarreness

(see, JasonD -- several votes for Patton & zorn already ('m sorry for repeating some of what matt said))

PDQ Bach to thread!

Stereolab has many moments that fall under the exotica/beach boys guise here. In my book, Les Baxter beats out Esquivel and Martin Denny for strange lounge music.

i have tons of zorn and bungle.

zappa sort of scares me in that The Might Be Giants, Ween too witty for their own good kind of way. not ever been into them and i'm assuming i wouldn't like zappa ??

another great one i've been listening to a bunch lately is Vijaya Anand, bollywood music producer who mixed fuzzed out rock, synths, strange sound effects, cool vocal choruses and great funky backings.

what's the deal w/carl stalling? i've been meaning to pick up his stuff for a while now.

An imaginary genre called 'zolo' covers much of this territory.

Carl Stalling's supposed to have influence Zorn's jump-cut stuff isn't he? The disc I heard didn't do much for me. Cartoon miniatures of some classical pieces (can't remember what).

JasonD -- V. Anand? in that case you might like to check out Bally Sagoo too (if you already haven't). How he re-envisions the N.F.A.Khan material sounds truly hilarious, often in a (very) good way; his own Bollywood-esque weirdo'puses are fine too