Last Updated June 25th, 2008 and tagged in WAITIKI General Info, archives, press releases

WAITIKI performs the rarely heard music of Esquivel! at Mexico’s premiere arts festival in April 2006!

Local preview show on March 24, 2006

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BOSTON, MA - Chiya-chih-chih, chiya-chih-chih. . . Welcome to the world of WAITIKI, one of the planet’s only exotica bands. Exotica, also called tiki, is a style of music loosely defined as a tropical mixture of jazz, Latin, and contemporary Asian sounds. WAITIKI serves it up with a twist-keep an eye out for flying bananas, kung-fu moves, the mandatory watermelon sacrifice, and an infectious overall zaniness. (Ask them about the postal panda and serial commas.)

WAITIKI performs regularly as a four-person ensemble, but when the coconut calls they expand into the 22-piece WAITIKI “Orchestrotica” and perform the band’s own transcriptions of the late-great Juan Garcia Esquivel’s “space-age bachelor pad” music. The “Orchestrotica” is composed of some of Boston’s best rock, jazz, and classical musicians, from top freelancers to Berklee faculty. The roster includes Brother Cleve and Mikey Connors (Combustible Edison), Shaun Wolf Wortis (Gato Malo/Slide), and Ken Field (Birdsongs of the Mesozoic/Revolutionary Snake Ensemble) and many others.

Esquivel’s musical antics, wild instrumentations, and pervasive sense of fun caught the ear of the band’s percussionist, Brian “Mr. Ho” O’Neill, in 2004, when he happened upon an Esquivel recording at a used-CD store. Learning that the original scores had been lost and couldn’t be rented, Mr. Ho set out to painstakingly transcribe the works by ear.

WAITIKI and their “Orchestrotica” debuted Esquivel’s music in a live setting in March 2005 to a sold-out crowd and critical acclaim. The band was later honored with an invitation to perform at the Festival de México 2006, a month-long cultural celebration in Mexico City featuring internationally known groups such as Chick Corea/Touchstone and the National Symphonic Orchestra of Mexico. On April 1st, WAITIKI will headline the Homage to Esquivel portion of the festival and perform Esquivel’s big-band music live for the first time in Mexico. The show will be simulcasted on live Mexican radio (Horizonte 108 FM) and filmed for future appearance on Mexican national TV (Canal Once). Mr. Ho will contribute to panel discussions, TV, and radio interviews during his stay to talk about the transcriptions and project prior to the performance.

If you’re lacking a plane ticket to Mexico City, no worries-you can catch WAITIKI and their “Orchestrotica” Friday, March 24th, at the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center in Boston’s South End. Also performing are Brother Cleve (spinning exotica) and Through the Keyhole Burlesque. Don’t miss the tiki-tainment experience of a lifetime. And watch out for that panda.

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