A recent trip to Harry’s Music Store in Kaimuki yielded the discovery of the following treasure! This performance was taped in the early 1960s, when the Arthur Lyman band was headlining at a Las Vegas showroom. The band personnel are: Lyman, John Kramer (bass), Harold Chang (drums, percussion), and Alan Soares (piano). Anyways, enjoy this clip from the show, of the band performing “Taboo”.
A performance of “Bulook Brigade” an exotica-style tone poem written by Randy Wong for middle school jazz band! Premiered by the Hawaii Youth Symphony’s week-long Pacific Music Institute 2009. Thanks to jazz director Ira Wong, clinicians Chad Kamei, Todd Yukumoto, Eric Kop, Travis Oh, Susan Tanabe, and Matt Love for helping the students groove with exotica.
I was inspired to write “Bulook Brigade” after a dream I had while house-sitting for my auntie in Aina Haina this summer. Auntie had a large bulook (a.k.a pomelo, jabong, Pake grapefruit) tree in her back yard, and we were instructed to catch the bulooks as they fell from the tree. In my dream, she warned us not to let her dogs eat the bulook, because they’d get sick from its thick rind. The bulook tree in the dream was huge, you know, about 20 feet tall and with a hundred thousand bulooks ready to fall. My wife and I ran around the tree, trying to catch the bulooks before they fell, all the while navigating around a sea of dogs trying to swallow falling bulooks. In the dream, my wife and I were wearing white jump suits, with a giant patch over the tummy that said Bulook Brigade.
In the composition, one can hear several motifs that sound like bulooks ballooning in size, bulooks falling from trees, dogs barking, and wind blowing, just to name a few.
—Randy Wong
Our first-ever classic exotica jam session was a success! It was held last Friday (July 10) at the Higher Ground Cafe in Wahiawa, HI. The band was:
We jammed on a number of exotica standards, new and old. The tunes we played were:
Video coming soon!
Lopaka Colon hosts the first installment of “Exotica Show ‘n’ Tell”, a semi-regular video podcast that we (WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL LLC) are producing. In this episode, you’ll get an exclusive look at one set of the boobams used by Lopaka’s father (Augie Colon) on the original Martin Denny recordings.
WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL is organizing its first-ever classic exotica jam!! It happens on OÊ»ahu this Friday, July 10 from 7-9PM, at Higher Ground Café: 70 Kukui Street, Suite #F, Wahiawa, same building as Hawaii Music Supply. The house group will consist of: Kit Ebersbach (piano; leader of Don Tiki), Helen Liu (violin; of The WAITIKI 7), Lopaka Colon (percussion & bird/animal calls; member of both DT and W7), Randy Wong (bass; leader of W7), and James Ganeko (percussion; leader of the acclaimed Honolulu-based surf band Tiki Taboo). If we’re lucky, the lovely Starr Kalahiki (voice; Don Tiki) and a few others may come down to jam too!
$5 cover, all ages welcome. There’s free wi-fi there and also excellent smoothies, sandwiches, coffees, and açai bowls.
If you’re a musician and you know your exotica standards (i.e. Coronation, Manila, Quiet Village, Firecrackers, Primativa, Flamingo, Left Arm, Cobra, Yellow Bird, Chant of the Moon, etc.), bring your horn and come on down. (If you’re a vibist, sorry, you have to bring your own, because we won’t have a set with us). We’ll do them in the standard keys, except for Primativa—E-flat, not C.
Many thanks to Andrew Kitakis for hosting us.
One staple of the classic Denny repertoire is his original, “Tsetse Fly.” WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL hunts down the reigning king of tsetse flies and learn the secret to how Denny recorded his tune.
This post written courtesy of Randy Wong, co-founder, bassist, and music director of The WAITIKI 7, and CEO of WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL LLC .
As a young and aspiring musician growing up in Honolulu, HI, I constantly sought out new inspiration and modes of instruction. My career as a double bassist had humble beginnings—starting by jamming with my dad as he took slack-key guitar lessons with Auntie Alice Namakelua. Although I eventually went on to study classical and jazz music in college at New England Conservatory (Boston, MA), my heart and musical intuition has never strayed far from Hawai`i.
Even as an 8 year-old, I was fascinated with Arthur Lymanʻs music
My grandfather Mun Charn Wong (known to his friends as “MC” and to me as kungkung—the Chinese phrase for Ê»grandfatherÊ») was a major influence in my development as a musician. One of my favorite sayings of his was, “You donÊ»t know where youÊ»re going unless you know where you came from.” It wasnÊ»t until I began WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL (and subsequently, The WAITIKI 7) that I really understood what he meant.
Kungkung MC often would treat my family and I to prime rib buffet dinners at Waialae Country Club, where he was a member. I remember to this day: the food was exquisite; the prime rib was so tender and succulent, the au jus was pretty unnecessary. I was pretty skinny back then, and at the time, I thought kungkungÊ»s intentions were to help me get some meat on my bones… (it certainly worked;  IÊ»m no longer as skinny now as I was then). I later learned that he wanted me to be inspired by his friend Arthur Lyman, a dear friend of his who performed whenever the Club held its prime rib buffet.
I donÊ»t remember when I first met Mr. Lyman, but by the time I was in high school and gigging as a double bassist, I knew him well enough to bring my bass down to the Club and sit in on a few tunes. I only knew a few tunes back then, but he was kind and played what I knew—”Satin Doll” was a favorite of mine at the time, and thereÊ»s something about the way he played the melody that IÊ»ll never forget (but canÊ»t easily describe).
His specialty at the Club was playing Hawaiian ballads. “Sea Breeze,” “He Aloha No Honolulu,” and “Yellow Bird” were done regularly. I didnÊ»t know much about the vibraphone back then, and had never seen anyone other than him play, and thus didnÊ»t realize how special his 4-mallet realization of those melodies was. What I do remember is the variety and subtlety of his bird calls; they really added to the music, and along with his 4-mallet stuff, I was easily transported out of the Waialae CC dining room and into a jungle all my own.
Unfortunately, I never saw Mr. Lyman perform with his exotica comrades, nor did I even know what exotica was at the time. It wasnÊ»t until college when I began learning about exotica, and shortly thereafter (while I was on the Mainland) Mr. Lyman passed away from throat cancer. I suppose this is one of those great examples of, “If only I knew then what IÊ»m doing now,” because even with the richness and authenticity of work being carried out by The WAITIKI 7, there is still much to be done. The legacies of Mr. Lyman, Augie Colon (LopakaÊ»s dad), Mr. Denny, and their colleagues leave us large shoes to fill indeed.
—Randy Wong
In continuing with our promo reels for each WAITIKI 7 musician, this next video highlights the sparkling talent of Abe Lagrimas Jr. who co-founded WAITIKI with Randy Wong in 2003. Abe mainly fills the drum chair in W7, though he has been known to play vibes when duty calls. The video below has clips of him doing both! Check it out.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fo7reKegn0[/youtube]
We had the chance to sit down with Zaccai Curtis a few weeks ago when he came to Boston on tour with Cindy Blackman’s Explorations Band. Check out the video below… it’s got some teaser audio from the upcoming CD Adventures in Paradise, as well as rare performance footage from W7’s International Debut last summer at Festival Wassermusik (Berlin, Germany).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2gwdG5fSl0[/youtube]
The Root Canal: a tiki-style scotch cocktail. Concocted by Sam Treadway of DRINK for Randy Wong of The WAITIKI 7
When WAITIKI 7 music director Randy Wong found himself with a nasty toothache last week, it seemed there was only one cure—a root canal. Following an intense two-part procedure lasting over four hours, the pain finally subsided, and just in time for Wong to meet up with fellow WAITIKI 7 bandmate and Adventures In Paradise co-producer Tim Mayer for a drink at Drink (348 Congress St., Boston).
While Mayer and Wong each consumed a Natatorium, Wong shared the toils of his root canal pain. Fortunately, Drink bartender Sam Treadway was conducting a ‘procedure’ of his own, the result of which is a delicious tiki-style scotch cocktail called The Root Canal.
Though not dentists ourselves, we would informally prescribe Treadway’s Root Canal to anyone seeking successful and painless post-endodontic recovery!
1 oz Ardberg
3/4 oz Cognac
3/4 oz Famous Grouse
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon
1/2 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit
1/2 oz honey syrup
1/2 oz grenadine
1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
Shake over crushed ice. Float Chartreuse.
