Tell Me About Arthur Lyman - Tiki Music

P professahhummingflowah Member honolulu, hawaii & boston, ma Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 296	P professahhummingflowah Posted posted on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 3:37 PM Watching the "Quiet Village" Youtube video that Tikiyaki posted brought back several childhood memories from watching Mr. Lyman at Waialae Country Club. (Thanks, Jim, for posting that!) One of my favorite aspects of live musicians is the opportunity to hear them perform solo. (Of course, the solo medium works for some musicians but not others, and favors some instruments better than others. For example, vibraphone is arguably better as a solo instrument than double bass -- but of course it depends on the abilities and sensibilities of the musician playing). I've only seen Mr. Lyman solo. He would do weekends at Waialae where he would play an entire evening by himself. His voicings... so lush. Like someone else said: the man's ability to emote through the vibes. Bird calls and animal yells, crystal clear, but never in the way of the music. By watching him, you can see exactly how exotica became so popular. Not through gimmicky pop covers, the exoticization of jazz standards. Neither solely through exotic percussion and hip Latin lounge beats, swanky cover art and tiki establishments, mugs and cocktaillogy. But through the personal care and individual expertise of highly trained musicians. I think what we have to consider are, What are specific aspects of Lyman's musicality that make us love his work? In my opinion, there are at least three prominent aspects of his musicianship that I like: Some of Lyman's signature sound comes from his choices in mode mixture, which is in common with classical and jazz musics, but also is prominently done in Hawaiian slack-key guitar. The interplay of musical idioms from 'other' musics (i.e. Latin, Hawaiian), always in support of melody An underlying hint of mysticism and wonder - never blatant or overpowering; arguably more introverted than that of his peers (Denny, Wechter, Colon, etc.) Choices of musical works to perform. My favorite piece that Lyman does is "Seabreeze." That seemed to be one of his favorites too, because you could count on it almost every time he came to play. Another is "Imi Au Ia Oe." Sounds like a future post for my Exoticology 101 blog... Come on over in a day or so, I'll have something posted up. -PHF

Watching the "Quiet Village" Youtube video that Tikiyaki posted brought back several childhood memories from watching Mr. Lyman at Waialae Country Club. (Thanks, Jim, for posting that!)

One of my favorite aspects of live musicians is the opportunity to hear them perform solo. (Of course, the solo medium works for some musicians but not others, and favors some instruments better than others. For example, vibraphone is arguably better as a solo instrument than double bass -- but of course it depends on the abilities and sensibilities of the musician playing).

I've only seen Mr. Lyman solo. He would do weekends at Waialae where he would play an entire evening by himself. His voicings... so lush. Like someone else said: the man's ability to emote through the vibes. Bird calls and animal yells, crystal clear, but never in the way of the music. By watching him, you can see exactly how exotica became so popular. Not through gimmicky pop covers, the exoticization of jazz standards. Neither solely through exotic percussion and hip Latin lounge beats, swanky cover art and tiki establishments, mugs and cocktaillogy. But through the personal care and individual expertise of highly trained musicians.

I think what we have to consider are,

**What are specific aspects of Lyman's musicality that make us love his work? **

In my opinion, there are at least three prominent aspects of his musicianship that I like:

Some of Lyman's signature sound comes from his choices in mode mixture, which is in common with classical and jazz musics, but also is prominently done in Hawaiian slack-key guitar.
The interplay of musical idioms from 'other' musics (i.e. Latin, Hawaiian), always in support of melody
An underlying hint of mysticism and wonder - never blatant or overpowering; arguably more introverted than that of his peers (Denny, Wechter, Colon, etc.)
Choices of musical works to perform.

My favorite piece that Lyman does is "Seabreeze." That seemed to be one of his favorites too, because you could count on it almost every time he came to play. Another is "Imi Au Ia Oe."

Sounds like a future post for my Exoticology 101 blog... Come on over in a day or so, I'll have something posted up.

-PHF

Post #355129 by professahhummingflowah on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 3:37 PM