Post #466829 by tiki mick on Sat, Jul 4, 2009 9:05 AM

Yeah, it is dry out there! That's probably why I post the stuff here. I mean, I figure tiki is close enough to lounge that there must be a lot of fans here, right? I see that there are only a handful, but the question I have is, if most of the tiki people here are not into lounge or mid century pop, what are they listening to? Are most people really here only for the mug and tiki art discussions?

It's strange, because I find myself into all aspects of tiki, from the decor, style, architecture, fonts, music, drinks, to all the related genres and categories as well. It's not like I love a good tiki bar, but can't stand the music that fits into that same tiki bar. I made a similar statement about Kona's before, how they had this awesome tiki bar in there, but rap music was playing on the speakers. It just did not feel right to me.

But it's not just that. I feel that we on this forum have made a sharp distinction between tiki and everything else, but I don't feel it was that way back in the 50's. I feel that people back then could go to a tiki bar one night, and a jazz club the next, and much of the music was basically interconnected on some level. At it's root, I feel that stuff like Martin Denny is basically jazz. And if I am not mistaken, Arthur Lyman's first album was "Leis of Jazz".

I guess in my mind, though I like the neo-tiki movement that is predominant on this forum, I prefer the original scene, the way it used to be. Grog makes a joke about AARP, but he actually is pretty close to what I am thinking, and I see it with my own band's gigs. They are packed with older people, people that lived and where involved in the original tiki scene. I myself feel I was born in the wrong time period, definitely. I see that clip I posted with Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim, sitting in wicker chairs, smoking, wearing suits, and to me there is nothing cooler then that iconic imagery. The bossa Nova movement itself was jazz based music, very lush sounding, with fantastic chords that although complex, were very musical and evocative. The lyrics were about tropical themes, and the music itself came from a beautiful, tropical country. I don't see a huge difference between it, and some of the tiki stuff I love like Denny, baxter, Lyman, Tjader, for example. And much like exotica, bossa nova was not authentic, indiginous music (that would be more like samba or foro). The music had a cinematic and almost hollywood aspect to it, which explains why Frank Sinatra could sit down with the originator of the movement, and make it swing. Or why Tom Jobim could get Claus Ogerman to orchestrate so many of his albums.

If I was going to suggest a perfect bossa nova album that tiki people might like, it would be "Wave", by Jobim. That album has so many great songs, and even one called "Captain Bacardi"...it's about rum, so...........???