Post #614846 by Fluid Floyd on Mon, Nov 21, 2011 6:17 PM

HONOLULU, HAWAII—Honolulu lounge meisters Don Tiki—the collaborative of top-tier musicians, vocalists and dancers, brings the jungle-jazzy sounds of exotica to put on their first ever holiday show when they make their Doris Duke Theatre debut on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Don Tiki will play songs from their last release, South of the Boudoir, along with classic fan favorites. Drawing inspiration from original exotica masters Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter, Don Tiki boldly moves this evocative genre of music into the 21st century.

Guests can make the evening dinner and a show—the concert is preceded by an opening reception, featuring food from Tiki's Grill & Bar and beer and wine for purchase.

After a triumphant appearance at the 11th annual Tiki Oasis event in San Diego in August, bringing down the house as the closing-night headliner, Don Tiki resurfaces with its full original crew for their Pagan Holiday Show.

This means Don Tiki is flying in virile vocalist Delmar deWilde from Portland, bassist and purring song stylist Hai Jung from Phoenix, multi-talented Abe Lagrimas on vibes, percussion and guitar and chanteuse/actress Sherry Shaoling from Los Angeles, plus special guest Frank Orrall from Chicago. They will join O‘ahu-based members percussionist Lopaka Colón, who continues his illustrious father Augie Colon’s bird-call tradition, funky drummer Jason Segler, Kit “Perry Coma” Ebersbach on keyboards, and Ryoko Oka on keyboards and t’rung (a Vietnamese bamboo xylophone). Exotic dancer Violetta Beretta also joins the tribe.

Fans can expect the band’s signature tunes such as The Natives Are Restless and An Occasional Man, but “even though we’re tiki-worshipping pagans, we’ll drop a holiday song or two,” says producer Lloyd "Fluid Floyd" Kandell, who was Anthony Bourdain’s tiki guide when the food impresario visited O‘ahu for his series No Reservations in 2008. Bourdain came away raving, “Tiki supergroup Don Tiki knows the world, the subculture of tiki…it really doesn’t get much better than this!”