Classic Exotica Jam: This Friday, 7/10, on O'ahu—organized by WAITIKI

WAITIKI INTERNATIONAL is organizing its first-ever classic exotica jam!! It happens on O'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.

WAITIKI: Classic Exotica for the Modern Listener
Discover WAITIKI's contributions to the resurgence of Exotica and tiki culture, at: www.WAITIKI.com

[ Edited by: professahhummingflowah 2009-07-07 13:12 ]

Wow, I bet that'll be fun!

Wish I could be there.

Sign me up for the second set! I wish. Say Hi to the ohana for me!

What a blast! I'm tangled up in California at the moment or I'd SO be there. Put up some mics, I'd love to hear what rolls out!

Suzanne

U have totally hit on something....if nobody is recording this....go out and get a digital recorder RIGHT NOW!!!!

This just in... Harold Chang will be sitting in on percussion!

For those of you who don't know who Harold is, he is one of the last surviving alums of the Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman bands... and possibly the only surviving alum who still gigs regularly on a professional basis.

He played auxiliary percussion on the original Exotica album (uncredited) and toured as drum set player for many years with Mr. Lyman. Jeff Central did an interview of him a while back that can be read here: http://www.ele-mental.org/~ecc/exo/exotica/changinterview.html

Oh, what a jam session will be had!!

WAITIKI: Classic Exotica for the Modern Listener
Discover WAITIKI's contributions to the resurgence of Exotica and tiki culture, at: www.WAITIKI.com

[ Edited by: professahhummingflowah 2009-07-10 16:05 ]

That is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Somebody tape this please!!!!!!!!!!!

Have fun guys.

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

WOW! LAST NIGHT WAS A BLAST.

In all my years of being a musician and going to jam sessions, I had never experienced anything like what happened last night. The vibe was intense. I'm going to blog about this later, but until then, I'll be posting here.

We started off with "Manila", which in my opinion is one of those tunes that is deceptively hard... it's melody and feel seems simple enough, but you can tell right away if the band isn't agreeing on feel, time, etc. That wasn't the case with this group. "Manila" is one of those standard standards that every exotica musician knows. And believe you me, these guys all knew it.

Playing with Uncle Harold was a huge highlight. He didn't just sit in, he played the whole night. I learned pretty quick why he has been so successful over the years; why he was in high demand with Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Augie Colon, etc. etc. etc. The guy is incredible. The only other drummer that I've felt so comfortable with is Abe. In a lot of ways, the way they each approach playing and especially playing exotica is very similar. They're both incredibly inventive, constantly listening and adapting to what's being played around them, and having fun while doing it.

When we played "Quiet Village" ... man oh man, was that awesome. Get this, we had THREE generations of exotica musicians on stage and playing. First-gen, obviously, Uncle Harold... who was on the ORIGINAL MONO Martin Denny recording (as well as the stereo re-do). Second generation... Lopaka and I. Third generation: Lopaka's daughter!!! She's only 6 but man, she was doing whistles and playing shakers and rainstick!!!!!!

Anyways thanks all for your interest in this, and I wish you could have been there. I will post videos and blogs throughout the upcoming week.

Randy, that sounds like a great night. Harold Chang....awesome !

Post some vids soon !

Ditto!!!

WOW! I can't wait to hear the fruits of this. How amazing. Keep us updated, Randy.

Suzanne

Wow, that sounds like an incredible night. I can't wait to hear the fruits of the labor.

Andy

I picked up the multi-track audio files from the jam session the other day. I have a rough mix of Ruby you can check out.

http://waitiki.com/2009/07/19/sounds-of-exotica-jammin/

There's a link to listen about half way down the post. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think!