The Islands of the Fraternal Order of Moai

The ideal is to have a grand piano, not Rhodes. There wasn't a real piano there though, so we had to make do. The Waitiki novelty songs aren't going off into space... they're still around... the basic thing there is that we know they work, and we love them, so we'll pull them out when the time is right.

The new concept is basically exploring "classic exotica" in live settings: with the exception of Denny's bootlegs -- "Baked Alaska" and "In Person", we don't have a ton of recordings that tell us what hearing those groups live was like. All the studio stuff are 2-3 minute arrangements with full choirs, etc. that wouldn't have been available at live shows, and mostly are devoid of improvisation.

Most of the players in those bands came from jazz or Latin jazz backgrounds. The studio arrangements were either done by Denny or Baxter or "hired gun" ghostwriters. Denny wasn't really much of an improviser but all of his bandmates were. I've heard stories from Harold Chang and others that when Lyman and Hamp would get together, they'd sit in on each other's tunes (i.e. Hamp sitting in would play vibes and Lyman would move to marimba to comp for him), etc. Unfortunately ... you guessed it ... no recordings of that stuff!

Lopaka told me about his dad getting bongo lessons from some killin Latin players when on tour in California. And then those guys would all go sit-in with Denny's band, etc.

There's been a "movement" lately to try and separate exotica from jazz, from latin jazz, and make it more congealed to "lounge" -- whatever that is! I don't think we can make that split or that it should be suggested that there be a schism between exotica and those styles. Certainly there's a difference between Latin jazz and exotica, and don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to steer WAITIKI into becoming a "jazz" group or a "latin jazz" group.

That's kind of the "where we are" in the project...

Interesting...

I have often heard exotica called "fake Latin." I interpreted that to mean sort of "Hollywood" Latin. For example, someone like Les Baxter, who was supposedly not well traveled, would write music evoking exotic lands out of his imagination, or maybe inspired by some second hand source, like a novel or a movie.

Most exotica sounds to me like "fuzzy" Latin. There's a hint of a Latin style, but the rhythm is not as rigorous as true Latin players would produce. It's less syncopated. I don't mean that as a criticism. To me exortica is really about the imagery. Enchanting melody and lush harmonies allow entry to that world where hedonists frolic - free of the hang-ups of the society we live in. You drink cocktails to it, make love to it, or just plain listen to it.

According to Joseph Lanza's book, "Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong," exotica is a sub-category of easty listening, and I go along with that. It's mostly about beautiful arrangements and rarely features improvisation, and if so with a limited number of bars.

But, yeah, that's recorded exotica. I think "live" does allow that more improvisation might work, but in keeping with
the spirit of easy listening, I would think the improv would be simple, restrained, more thoughtfully melodic than
mind blowing jazz licks or even Indian classical "jams." I think it's intriguing - a whole new impetus for improvising.

By the way Randy, I think you have the exotica bass player style/attitude worked out perfectly. The jazz references I hear are Pharoah Sander's more spiritual work, like "Jewels of Thought," "Thembi," and "The Creator Has A Master Plan." To me Pharoah is the closest jazz comes to exotica and it's full of improvisation.

Keep on doing it!

-Jack

Wow, what a great read.

I agree that Exotica music does not lend much to improvisation. A little bit definitely goes a long way. Les Baxter did let Plas Johnson improvise on African Jazz and Jungle Jazz though but ever so slightly. Henry Mancini let Plas improvise as well but most of the music was pretty much structured.

Robert Drasnin doesn't leave much room for improvisation either but that's fine by me. The music is so rich, colorful and soothingly primitive that I couldn't see it performed live in any other way.

Keep up the good work Randy. I think this new direction will open up new doors for you guys!!

Hey, isn't Waitiki scheduled to be in the next Tiki Magazine?

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

When I listen to exotica, I hear a broad spectrum of "levels of authenticity" in terms of the latin component. There are artists like Augie Colon and Si Zentner who use what was the real deal, at that time. Even some of what was used on Martin Denny's recordings was anything but "Latin light." Some other artists, Martin Denny and Drasnin especially, drew from other non-Latin rhythms, such as Haitian, or calypso, or even more folkloric Cuban rhythms, like Mozambique (the rhythm, not the country), or Afro. They used these beats as a basis upon which to create a hybrid, something entirely appropriate for their context. We have done this as well, as Waitiki, and will continue to use this model. There are some new tunes in the works that utilize this device, hopefully to good effect.

Regarding improvisation in exotica, I agree that imagery is everything in exotica, it's what makes it exotic. Improvisation is really composition in real time, so for me, whether it's composed ahead of time or on the spot makes no difference. It's all about the moods. Using that as a springboard for improvisation provides unique challenges, but that's the direction I believe brings the music into our era. There is a spontaneity and energy about improvisation which draws an audience into the experience. When the improviser is capable of creating a real-time composition that augments and adorns the images set in place by the melodic and harmonic landscape, the audience, by being there and sharing the experience, is part of the process. Their energy feeds the process; there is an almost ceremonial quality to this that complements wonderfully the exotica listening experience. I believe this is the future of exotica music. It's not enough simply to compose pieces and have them played by great musicians. That's been done, and exceedingly well, I might add. In order to renew this music, I believe we must revisit the root styles, each on their own merits. And then, with our deepened knowledge of the styles, create freely, as well as arrange, which means improvisation. You can't renovate a house without tearing down some walls and changing things. But as long as we can let go of some familiar structures of exotica, and replace them with what we have derived by following the same basic process which led to the evolution of the music 60 years ago, we can still come up with something of beauty that will make that Mai Tai in that tiki bar taste even better, and the one whose eyes you gaze into even more inviting.

You guys are speaking above my Theory 101 level of musicianship but I'll chime in with this:

1) possibly the greatest I've ever seen Waitiki perform was at the Beehive, performing to an unappreciative Jazz audience....to compensate, they opened the songs up & let the improvisation out. It was fantastic. "Tiki" in particular, was magical that night.

With out the improv, whats the point? Go listen to a record.

2) The new lineup has potential out the wazoo. The keys were a nice addition, and the Vibranaut just needs a little more volume (he was tough to hear at times). With Helen as a regular player as well....wacthout!!! I was orignally concerned by the addition of Keyboard (esp electric) as I thought you'd lose some of that organic sound. How wrong I was.

The world is your oyster guys. Waitiki (mark3) is the band that will conquor the world....

Now figure out how to play the goddamn Hukilau so we can have drinks at the Molokai!!!

fun good music relax nice sound cool guys, drinks taste better.

...'bout as technical as I can get.

Nicely said Mayor!!!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

This is coming from my middle school trumpet playing musical knowledge only. Beyond that all I can tell you is what I like. I never thought about improvising in exotica. Honestly its diffucult for me to understand where the musician can do that in a genere like exotica. Take Frank Zappa for instance, and I know its comparing apples to oranges. Zappa could improvise like a mad man, and you expected it, its what made it fun. No show was the same. Sure, sets and playlists had a basic outline, but when he would drift off to pluto during a guitar solo for 10 minutes...wow! To me, exotica's version of improv would be throw in a few bird calls where they usually wouldn't be, but a 10 minute vibe solo just wouldnt fly structually. Or would it? I don't think I'd mind.

If you take the basic structure of an exotica song, and change it to a more latin or jazz feel, at what point does it stop becoming exotica in the general definition? I suppose my question is what is absolute in exotica, making it exotica and what changes it completely or at least into a hybrid version?

And What Is Tiki??

lol

just fuckin with ya loki.

A valid question. I'd like to hear the Mayor & prof chime in. I doubt I'll understand the explaination, but I'll smile & nod alot.

I like the birdcalls.

i like natives going um a gu a hum a mug a

Sitting right next to you in this.

I'm with you! I'm enjoying this conversation, all the while thinking "huh?"

Well, the definition of exotica... I think there are many levels of what defines exotica, depending on what your interest is. For most people, exotica is that music, from Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter, Robert Drasnin, or others, produced in the '50's, '60's, mostly; some people lump Esquivel in there too. It is a time period, a subculture associated with it, a sound, the imagery evoked, or something even more subjective.

My interest is in creating music, so what I look for is instrumentation, structures, and elements of style. These are the components of the language for musicians. I hear vibraphone, bass, percussion, piano, sometimes strings, brass, and/or woodwinds. I hear some jazz structures, some classical structures; latin (cuban) rhythms and percussion instruments and styles, latin melodic and harmonic devices, jazz melodic and harmonic devices, and Hawaiian/other polynesian and asian melodic devices, and percussion. This is a unique combination of influences, making a hybrid that is well-crafted and supported by great writing and arranging. Many of the writers and arrangers worked in film and television at the time, and their work shows that in the way they orchestrate.

So, three roots--Hawaiian/Polynesian, Latin and Jazz. Compositions can reflect either jazz forms or classical forms, or imitate Hawaiian or Asian structures. I have even heard Latin forms in Exotica.

What I find consistent about this music is its quality of having the power to evoke imagery, to make the listener think of exotic tropical islands, landscapes, beaches, scenery. Once the music and the drinks start flowing, the idea is to make the lisener forget that outside the tiki bar is NOT some fantastic island, with villages, and sarong-clad (or lavalava-clad) villagers, etc.

Therein lies the trick to the music. Every composer has a different approach, with different instrumentation and sound, but all roads seem to lead to the same place. I think that common ground is Exotica. Whether it's Lopaka Colon, with his heavy emphasis on authentic Latin instrumentation and rhythms, or Robert Drasnin, who uses cello, harp, alto & bass flutes, alto saxophone, and a variety of hybrid rhythms, or Martin Denny, who writes differently for every tune, it appears that in every case, the composers and musicians have the same standard: the music must have just enough mystery to evoke-to stimulate the imagination to fill in the blanks-and just enough stylistic material to suggest context. So, the context--Latin, or Hawaiian, or Jazz--plus mysterious harmonies and melodies, equals exotica, on a certain level. Of course, randomly throwing together mysterious harmonies with some rhythms from one or more of the three main roots may not give you exotica music, per se. What would be missing would be the type of experience that we all know, that draws us to learn to make the drinks, collect the mugs and decorate our basements. That is the aesthetic. So, the musical elements, plus the aesthetic, would be more likely to give you Exotica.

Connecting an aesthetic to music is going beyond the scope of this thread, but that is where this is heading. But this should give a reasonable explanation about my thinking, much of which has come from working with Randy, and the rest has been my own experiences. And above all, I hope this has been written in a manner that everyone can understand. I am always open to other opinions and suggestions. Let me know what you think!

Well, the definition of exotica... I think there are many levels of what defines exotica, depending on what your interest is. For most people, exotica is that music, from Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, Les Baxter, Robert Drasnin, or others, produced in the '50's, '60's, mostly; some people lump Esquivel in there too. It is a time period, a subculture associated with it, a sound, the imagery evoked, or something even more subjective.

My interest is in creating music, so what I look for is instrumentation, structures, and elements of style. These are the components of the language for musicians. I hear vibraphone, bass, percussion, piano, sometimes strings, brass, and/or woodwinds. I hear some jazz structures, some classical structures; latin (cuban) rhythms and percussion instruments and styles, latin melodic and harmonic devices, jazz melodic and harmonic devices, and Hawaiian/other polynesian and asian melodic devices, and percussion. This is a unique combination of influences, making a hybrid that is well-crafted and supported by great writing and arranging. Many of the writers and arrangers worked in film and television at the time, and their work shows that in the way they orchestrate.

So, three roots--Hawaiian/Polynesian, Latin and Jazz. Compositions can reflect either jazz forms or classical forms, or imitate Hawaiian or Asian structures. I have even heard Latin forms in Exotica.

What I find consistent about this music is its quality of having the power to evoke imagery, to make the listener think of exotic tropical islands, landscapes, beaches, scenery. Once the music and the drinks start flowing, the idea is to make the lisener forget that outside the tiki bar is NOT some fantastic island, with villages, and sarong-clad (or lavalava-clad) villagers, etc.

Therein lies the trick to the music. Every composer has a different approach, with different instrumentation and sound, but all roads seem to lead to the same place. I think that common ground is Exotica. Whether it's Lopaka Colon, with his heavy emphasis on authentic Latin instrumentation and rhythms, or Robert Drasnin, who uses cello, harp, alto & bass flutes, alto saxophone, and a variety of hybrid rhythms, or Martin Denny, who writes differently for every tune, it appears that in every case, the composers and musicians have the same standard: the music must have just enough mystery to evoke-to stimulate the imagination to fill in the blanks-and just enough stylistic material to suggest context. So, the context--Latin, or Hawaiian, or Jazz--plus mysterious harmonies and melodies, equals exotica, on a certain level. Of course, randomly throwing together mysterious harmonies with some rhythms from one or more of the three main roots may not give you exotica music, per se. What would be missing would be the type of experience that we all know, that draws us to learn to make the drinks, collect the mugs and decorate our basements. That is the aesthetic. So, the musical elements, plus the aesthetic, would be more likely to give you Exotica.

Connecting an aesthetic to music is going beyond the scope of this thread, but that is where this is heading. But this should give a reasonable explanation about my thinking, much of which has come from working with Randy, and the rest has been my own experiences. And above all, I hope this has been written in a manner that everyone can understand. I am always open to other opinions and suggestions. Let me know what you think!

Thanks all for your comments!

Yeah, what started me on this kick is the intrigue and mysticism of live performance. I feel that, as listeners, we are so lucky to have stellar recordings of the studio work that Denny, Baxter, Drasnin, Rains, Esquivel, and others did. As you know, I've been thinking a lot lately as to the approach to take when performing and arranging for WAITIKI...

Those of you familiar with the Orchestrotica project know that we did our best to faithfully transcribe those tunes and orchestrate them for the instrumentation we had available. (In plain English: write down the music from recordings note-for-note, and give those notes to the instruments in our band). We couldn't do things exactly as Esquivel had because in some cases we weren't sure how many instruments were playing, or we didn't have enough players to cover all the parts (you can only do so much with 17 instruments and 4 vocalists; in the studio Esquivel was known to have as many as 40 musicians in two separate rooms!). However, these things aside, the arrangements were pretty identical to what Esquivel had recorded; if you did a side-by-side listening of an Esquivel recording and our band, things would sound pretty close.

When we first set out to do classic Denny tunes (as we did for the Hawaii International Jazz Festival), the arrangements we made were basically note-for-note transcriptions of the original recordings. The project ended up being a lot more work than intended; since Denny's recordings all averaged about 2-3 minutes, we needed a dozen just to fill up a short set! Not to mention, because the transcriptions relied so heavily on the personalities of the players that had been recorded, I don't think we sounded a whole lot like what we hoped we would—and the audience missed out on getting to know who each of us were musically too. (Also: the people who play in the band come up with a fuck load of better musical ideas than I could ever hope to write down).

I think the approach we're taking now is considerably different—and perhaps what fuels a difference in direction between WAITIKI and (the now-separate) Orchestrotica project. A lot of people had inquired about an Orchestrotica CD. I don't know what the plans (if any) are for that, but in my opinion, it'd be a helluva lot easier just to whip out an Esquivel CD and put it on!

WAITIKI is no longer interested in trying to play "live" what was originally recorded; no way in hell can we play that stuff better than the cats who did it first.

So ... what's the process here?

First, we're steeping ourselves in "period" recordings of the era. Everyone is listening to multiple arrangements and varied bands' takes on what we consider the "standards" of exotica: tunes like "Coronation," "Jungle Drums", "Quiet Village", "Taboo", "Tiki", etc... and internalizing the hell out of them. Anyone who's ever had to give a sales pitch, perform a monologue, or act in a play knows what I mean. Harold Chang told me exotica's gotta come from the heart, and there ain't no way to do that if you and the tune aren't one. The companion piece to this is studying all those folkloric styles and forms that Tim was saying exotica's based on.

Then, the fun part: Play whatever the hell you want!

Anyways, what matters is the music...

Here are some recordings of us playing with our newest group addition: piano! This recording is missing Latin percussion and birdcalls, so ka-kaaawww along in the privacy of your own home! Also, they're from a rehearsal, so forgive "band talk" -- our first time playing together.

"When First I Love" (Martin Denny tune)
http://waitiki.com/media/z_whenfirstilove_head.mp3

"Coronation" (Les Baxter tune)
http://waitiki.com/media/z_coronation.mp3

Are we on the right track?

I think it's great!

Here's another one. This one's from a teaser show we recently did at New England Conservatory. Features Charles Morgan as our guest vocalist on "The Magic Islands", a hapa-haole tune made famous by Alfred Aholo Apaka.

http://waitiki.com/media/magicislands_NEC_charlesmorgan.mp3

Sorry... for making this thread an excuse to share some of our music with you ;)

Thanks guys for the insight to a world I can only listen to. I'm always blow away by musicians. When asked if I could be anybody in my next life I always say a musician. Anyway, another question.

You both stated exotica is a style of music that takes you to a far off place and one that creates imagery in the mind. Does the listener have to know what those far off exotic islands look like for it to work correctly? Say a person has never seen or been to the islands (boy in a bubble with no books or internet), Martin Denny is played for him. What does he think? He cant drift off to the places the music is supposed to take him, but he sure can feel the emotion, or not. I know stupid question, but a fun debate.

I listen to lots of world music. Putumayo collections, arabic, asian etc....lots of places I've never been. I dont understand any of the lyrics (if they have them), But the roots of the beats always get my toe tapping and with my brief knowledge of music, I can hear where the song is going to go musically before it gets there. I suppose this is simple song structure. However, I'm sure I'm missing tons by not fully understanding why and where the song originated or even what its all about.
Thoughts? Yes I'm slightly hung over this morning.

So ... what's the process here?

First, we're steeping ourselves in "period" recordings of the era. Everyone is listening to multiple arrangements and varied bands' takes on what we consider the "standards" of exotica: tunes like "Coronation," "Jungle Drums", "Quiet Village", "Taboo", "Tiki", etc... and internalizing the hell out of them. Anyone who's ever had to give a sales pitch, perform a monologue, or act in a play knows what I mean. Harold Chang told me exotica's gotta come from the heart, and there ain't no way to do that if you and the tune aren't one. The companion piece to this is studying all those folkloric styles and forms that Tim was saying exotica's based on.

Then, the fun part: Play whatever the hell you want!

Anyways, what matters is the music...


Hey, I'm at the office and will have to get to listen to these links later, Randy, but thanks for making them available. I think the above best explains to me what your new direction is and I like it. So glad you are doing this. Looking forward to more concerts and recordings! We are fortunate to have you picking up the tradition of exotica and moving it ahead.

-Jack