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Introduction to The Waitiki 7
"Classic Exotica for Modern Ears"
The Waitiki Quartet and The Waitiki 7
are two bands formed by Randy Wong and
Abe Lagrimas, Jr. to bring back the
exotica music that was so popular
in tiki bars around the world in
the 1950's and 1960's.
The musicians of The WAITIKI (also known as W7) bring together a wealth
of culture and superb
musicianship. At its core are three of Hawaii’s finest musicians:
Percussionist & exotic bird caller
Lopaka Colon (son of original Martin Denny percussionist & bird caller
Augie Colon), jazz
drummer Abe Lagrimas Jr., and bassist/bandleader Randy Wong. Exotica
has always had
strong Latin jazz influences; in W7, these tenets are held taut by
Zaccai Curtis (piano) and Tim
Mayer (winds) - both of whom have received past Grammy nominations
in Latin and jazz.
Crossing over from the classical world comes the group’s youngest member: twenty-one year old
vibraphonist Jim Benoit. The brilliantly exuberant Helen Liu (violin) rounds out this phenomenal
group. Six of the members compose and arrange for the group.
"Exotica," explains Randy Wong, the 28-year-old bassist, music director and co-founder of The
WAITIKI 7, "floats in the zone between soundscapes and an early world music hybrid. Denny took
popular WWII-era Hawaiian Island songs (themselves already set to jazz harmonies, and
incorporating folk songs from the Far East) and a Latin feel and then added birdcalls. He took
large orchestrations intended for full symphonic orchestra and pared them down to make them
feasible in the combo context. But exotica just sort of stopped developing in the ’60s."
Which is where The WAITIKI 7 comes in. Although they bow at the altar of Martin Denny and
other exotica pioneers such as Les Baxter and Juan Garcia Esquivel, The WAITIKI 7 - whose
name cleverly fuses that of the famous Honolulu beach with the faux-Polynesian gods ubiquitous
in pop culture - is a band for today. The WAITIKI 7 retains the essence of Denny-era exotica and
reconstitutes it for contemporary audiences raised on a multitude of clashing musical genres and
pop culture images.
The WAITIKI 7 emerged from a smaller band formed several years ago by Wong and Abe
Lagrimas Jr., who plays drums, percussion, vibraphone and ‘ukulele. That group evolved into The
WAITIKI 7. While Wong, Lagrimas and Colon are the only members actually from Hawai‘i - the
others hail from Boston and the Bronx - all seven musicians share a love of the exotica sound
and the associated tiki pop culture, which encompasses everything from art and design to
painstakingly crafted tropical cocktails and cuisine.
Each WAITIKI 7 band member is an accomplished musician, bearing degrees from Berklee
College of Music, New England Conservatory and other top music schools. Their collective
performing and recording credits span the worlds of jazz, classical, film music, Broadway and
beyond. Wong and Lagrimas didn’t set out to revive the long-dormant exotica genre, but the more
they discovered about its unique musical properties and cultural significance, the more they were
drawn to the idea of giving it new life.
"There’s no exotica scene in Hawai‘i anymore, but growing up I used to go and hear Arthur
Lyman, the original vibraphonist for the Martin Denny group," says Wong. "He was a good friend
of my grandfather’s and my father’s. So we were going to support him as a friend, but I think I got
that sound in my ear." While attending college in Boston, Wong and his longtime friend
Lagrimas - who had already played with Colon in an exotica-inspired revivalist band called Don
Tiki - began to investigate exotica more seriously, and to generate ideas on how it might be made
relevant and exciting again. One by one the band that would become The WAITIKI 7 fell into
place.
W7 made its international debut on July 24, 2008 at the WASSERMUSIK Festival held by the
Haus der Kulturnen der Welt (in Berlin, Germany), and its American debut on November 1, 2008
at Liberty Hall for the Retro Cocktail Hour’s 500th Broadcast Anniversary. Its first album,
Adventures in Paradise has a street date of August 18, 2009.
See also:
Augie Colon
Lopaka Colon
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