Official Website of The WAITIKI 7

Instruments Used on the CD

by Randy Wong

This album features authentic—and in some cases, rare—cultural instruments, spanning the Americas, Tibet, China, and Hawaii. The choices we made regarding instrument selection and use not only reflect the ethnic diversity of the Hawaiian islands but also respectfully follow precedents set by Martin Denny’s original musicians: Arthur Lyman, Augie Colon, and Harold Chang.

At the heart of exotica is a uniquely American instrument: the vibraphone. It is perhaps the most recognizable instrument of exotica, providing ample support for the genre’s lush harmonies and sonorous orchestration. The vibraphone is an instrument that can function in all contexts—as a solo or accompanying voice, both lyrical and textural.

Arthur Lyman pioneered the versatility of the vibraphone by expanding its use beyond percussion and by making full use of its motor. Many of Denny’s arrangements juxtapose vibraphone with piano and other mallet instruments. Lyman would vary the vibraphone’s motor speed in order to complement the timbres around him. “He brings the vibraphone close to sounding like a full orchestra,” WAITIKI 7 vibraphonist Jim Benoit says of Lyman’s approach. “It sets up an atmosphere unique to exotica by providing an underlying layer of sound that is beautiful, elegant, and mysterious.” Indeed, Lyman’s unique array of voices was key in painting exotica’s dense and diverse imagery.

This recording features an extraordinary and rare model: the Vibraharp Model 145, handcrafted at the Deagan instrument factory in 1927. The Model 145 was the first mallet instrument to have a damper pedal and an electric motor. Of the Model 145’s sound, vibraphonist Greg Paré says “it’s like where vanilla ice cream meets warm apple pie: cool, warm, and brilliant.”

In 2005, WAITIKI headlined the Hawaii International Jazz Festival with a tribute to Mr. Denny. It was on that trip that I first ‘talked story’ with the venerable Harold Chang, who played on Martin Denny’s original 1957 exotica album and later toured with Arthur Lyman. Harold had heard WAITIKI play on the morning news and was complimentary of our sound, but had some suggestions. Instead of using a commercially made metal guiro, he said, we could use a natural gourd with grooves cut in its sides. He grabbed one from behind his desk and pulled out a bamboo scraper from inside it. He gave the guiro a few scrapes, then put the bamboo stick aside and handed me an egg whisk that had been cut several inches short. He smiled at my confusion. “We used this on the original ‘Quiet Village’ sessions,” he said. We took Harold’s advice and used the gourd guiro and egg whisk on “Manila”. This track also features the quijada, a traditional Mexican instrument that foreshadowed the vibraslap and produces a teeth-rattling sound—literally—as it is made from the jawbone of a donkey. The player holds the animal’s front teeth in one hand, while lightly slapping the back jaw with the palm of his hand.

In the mid-Fifties, Puerto Rican transplant Augie Colon began playing with Martin Denny’s band at the Shell Bar. Denny’s arrangements suggested Latin treatments of Hawaiian melodies, and it was Colon’s infusions of Latin instruments such as the congas and bongos—as well as the bird and animal calls he learned as a youngster hunting with his uncles for wild pig and game-birds on the Big Island of Hawaii and in Kalihi Valley, where he was raised by his grandparents—that transformed this music from jazz into the signature sound of exotica. Later bands would attempt to imitate Colon’s calls by using whistles and bird recordings, but none achieved the same rich and mysterious quality.

Fortunately, Augie’s talent was not lost, as he passed his talents on to his son Lopaka, who does Augie’s calls plus a few of his own. Lopaka’s favorite calls to voice are the kookooburra and the mating dove, which can be heard on “Her Majesty’s Pearl” and “Adventures in Paradise,” respectively.

Lopaka Colon’s mixed heritage also includes Native Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry. As a result, percussion from the islands finds its way onto the album on “Adventures in Paradise” in the form of the native Hawaiian ipu, an open-ended gourd typically used as a hula implement and an assortment of Chinese gongs and Tibetan temple bowls (also known as cup gongs) are used on “Left Arm of Buddha”, “L’ours Chinois”, and the fiery “Sacha-cha”.