September/October 2009 Issue

Music Monday: Review: The Waitiki 7, Adventures in Paradise

This new band has a great old sound: tiki torches meets jazz meets 1950s exotica.

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Fire up the tiki torches. Break out the umbrella drinks. The debut of Hawaii’s Waitiki 7 harks back a half-century to the golden age of exotica, when lounge-music giants like Martin Denny walked the Earth. Yet Adventures in Paradise‘s exotic bird noises and camp camouflage virtuoso musicianship. A cover of jazz great Lee Morgan’s “Totem Pole” showcases a mesmerizing sax-trumpet dialogue, while the sleek violin of “Mood Indigo” would please Duke Ellington himself. And you can’t top the title track, the theme from a mediocre ’60s adventure series, for cheesy fun.

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