Just like your favorite cocktail, “there are three ingredients that you have to have for the basis of exotica,” explains Thomas Mackay. “Bongos, bird calls and vibes (vibraphone).”
Mackay provides the vibes, as composer and musician for the exotic Honolulu jazz trio known as Intoxica.
The group formed a year ago, with Mackay, percussionist Augie Lopaka Colon Jr. and bassist Ernie Provencher. The aim? Delivering exotica jazz to new audiences.
The three musicians preserve the sound of Hawaii’s tiki bar past, but also add their own influences.
The bird calls of Intoxika are more than just musical ambience; they’re a family tradition. In providing them, Lopaka follows in the footsteps of his father Augie Colon, original percussionist for famed exotica composer Martin Denny.
It was during Colon’s tenure with Denny’s group that bird calls and heavy percussion were first used, giving exotica the signature sound that we know today.
Mackay says the bird calls of Intoxika make the trio unique: “If you have an exotica band from the mainland or Europe, the birds will sound different. Those birds are not going to be Polynesian birds. Because we have Lopaka, we have Polynesian birds.”
Exotica groups originated with Les Baxter and his orchestra, Mackay opines; Baxter released the influential “Ritual of the Savage” album in 1951. Then, in 1957, Martin Denny released his “Exotica” album, incorporating bird calls and vibraphone, and establishing a style that influenced Intoxica.
Intoxica has distilled the essence of the sound to a trio’s output; however, the band matches the sound of bigger bands thanks to Mackay’s MalletKAT — a MIDI percussion mallet controller. Think of it as a vibraphone synthesizer that’s able to produce 28 different sounds, including Mackay’s favorites — vibraphone, marimba and Rhodes piano.
It’s a full sound, and audiences at Intoxica’s regular Monday night residency at the tiki-themed La Mariana Sailing Club appreciate it enthusiastically.
The band is set to continue its weekly sessions at La Mariana indefinitely, after Hawaii’s Board of Land and Natural Resources granted La Mariana’s operators a 20-year extension to its lease in April. The bar has served as a social gathering place for boaters using slips attached to the property since the 1950s — but the latest extension wasn’t guaranteed.
“We weren’t talking about it,” Mackay said. “We weren’t going to put that energy out there because we knew we were going to stay. And it came to pass.”
LOOKING TO fill out a few more dates on its calendar, Intoxica is now taking its fusion of exotica to Honolulu’s Chinatown arts district. On June 7, tiki bar Skull & Crown Trading Company opened its doors on Hotel Street, and Intoxica was on hand to perform.
“The decor there is not the same as your average tiki bar,” Mackay says with excitement. “It’s the dark side of exotica with the skulls, shrunken heads and all that stuff. So what we’ll do to enhance that is play the more spooky stuff with tribal sounds.”
Having a bar/club audience compared to a restaurant/lounge audience allowed Intoxica the opportunity to play a little louder and experiment with different sounds. Enough of an impression was made to earn the band a spot at Skull & Crown every first Friday.
Wherever audiences decide to take a sip of Intoxika, they’ll will be treated to tunes from the band’s latest recording. The self-titled EP is a mix of the musicians’ take on exotica jazz classics, as well as an original composition by Mackay, “Gold Lame’.”
Mackay describes their musical approach: “The recording was all first take. We don’t have a set arrangement to these tunes.
“My concept is that you play the melody, but you find the leaping point off the melody to improvise. For example, we’ll play the first part of ‘Taboo,’ but when you get to the B section, we go into tapestries of sound with all the effects and stay there for a while, then come back.
“We change it from notes, harmonies and rhythms to waveforms, textures and sonic energy.”
Mai tais, among other colorful cocktails, are slightly different wherever you go. Such is the case when taking in an Intoxika show. On certain nights they’ll be heavier on the rum, but it will always go down smooth.
Tiki enthusiasts from around the globe have planned their vacations around Intoxika’s show schedule. But fans may soon have them voyaging to their own watering holes.
Mackay has been approached by numerous tiki venues and festivals, but Exotica faces the same hurdle that all Hawaii artists face: the cost of making the leap over the Pacific.
The group will make its first hop to the Big Island this fall, joining Henry Kapono at the third annual Tiki Festival.
INTOXICA
>> 6 p.m. Mondays, La Mariana, 50 Sand Island Access Road; lamarianasailingclub.com, 848-2800
>> 8 p.m. First Fridays, Skull & Crown, 62 N. Hotel St.; skullandcrowntrading.com, 372-9618
