WAITIKI: Classic Exotica for Modern Listeners

06/05/2026

Day two of our O‘ahu residency underway!

06/04/2026

Meet The Waitiki 7!

How about a 👋 for our drummer and co-founder, Abe Lagrimas, Jr.! Abe and Randy started Waitiki in 2003.

Abe is a musician, composer, educator, and author who plays the drums, vibraphone, ukulele, and studied at Berklee College of Music. He competed in the highly prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Drums Competition and has worked with many different artists such as Eric Marienthal, Eric Reed, Kamasi Washington, Katisse Buckingham, Lalo Schifrin, Barbara Morrison, Michelle Coltrane, Jake Shimabukuro, Kenny Endo, and continues to be an in-demand session musician in Los Angeles.

As a solo ukulele artist, Abe is a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award (Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts) recipient and has released multiple albums in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. He has headlined many ukulele festivals throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Australia. Abe is also an active educator who has conducted workshops, currently teaches private lessons, and is an instructor for the Fender Play series. He is the author of Jazz Ukulele: Comping, Soloing, Chord Melodies (Berklee Press & Hal Leonard), which is available in stores worldwide and on Amazon. He currently endorses Canopus Drums, Paiste Cymbals, Vic Firth Drumsticks, Beato Bags, Ko'olau Ukulele, Analysis Plus Cables, Fusion Gig Bags, and Roswell Pro Audio.

He’s a highly respected educator, and teaches for .

See Abe in our shows this week and in the HYS’ B # = C Success college and career pathways seminar!

06/03/2026

Meet The Waitiki 7!

Say 👋 to Helen Liu! A native of Potomac, Maryland, Dr. Helen Liu is an active performer and educator in solo, chamber and orchestral settings. She is a member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, violinist of Galliard String Quartet, and a performer with Chamber Music Hawai‘i in Honolulu. Dr. Liu is also committed to the role of music in education and has taught students at the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels. She is currently on the violin and chamber music faculty at Punahou School, Iolani School, BYU-Hawaii, and serves as a faculty for Hawaii Youth Symphony’s Pacific Music Institute since the summer of 2006.

Dr. Liu holds degrees in violin performance from Stony Brook University (D.M.A.), New England Conservatory (M.M. and G.D. with Concentration in Music-in-Education), and University of Maryland – College Park (B.M.) where her principal teachers include Pamela Frank, Philip Setzer, James Buswell, and Daniel Heifetz. Her chamber music experience is molded by members of world-renowned ensembles such as the Mendelssohn, Cleveland, Guarneri, Borromeo and Emerson String Quartets. She has also spent many summers with the Aspen Music Festival (CO), Castleton Festival (VA), Longy International Baroque Institute (MA), National Repertory Orchestra (CO), National Orchestral Institute (MD), Boston University Tanglewood Institute (MA), and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Some of her collaboration highlights include Wu Han, James Buswell, Carol Ou, Carol Rodland, Ani Kafavian, Colin Carr, Arthur Haas, and the Emerson String Quartet. She has given chamber music recitals at Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, and numerous Hawaiʻi venues across all six islands.

06/03/2026

Meet The Waitiki 7!

On piano is our friend Zaccai Curtis. Hailing from Hartford, CT, Zaccai is also a renowned producer, pedagogue, and author. He is known internationally for his GRAMMY winning album “Cubop Lives,” which won Latin Jazz Album of the Year in 2025, and his books “Art of the Guajeo,” and “Theory of Common Voicing.” Zaccai and Randy met as college classmates at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. Zaccai is on the faculty of University of Hartford’s Jackie McLean Jazz Studies program teaches at Litchfield Jazz Camp, and online on Patreon, and operates the record label Truth Revolution Records.

06/03/2026

Meet The Waitiki 7

Say 👋 to Jim, our vibraphonist!

Jim’s, a native of Niskayuna, New York, and the newly appointed Principal Timpanist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. (Yes, you read that right, the vibraphone is actually not his primary instrument!)

Previously, Jim was the Principal Timpanist of the Seattle Symphony, the Associate Principal Percussionist and Assistant Principal Timpanist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and a section percussionist with the Sarasota Opera. He also has performed with the Boston Pops, Malaysian Philharmonic, Sarasota Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Albany Symphony, and the New World Symphony, and toured with the Star Wars in Concert Orchestra.

As an educator, Jim was on faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and the Luzerne Music Center. Jim enjoys teaching and coaching a variety of subjects, including timpani, percussion, and chamber music. He also has a passion for performing and teaching jazz vibraphone, stemming from his time touring as the vibraphonist of The Waitiki 7.

Jim received his Artist Diploma from Duquesne University, his Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and his Bachelor of Music from the Berklee College of Music.

In addition to the HSO and Lewers Lounge concerts, Jim will be performing and speaking at the B # = C Success seminar. Welcome Jim!

06/02/2026

Meet The WAITIKI 7!

Say 👋 to Tim Mayer , our extraordinary wind player, composer, arranger, -and now- orchestrator!

Tim attended and teaches at and now has a thriving career throughout Mexico, where he also is an artistic director for . A polyglot and master of many, many instruments, jazz and Latin jazz idioms, he is both a true renaissance man and trailblazer for Exotica, and has been with the band almost since the beginning, c. 2004/05.

06/02/2026

🦜🗿🍹🎶

The modern exotica ensemble Waitiki 7 will perform at several venues, including with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra in a one-night performance at the Neal…

05/31/2026

📣 CDs available for Waitiki Weekend!

Our smash hit “Exotica Reborn” will be on sale this weekend. This album combines our vinyl releases “Caves of the Sea” and “Enchantment Under the Kiawe Tree: Live at House Without A Key” for a brilliant combo of Studio-recorded and Live performance, and two has tracks not available on the streaming services. “Exotica Reborn” spent 27 weeks on the JazzWeek charts, peaking at #25!! It’s been heard on over 1,000 radio stations across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and numerous internet radio, streaming services, and editorial playlists. And chronicled by incredible music mags, including SPIN, Goldmine Music, Jazziz, JazzTimes, UK Jazz News, and more!

Don’t have a CD player anymore (or yet)? NYT Wirecutter has some great recommendations for modern players that have Bluetooth and USB-C functionality. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-portable-cd-player/

Or you can purchase digitally from waitiki.bandcamp.com

05/30/2026

Yesterday we got a behind-the-scenes, sneak peek of the tour of Blaisdell Concert Hall by architectural historian Don Hibbard, with representative Micah Miyagi! We (Helen and Randy) have been inside many, many times but to walk through and behold its understated charm is just the inspiration we needed. It’s really special to get to do this with Docomomo Hawaiʻi, and for it to be tied in with our concert, brings together the structure, aesthetic, and majesty of architecture, design, and music. This union of arts and culture is truly what makes Hawaiʻi a special place and the one we call home.

The Blaisdell Concert Hall walking tour is free to 6/5 ticket holders. Please RSVP to [email protected] so we can get a headcount. Meet at 5:45 on the side lanai (slide 2) nearest McKinley High School.

The tour will finish by 6:30, at which all attendees will exit the concert hall and need to go through concert security and have their tickets scanned.

Our pre-concert Lobby Lounge opens to ticketholders at 6:30 and will feature exotica spun by , vintage fashion from Goodwill Goes Glam, historic Exotica instruments from the Martin Denny Estate, and more!

See you then!