The question at the heart of the debate of Exotica vs. The Other is finally voiced. Thankfully it comes from someone who knows jazz, Hawaii, and exotica. Nate Chinen, an esteemed jazz critic, known for his writings for the New York Times, JazzTimes, and Village Voice asks, “was Exotica a species of Hawaiian music” and follows it with a thoughtful commentary at his blog, The Gig. Chinen, who was born and raised in Honolulu, is no stranger to exotica or its musicians—he studied drums with Harold Chang, gigged with many of the Islands’ finest jazzers, and wrote remembrances of Arthur Lyman when Lyman passed away.

Exotica was by definition a mongrel genre, hovering not only between “modern” and “native” but also between the West and the Orient, between honor and exploitation, between shrewdness and kitsch. Because it was an instrumental pop music during the era when jazz was pop, there’s quite a bit of overlap in terms of style and repertoire. Musicians like Denny came from a similar school of thought as George Shearing, though their arranging strategies actually fell more in line, at the end of the day, with Sun Ra.

Check out the whole article online here. Nate wasn’t able to catch any of the shows during our East Coast tour, so if you saw and liked us, please comment below his post to let him know!

Download Nate Chinen’s “Exotica: It Takes A Village” as a PDF