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I always assumed Don Draper of Lifetime TV’s Mad Men would listen to Johnny Cash or Elvis Presley, but suburban party boys in the 1950s and 60s more likely kicked up their feet to a different genre: exotica.  Just as the name implies, exotica capitalizes on the fantasy of island culture where blue seas isolate you from the pressures of the world and bikini-clad women samba on the sand.  Here in Kansas City, the genre is alive and well in the band BongoTini.

The BongoTini playlist includes the wild sounds of the tropics complete with animal cries and bird calls. They play everything from Polynesian, Hawaiian, Caribbean, and African-inspired arrangements to the Latin samba, rhumba, mambo, bossa nova and cha-cha. Other sub-genres they perform include spy and space age which were inspired by 50s and 60s movies. These madcap chase movies capitalized on a fan lifestyle, like hot rods or surfing, also made their own special contributions to the genre.  There’s strip jazz, beatnik, hipster and a category BongoTini refers to as “serious cheese.”  If you don’t like a song, wait a minute and you will.

The ensemble is amazingly versatile. Made up of multi-talented musicians from around the metro and Lawrence, KS, all but the drummer sing, and all but Richard (a.k.a. Rocco) Walker play auxiliary percussion.

Greg Tugman wails on the soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones.  He has a gentle way with flute and I’m pretty sure there was clarinet in his tool box of wind instruments. He also supports the group with his mellow electric guitar and provides that ever important addition to the band, the ukulele.

From behind the keyboard of his synthesizer, Robert Klery fills the ensemble with the retro goodness of the Hammond B3, marimba, vibraphone and melodica but it’s the lovely ladies Sunny Yoon and Cynthia Walker (wife of Rocco) who give BongoTini its special sizzle.  Soprano and alto, respectively, their voices have the earthy sweetness of Astrid Gilbert and the back-up singer from Brazil 66, Gracinha Leporace. In addition to the super-sexy vocal "ahhs" that transport the audience to a tropical Shangri-La, these women are adept at singing multiple styles including traditional jazz and cabaret. 

The group was the brainchild of singer and bassist, Richard Walker. “I realized that there were lots of people out there who love the music but almost no one was playing it live.  Those who were playing live shows weren’t playing many of the styles and nobody seemed to be using full-out arrangements. So I invited the people I thought would suit the project and started adapting and creating arrangements for us to play.”  Joined by veteran drummer, Kenn Blurton, playing every percussion instrument in the arsenal and alternating styles with ease, BongoTini gives audiences an aural trip to the tropics. 

PREVIEW:
BongoTini
Wednesday, September 22^nd, 2010
7:00pm-9:30pm
Le Fou Frog
400 E 5th St, Kansas City, MO 64106
For more information visit www.bongotini.com

By Megan Browne Helm

Classical, Vocal and Theatre Contributor

Megan Browne Helm grew up singing, dancing and acting.  Inspired by Emma Kirkby as a high school student in St. Louis she went on to study voice and sing with the Collegium Musicum at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where she also had a radio show of contemporary classical music on WOBC.  At the University of Kansas she had the pleasure of working with former Kings’ Singer, Simon Carrington in his Collegium Musicum and Oread consort. Years later, she was a choral fellow at the Yale School of Music’s  Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.  She is currently singing with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus under the direction of Charles Bruffy. 

 As a freelance music and culture writer her work can be found on KCMetropolis.org, presentmagazine.com, the Lawrence Journal World, Shawnee Magazine, Leawood Lifestyle Magazine and KC Parent.  She was one of 26 journalists in the country chosen as a NEA Institute Fellow for Classical Music and Opera at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. 

Her current interest is how classical music remains relevant through active collaborations with artists in different fields, including science.  She also sees a connection between classical music, travel and food as a way to engage all of the senses in a 360 degree cultural experience.  She blogs at raworganum.wordpress.com.

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