Tim Mayer’s exposure to music, namely jazz and exotica, began at age 4, when he learned to work his parents’ record player. His favorite records were by Wes Montgomery, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, and Martin Denny. He started playing saxophone when he was ten, and began learning jazz at Florida State University’s Summer Music Camp in 1980, where he found himself studying with many young and talented musicians including Marcus Roberts.

Tim has performed locally with visiting artists John Faddis, Bob Mintzer, Marvin Stamm, Arturo Sandoval, Nick Brignola Bobby Shew, and Ed Calle, percussionists Eguie Castrillo, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and Giovanni Hidalgo; trombone greats Phil Wilson and Slide Hampton, and pianists Kirk Lightsey (in Seville), and Danilo Perez. Tim Mayer and Rusty Scott have collaborated to perform a tribute to the Tough Tenors (Johnny Griffin/Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis) and the Boss Tenors (Sonny Stitt/Gene Ammons), which has featured on different occasions as special guests Bill Pierce or Andy McGhee.

Tim is on the faculty at Berklee College of Music.

Bassist and composer Randy Wong a.k.a WAITIKI’s Professor Humming Flower is responsible for the creation of some of WAITIKI’s favorite wacky tunes, including “Dew Drop Inn, If You Please, My Humming Flower,” “PAN-xotik-DA” (a song about pandas and punctuation), and the perennial “Alo-hop” favorites “Cave of Uldo” and “Plamingo Flagoda.”

A 2003 honors graduate of New England Conservatory, Randy studied bass with Todd Seeber and Cecil McBee. He also holds an Ed.M. in Arts In Education from Harvard University. Randy currently works at New England Conservatory as Program Coordinator for its Center for Music-in-Education.

More of Randy’s playing and original music can also be heard in the group Akamai Brain Collective, whose self-titled debut album was released on the independent label Pass Out Records in late 2003. The album Akamai Brain Collective was nominated for a 2004 Hawai‘i Music Award,in the category of “Best Hawaiian Instrumental Album of the Year ” and receives regular radio airplay across the nation and in Japan.

Keep up with Randy at his website, www.randywong.net.

Drummer Mikey Connors is known for his work with Combustible Edison. When not performing with WAITIKI, he can be found taking walks in the park and listening to Vivaldi.

Mr. Ho has been percussing since age 5, starting out on the piano and adding new toys to his collection all the time (most recently a set of boobams and a marching machine!) Ho-san graduated summa cum laude from Northern Arizona University (NAU) with a Degree in Percussion Performance and currently is a freelance percussionist in Boston.

Mr. Ho also arranges, and directs the 20-piece WAITIKI “Orchestrotica” but most often plays vibes in the band. Ho has shared the stage with Peter Erskine and Wallace Roney and has played at Carnegie Hall, the Hawai‘i International Jazz Festival, and as a a vibraphone concerto soloist with the Sun City Symphony (Sun City, AZ.) He also performed with the Arizona Opera Company, the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts Orchestra, and as Principal Percussionist in the Flagstaff Symphony.

A fan of world culture, Mr. Ho also speaks Spanish and Portuguese and is an amateur gourmet chef. He is also a professional web consultant and created the WAITIKI.com site. You can keep up with him at his own web site, Rhythmspice.com.