Hoping to Catch That Wave

A new Grammy category for surf music?

“I’m filling out the paperwork,” says John Zambetti, a voting member of the Grammy-bestowing recording academy. He’s also singer, songwriter and guitarist for the surf band the Malibooz.

“Why not? They’ve got polka and merengue categories,” he says. “Surf music has had a worldwide influence. People should really take a look.”

Zambetti knows the odds are slim, so for now he’s content to champion the music through his group’s music and such events as Saturday’s Endless Summer Reunion surf music concert and fund-raiser at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana.

The Malibooz will share the bill with three other Southland surf bands: the Blue Hawaiians, the Torquays and the Sandals, the 1960s San Clemente group that composed and performed the musical score for “Endless Summer,” director Bruce Brown’s 1966 classic surf film. The beneficiary is the nonprofit Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum.

“Southern California gets put down a lot, as if there is no culture here,” says Zambetti, who works as an emergency room physician in Lancaster and lives in Malibu. “To me, surf music really synthesizes all the different aspects of Southern California culture: The music echoes the sounds of the ocean; the guitar work is a [culturally diverse] mixture of Middle Eastern and Spanish music [with rock], and the lyrics celebrate the Southern California lifestyle. Maybe it’s a little rosier than it really is, but it’s a reflection of something that’s truly ours, and we really should embrace it.”

Surf music grew out of the instrumental rock tradition of such late-’50s hits as Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser,” the Champs’ “Tequila” and Link Wray’s “Rumble,” records that put the sound of the electric guitar front and center.

Such instrumentals quickly became a favorite among surfers, mostly dance-happy teens whose parties didn’t need lyrics or singers.

Two Southland acts working simultaneously launched the surf music craze: Orange County’s Dick Dale and the Deltones and South Bay surf band the Belairs.

Those acts inspired brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, cousins Mike Love and friend Al Jardine to mimic the surf sound and add vocal harmonies when they formed the Beach Boys.

The tide went out on surf music the minute the Beatles and other British rock groups stepped ashore in the mid-’60s. At least that’s the conventional wisdom, and it’s true to the extent that few surf bands, especially the instrumental groups, had any significant effect on the charts after 1966.

But when director Quentin Tarantino opened his 1994 film “Pulp Fiction” with Dale’s “Misirlou,” a surf music renaissance that had begun in 1979 hit high gear.

“Ever since the music was featured in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ the number of bands playing, recording or performing surf music just keeps growing,” says John Blair, a surf music historian and leader of the surf band Jon & the Nightriders.

“‘Pulp Fiction’ had the same effect on surf music in 1984 that ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ has had on bluegrass and mountain music. I think the conditions were similar then: Kids had gotten tired of hearing the same stuff and musicians are looking for something different to play.”

Blair, who organized Saturday’s concert, can name two dozen bands playing surf music in Southern California and a dozen first-wave groups that are still active.

He also keeps a list of at least 70 bands around the world playing surf music, in Norway (Beat Tornadoes), Finland (Laika & the Cosmonauts), Japan (Surf Coasters), New Zealand (Hollow Grinders), Croatia (Bambi Molesters), Germany (Los Banditos) and Israel (Astroglides).

Today’s bands generally fall into one of two camps.

The first holds tight to the original model of reverb-drenched music played on Fender Stratocaster guitars through Fender Dual Showman amplifiers.

Those were the key tools that guitar-maker Leo Fender created in conjunction with Dale, who reportedly destroyed 40 Fender amplifiers before he and Fender came up with a design that could withstand Dale’s drive to re-create in music the exhilarating feeling he got riding a surfboard.

The other camp strives to expand surf music with more complex song structures, varied instrumentation and, in those that incorporate vocals, thematic issues that go beyond beach parties and hot rods.

“We’re not trying to re-create the past,” says Gaston Georis of the Sandals, which is giving its first live performance Saturday since the band broke up in 1968. “We’ve all evolved as musicians and as human beings in different ways.”

“We’re still going to play some of the ‘Endless Summer’ music,” adds Belgium-born Georis. “We’re not there to snub our nose at anything or anyone.”

And what of Grammy recognition?

“If doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen,” says Zambetti. “But it would be nice to recognize something that’s really part of American culture.”

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The Sandals, the Blue Hawaiians, the Malibooz, the Torquays and the Reventlos play Saturday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 6 p.m. $18-$100; proceeds benefit the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum. (714) 957-0600.