Columns

Night Out

By Alvin Koo

One of the best new music venues is Na Mele Nei, a free concert featuring island headliners and sponsored by Native Books at Ward Warehouse.  Native Books is hoping to make this the new local scene, especially for bands breaking out with new CDs.  Na Mele is Sundays 2-4 p.m. at the Wardhouse amphitheater. 

We enjoyed Opihi Picker and Stacie Taniguchi one recent Sunday.  Opihi Picker has a lead ukulele, not quite as flashy as Jake, but with the same audience pleasing personality that can ham it up, wink and smile.  And he must have designs on being famous with a name like Imua Garza.  Go, Imua, go.  The music is uptempo, contemporary Hawaiian and original. 

Stacie looks more than just Taniguchi-san.  She has a deep, belter type voice and likes to move it on out.  The Star-Bulletin’s John Berger said of her, “She is clearly headed for bigger things…” Let’s hope so.

Jake Shimabukuro’s second solo CD has once again taken me by surprise.  He has again impressed me with his virtuosity, unique styling and dramatic talent.  A recent news article went on for inches and inches about Jake’s moves at his recent CD party at the Willows.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know that he would play for two hours and also had to be somewhere else after about five songs—I left when he said that we should just enjoy the food and talk story.  So he may have shown some moves that I didn’t see.  But it’s not his moves that charm.  It’s his love of music and I think a love of the audience.  Plus the powerful raw talent. 

His new title song “Cross Current” has a beautiful melody that could someday become a ukulele classic, perhaps across the world.  And his take on Chick Corea’s jazz classic “ Spain ” (you’ve heard this song before) proves that Jake can stand with the best of them whether in New York or LA.  His rendition of Sting’s delicate and moving “Fragile” shows he can do much more than strum fast. 

Another of Jake’s originals is “When You’re Down,” which is a funky, heavily electrified rock ukulele tune, which sounds a bit like something Santana might do.  And Jake is only 26!  He’s already been in USA today, Acoustic Guitar magazine and the LA Times.  And he’s opened or played with Grammy award winners Diana Krall, Take 6, Bela Fleck, and Bobby McFerrin.  He recently completed a seven city tour of Japan and is signed with Sony Music Japan .

Alvin Koo has been a writer and public relations practioner in Hawaii for 30 years. His book “Stuff Nobody Told Me” can be found at Amazon.com or the Golden Phoenix bookstore in Honolulu.