2009 Aloha Falsetto Festival part 1

Wow what a weekend it was! It was like history in the making - a beautiful afternoon and evening with some of the biggest names in Hawaiian entertainment from the islands and Southern California: Kekaimoku Yoshikawa and Leokane Pryor knocked it out of the park, Pomaika'i Keawe Lyman's first ever solo concert performance, Weldon Kekauoha, Bryan Tolentino and Alika Boy delivered a solidly entertaining set which ended in Weldon's beautiful arrangement of "Queen's Jubilee"...and a very rare concert appearance by the legendary Uncle Richard Ho'opi'i - to name just a few highlights!

If you didn't make it to the show, I'll fill you in on what you missed but first I'd like to share one of my personal favorite moments: when the three kumu hula got up to dance at the end of the show! Pomaika'i sang a 3-song medley of Pauoa Liko Kalehua, Mauna Loa and Haleiwa Hula that was danced by Keali'i Ceballos, Rolanda Reese and Kekaimoku, respectively. The idea first came about when we were doing the live podcast with Piko on the Hawaiian Concert Guide and we were talking with Pomaika'i and her father Eric. They sang that medley to us over the Skype lines and someone had the idea to have the three kumu each do one of the songs. It could have been my idea because of my involvement with flamenco where that kind of thing happens very often at the end of a show - they like to get the singer or the percussionist or the guitarist to dance a little at the end to show what they know and it never fails to make the audience go nuts! Rolanda, also known as "Aunty Mohala" is a well-known kumu but is actually very shy and talk about historic moments - for her to get in front of the mic on the podcast and to get out on stage like that was a very rare thing indeed. Even I had never seen her dance before so it was such a treat to see! By the way, don't forget about the big show she's putting on August at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre Saturday August, 29, 2009.

More to come....

Ukulele Virtuoso Abe Lagrimas

I just got back home from watching a(n) ukulele performance by Abe Lagrimas in the Island Bazaar shop in Huntington Beach. This guy is amazing for not even being a full-on dedicated ukulele player. Abe's main instrument is the drums and vibes and he is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music if that tells you anything about his musical abilities. Interesting thing about him is that he actually prefers the high G string on the uke as opposed to a G tuned lower like most people who solo like to use. He actually incorporates that high G into his runs which is way more thinking than I want to do!

I first met him back in 2006 when I decided to get back into organizing concerts. This one featured Jeff Peterson, Dana Hanchard who is an incredible singer, Abe on drums (and some ukulele) and Ernie Provencher on bass. Abe has since moved to Los Angeles and is making the rounds on the jazz scene here. I was able to recruit him to play a little in my 1st Southern California Slack Key Festival and also my first Aloha Falsetto Festival, both in Redondo Beach. In the slack key show, he played with Jeff Peterson on guitar and Kristin Korb on upright bass, as part of a backup band behind Owana Salazar. And in the falsetto show, he played with Jeff Peterson again and Taumata Grey on bass as the "House Band" that backed up Steven Espaniola, Gary Haleamau and Raiatea Helm.

You must check out his CD - way more sophisticated than any other ukulele CD out there, TRUST ME. Plus he is the one, of course, playing the percussion on there. He's only like, 26 but you will be very impressed!