Live ‘Ukulele: The Blog

My family and I went to see Jimmy Buffett at the Waikiki Shell last Thursday.

Jake Shimabukuro opened for Jimmy by trading licks with steel drummer Robert Greenidge on Gently Weeps and Lets Dance. After he opened, Jake played backup for Jimmy on and off throughout the entire show.

The concert was great, entertaining on stage and off.

Jimmy, Jake and the Coral Reefer Band played:

• One Particular Harbour
• License to Chill
• Weather With You
• Son of a Son of a Sailor
• Come Monday
• Elvis Presley Blues
• Changes In Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
• Bama Breeze
• Cheeseburger in Paradise
• Fins
• Brown Eyed Girl
• Hula Girl At Heart
• Cowboy In The Jungle
• Banana Republics
• Waiting In Vain
• It’s My Job
• The Tiki Bar Is Open
• It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere (w/Mac)
• Dukes On Sunday
• Volcano
• A Pirate Looks At Forty
• Redemption Song (Bob Marley Cover)
• Margaritaville

First Encore:

• Scarlet Begonias
• Southern Cross

Second Encore:

• Back To The Island
• Lovely Cruise

It’s been a while since I have written anything, so let me get you caught up…

First of all some of my friends and I have been working on a new ‘ukulele website – Live ‘Ukulele (name and URL subject to change).

We went to the Hawaii Music Celebration down south in Na’alehu. Performing there was Uncle Keoki Kahumoku along with bruddah Kekoa (one of my buddies from the Pahala workshops!), Sean Na’auao and Robi Kahakalau, Paula Fuga, the RSP Crew, and Inoa’ole. The first three performances were the best. Then RSP came in and was really bad. I was surprised because their recorded songs are good (but it might have been the sound engineer’s fault, he had the bass up way too high). Inoa’ole would have been good if the sound guy brought the bass down for them.

Another ten day Pahala ‘Ukulele, Slack-key, and Steel Guitar Workshop is coming up in November, with the teachers being (drum roll please): Keoki Kahumoku, Herb Ohta Jr., John Keawe, George Kahumoku, Brittni Paiva, Jeff Peterson, Diane Aki, Sonny Lim, Lelehua Yuen, and Konabob (and maybe Led Ka’apana). November 30 – December 8, $950 per person, bring your aloha.

And finally today we went to see the Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau perform at the Lanihau shopping center. They were great! With them for a couple of songs was Hoku Zuttermeister. After the show all three of the Sons signed my old ‘ukulele, so the uke now has the signatures of Alex Kawakami (of Manoa DNA), Louis “Moon” Kauakahi, John Koko, and Jerome Koko!

Opening for the Sons was Sonny Lim along with a guy who had a triple necked ‘ukulele:

I went up to the Kings Shops in Waikoloa last Saturday for their lei day celebration. It was cool; there were beautiful lei on display and I got to see Brittni Paiva perform. Brittni put on a great show. She played a few songs that I hadn’t heard before. One of them was “Journey Home” and I got it on tape:

I had a very busy weekend – now I am kind of tired.

On friday, I went with my dad to the Doobie Brothers concert. It. Was. Awesome! They had a local rock/blues/country band open up for them who were pretty good. Then we had to wait for some 30 minutes before the Doobie Bros – all 8 of them (I think) – came out. They opened with “Dangerous” – by the way the music is really loud at this point – and then played four or five more songs before even talking to us. After another 10 or 11 songs they went offstage to leave us hanging. Then they came back out to play “China Grove”, “This Train I’m On” plus a couple more, and then they finished up with “Listen to the Music”. “Listen to the Music” was cool because all of the band members’ kids came out to play and sing; the one that stood out most to me was Pat Simmons’s son who played lead guitar.

On Saturday I went to Waimea for Kahilu Theater’s Ukulele and Slack key Institute. There I took two classes: Ukulele II and Strum like the Wind II. Ukulele II was just learning some hand-out songs taught by Gordon Mark. Strum like the Wind II was a tecnique thing about the triple strum tought by James Hill.

After the ukulele classes we went to the Music Exchange in Waimea. They had some nice stuff, naturally the ukuleles stuck out to me the most. I took a $1200 (don’t drop it) one for a test drive – incredible.  I walked out of the shop with some knowledge and a low G string. My uke has lousy projection so the wound string helps with that. It also lets me play riffs that were too low to play before.

I got tickets to the Doobie Brothers concert for my birthday (I was wrong about not going) and will be rockin’ away on November 10.

My dad is wondering how many of the original band members will be there, so I found out who’s who for the Doobies live preformance:

Guy Allison – Keyboards/Vocals
Michael Hossack – Drums
Tom Johnston – Vocals/Guitar
John McFee – Guitar/Strings/Vocals
Marc Russo – Saxophones
Pat Simmons – Vocals/Guitar
Skylark – Bass/Vocals
Ed Toth - Drums

(From http://www.doobiebros.com/)

We had a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in the islands yesterday morning. The whole state was without power for the better part of the day.

Guess what, the Doobie Brothers are going to be performing at the Hilton Waikoloa on November 10. But again the tickets are expensive so I won’t be going.

My family and I went to see Leabert Lindsey and the Hapalaka band perform at the Keahou Shopping Center yesterday. They have been performing for years and play some of the best paniolo music around. I think they played 8 or 9 songs but it felt like longer because his sister was talking in between. Leabert plays guitar and the Hapalakas play bass, ukulele, drums, congas, and lead slack-key guitar.

I went to the 60th annual Aloha Festival’s Poke contest at the Hapuna Prince Beach Hotel a couple of days ago. It was great, I got to eat poke (raw fish mixed with soy sauce, lime, seaweed and other good stuff) and listen to a hilarious MC. With more activities coming up later that afternoon, my family and I went and goofed around in Kawaihae and Waimea.

After all that we returned to the hotel to wait for 7:00. I wandered around the grounds, going up and down stairs and elevators until it was time to go see the Brothers Cazimero. Once we got in the doors we found seats in the sixth row. Then we watched Darlene Ahuna play some Hawaiian songs with her band.

Then the Cazimero Brothers, Robert on the bass, and Roland on twelve string guitar came out to set up.

They were incredible! Even though I didn’t recognize some of their songs, it was easy to see the skill that these guys possessed. Roland is easily the greatest guitar player I have ever seen, he can play! On their version of Waimanalo Blues Roland jammed three of his strings off (jammed as in broke).

I would highly recommend seeing the Brothers Cazimero live to anybody who appreciates music.