Local tunes honor those who died
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor
Three Hawai'i music acts have composed tribute songs to help in the healing following Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
DisGuyz, a five-member combo specializing in 'N Sync-type harmonies, is rush-releasing a song, "Our Nation in Song," this week. "We were in the recording studio, doing our next CD," said Jason Lent. But the images from the television broke into their concentration and Lent and the group's record producer, Elan Markos, ended up composing the new song, instead.
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, the song was completed and sample CDs distributed to radio stations. Nancy Bernal, DisGuyz's manager, is trying to get the song noticed in the music industry.
DisGuyz, comprised of Lent, Calen Aiwohi, Ian Ayson, Kimo Montgomery and K.J. Ulep, will issue the CD single on Afterthought Entertainment, with proceeds destined for appropriate charities for victims of the terroristic attacks.
The lyrics uphold a steadfast spirit:
We must stand strong, we can go on
A nation in song.
Hold our heads up high, reach for the sky
Let's join as one and overcome
Keep holding on ...
Stand proud on this day
God bless the USA ...
"One Nation in Song" by DisGuyz. Audio sample available in mp3 and RealAudio formats.
The Honolulu Jazz Quartet will premiere an original tune, "Remembrance," in memory of those who perished in the World Trade Center tragedy, at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Studio 6 at the Musicians Union, 949 Kapi'olani Blvd.
Its composer, John Kolivas, said he wrote the instrumental, with a gentle jazz and bossa nova flavor, after last Tuesday's acts of terrorism, as a therapeutic exercise.
"I finished it the day that it happened," he said. "It got me thinking, too, about the jazz musicians in Hawai'i that used to live and work here but passed away; people like Ernie Washington, Paul Madison and Trummy Young. So I thought a tribute would really help me get over this awful tragedy." There were no immediate plans to record the tune.
Kolivas said wife Deanne used to work for a law firm on the 59th floor of the World Trade Center, said Kolivas, a Honolulu Symphony bassist when he's not performing jazz. "We have many friends there and we still don't know if they're alive." The Kolivases also lived in the Big Apple for eight years, before moving back to Hawai'i.
He will premiere the tune with his quartet — Richie Pratt on drums, Dan Del Negro on piano and Tim Tsukiyama on saxophone. Azure McCall will be guest vocalist. The concert is the second by the act at Studio 6.
Kolivas has a history in the Hawai'i music scene, having regularly worked with Keola and Kapono Beamer in the heyday of their popularity, and he still performs bass with Keola in concerts and performed with Kapono on his latest CD.
Tickets: $6. Information: 596-2121.
The third tribute song is by Courtney New, a 19-year-old 2000 graduate of Moanalua High School, whose tune is entitled "(Unite) The Heart of America." KDNN-FM aired it several times last week; she was not available for comment.
