Ozomatli ready for more 'good vibes' in Hawai'i

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Multi-ethnic, multi-rhythmic Ozomatli returns for a concert at the World Cafe. Illustration by Nick Gervais • The Honolulu Advertiser Ozomatli 7 p.m. Tuesday World Cafe $20 526-4400 Also: Opening will be Quadraphonix, and DJs Evil and Jedi

Lounging in the artificially heated climes of a tour bus parked outside Harry O's, a World Cafe clone in chilly Park City, Utah, Ozomatli member Ulises Bella was already focused on a Honolulu gig two weeks away.

"We don't think we've gotten to play in Hawai'i enough," said Bella, Ozomatli's tenor saxophonist/guitarist/clarinetist/vocalist. "It's really crazy. One of our biggest (collection of) fans is Hawai'i, so we're really looking forward to it."

The success of the multi-ethnic, multirhythmic Los Angeles-based crew's last Honolulu appearance — in August 2000 at Aloha Tower Marketplace's now retrofitted Pier Bar for an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 — came as something of a surprise to both the band and concert promoter Goldenvoice.

"Total surprise!" exclaimed Bella, memories of the dockside gig still crystalline. "There was just this incredible niceness and all-around good vibes that people gave us that night."

Karin Last, Goldenvoice Hawai'i operations manager, said: "We only had about 300 tickets pre-sale, but we got this huge walk-up crowd that we never expected." Last credited some heavy grass-roots promotion from local disc jockeys who were fans of the band, and some legwork by Ozomatli members for the huge success of the Pier Bar show.

"The band came in a week early for a Kenwood (Cup) Convention, so I gave them a box of flyers to hand out, too," said Last, laughing. "They're very nice guys. True musicians ... who sound like they really love what they're doing."

Moved by the Pier Bar audience turnout and response — as well as the band's entire local experience — Ozomatli members thanked the base of Hawai'i fans it never knew it had on the liner notes of last year's "Embrace the Chaos," the band's second and most recent release.

"We met a lot of good people (in Hawai'i) ... people who offered us so much," Bella said. "We were only happy to return it, musically."

Ozomatli (the name comes from the Aztec word for god of dance) returns yet another favor to Honolulu fans Tuesday with a single performance of its critically lauded "Embrace" live show at the World Cafe. The 90-minute show was a hit last year with fans of Wayne Shorter and David Sanborn at the Playboy Jazz Festival, as well as with Jane's Addiction and Chemical Brothers followers at the alt-rock leaning Coachella Arts & Music Festival. It's said to be as high-energy brash as the raucous sonic collage of musical rhythms and styles that tussle for attention on the group's recorded work.

The band was formed in the wake of bassist/vocalist Wil-Dog Abers' 1995 shout out to a motley bunch of his Los Angeles-area musician friends to lend some musical support for strikers in an inner-city labor dispute. Ozomatli is best known for a couple of things.

First, its heady, yet surprisingly organic, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink musical stew of hip-hop, salsa, jazz, funk, rock, punk, ska, cumbia and mariachi stylings, which reflect the multi-ethnic backgrounds and multihued musical tastes of band members.

Second, but no less important, is a commitment to social and political activism. This largely bypasses the triviality of angry lyrics and poseur theatrics in favor of (gasp!) actual involvement in the causes and organizations the band supports.

"I would say 90 percent of our early gigs ... were playing for other social causes," Bella said of gratis gigs for AIDS awareness, immigrant rights and domestic abuse, among others. "It was a feeling of not only getting to play music you love and being around super-talented people, but trying to make a difference doing it, too."

An uptick in popularity (not to mention paying gigs) since the 1998 release of its self-titled debut disc and 2001's "Embrace" have hardly diminished Ozomatli's schedule of free dates for the many causes the band supports. A link marked "activism" on the group's official Web site offers additional links to organizations from the United Farm Workers and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal to Revolutionary Worker and Refuse and Resist.

"It's something I think we'll always do," Bella said of Ozomatli's activism and community work. "I mean, just yesterday, we spent an afternoon before our show at this boys and girls club in Lake Tahoe and just jammed for the kids and hung out with them. That was fun."

Ozomatli's inimitable sound collage has changed little since the band's last Honolulu appearance, despite changes in the group's lineup. Gone are drummer William Marrufo and alto saxophonist Jose Espinoza, as well as DJ Cut Chemist and rapper Chali2na, both returning to full-time membership in Jurassic 5.

In addition to Bella and Abers, Ozomatli's eight-member lineup includes Jiro Yamaguchi on percussion, Kanetic Source on rap vocals, Raul Pacheco on guitar, Andy Mendoza on drums, Justin Poree on percussion and Asdru Sierra on trumpet and lead vocals.

And if the overwhelmingly positive reviews of Ozomatli shows earlier this month (as part of the SnowCore Icicle Ball Tour with Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Blackalicious and slam poet Saul Williams) are any indication, Honolulu fans of the band are again in store for a treat.

Fresh from its first Grammy win for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album only five days earlier, Ozomatli began its Park City performance with a conga line of drums and horns from the back of Harry O's to the stage and went straight into the rousing "1234" from "Embrace."

From there, acoustic guitars, horns, turntable artistry, percussion, rap vocals and even a touch of "near-falsetto" were woven into an energetic live show. It had the Salt Lake Tribune calling the band "one furiously tight collective intent on creating a sweaty dance floor."

The Harry O's set even included a trippy finale of Ozzy and Big Bird faves that would be criminal to name-check outright should the band decide to resurface the tunes at World's.

"If you saw the CD collections of the people in this band, you'd find everything, you know?" said Bella, laughing off a query about the band members' worldwide musical tastes. "Everybody listens to so much in this band. These people are just really into music, period."