Add Chinese pop to Lucas' musical rainbow

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Musician Gary Lucas, dubbed "Guitarist of 1,000 ideas," says the only genres he hasn't done are polka and Hawaiian music, although he says he loves the work of Gabby Pahinui and Martin Denny. Gary Lucas 8 p.m., today The Doris Duke Theater at the Honolulu Academy of Arts $20 general, $15 seniors, students, University of Hawai'i faculty/staff, museum members 956-6878

Lucas, whose musical past includes associations with such icons as Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Jeff Buckley, Leonard Bernstein, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Bob Weir, has become a quiet phenom for exploring, recording and performing Chinese pop tunes with his broad song brush. No wonder the New York Times dubbed him "Guitarist of 1,000 ideas."

"I tour all over the world," said Lucas, who performs tonight at the Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. "It was Russia two weeks ago, L.A. recently. And Holland, too."

Same thing prevails wherever he goes, he said. "The people are bored with the present music. The thread that unifies my audiences? The repertoire in my concerts and the eclectic nature of my approach. I love everything from Chinese pop to blues, from Jewish music to jazz pieces, and this is all bound together by my love of the traditions, to which I bring my own sensibilities, which are post-modern.

"I use the vocabulary I have built up over the years, but I am respectful of the genre, fundamentally blues-based and I do not discriminate. I like all sorts of music. I'm not a snob."

He is adventurous, curious and open-minded. And perhaps a big skip and a jump ahead of his musical peers.

"About the only thing I have not done is polka," he said. "And Hawaiian music. I love Gabby Pahinui ... whose work with Ry Cooder I admired. And I love Martin Denny and that whole exotica thing."

To explain him is like describing a chef without a recipe. He stirs in a savory flavor from one culture, blends an ingredient from another, borrows a spice from still another, and voila, the Lucas main course.

So what the heck is Chinese pop?

"Chinese pop caught my ears several years ago, just after getting out of Yale," Lucas said.

He had moved to Taipei to work in his uncle's and father's import-export biz dealing with swim equipment. "I wore a suit and a tie," he said. "One of the Chinese factory owners I met told me I had the face of an artist, not a businessman. Anyway, I had a Chinese sweetheart, whom I later married, who had tapes of these two Chinese singers, and when she played them for me, I flipped. Beautiful emotions, sweet melodies, some jazz, some swing, amazing fusion. Felt like Billie Holiday, but Chinese."

Yep, Chinese pop.

That was the start of a love affair with the songs of Bai Kwong and Chow Hsuan, mid-20th-century Chinese artists who were popular Shanghai cultural forces in their heyday before World War II. Their music was not commonly known in the West.

Lucas, who now calls New York home, also lived in San Francisco, where friends of his — a Jewish groom and a Chinese bride — requested that he play Chinese pop songs for their wedding. "I did a whole album, but the label ran out of money. A French company heard me in Paris, and asked if I had a project in mind. So they put out the album and it was a big media hit, picked as one of the best of 2002."

Despite his success performing and peddling Chinese pop, Lucas said there remains a bias among Westerners about Chinese music, hinged to the misinformed belief that Chinese pop is akin to the noisy nature of Beijing opera.

So he's emerged as a one-man crusade to right the wrong, enlighten and educate — through performances of Chinese pop.

"I'm coming to grips with the music, making it as soulful as possible, without putting on the silk pajama," he said of another common cliché about Chinese musicians. "I am what I am, and while I can rock, this concert will be a mix of stuff, but all acoustic. Which is different from my electric sound, which has a harder edge. Hey, I like to dip into noise sometimes. Extreme metal. There's that rock animal side of me, too."

Ask his age, and he wisecracks, "Old enough to know better than to tell; just say approaching the mid-century point."

Reach Wayne Harada at 525-8067, fax 525-8055 or wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.