Posted on: Friday, October 3, 2003

Where the boys are: A weekend of song and dance

• Martin Denny tribute seeks vision of paradise
• Woodland theme weaves through hula concert

Tony Conjugacion, foreground, and keyboardist Gregg Kaneaiakala rehearse for tonight's "Kamau Pono VI" concert at the Hawai'i Theatre. Conjugacion is producing and directing the show. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

TODAY

Tony Conjugacion has a passion for Hawaiian music and dance. This zeal is gloriously reflected in two of his current projects: a just-released CD that re-creates his vintage "Hawaiian Passion" album, and a Hawai'i Theatre concert tonight assembling male singers and dancers who don't normally work together.

Both events are defining moments in Conjugacion's chameleon-like artistic life. He keeps changing, recharging, sharing, taking risks and growing in the process.

The new CD, recapturing the magic of his 1986 Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning original album, was re-recorded, top to bottom, mostly because the highly valued and touted vintage disc is now out of print.

Jerry Santos will offer his beloved "Ku'u Home O Kahalu'u" at tonight's concert. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser 'Kamau Pono VI — Na Kane O Ka Mele, Na Kane O Ka Hula' An evening of Hawaiian song and dance, presented by Halau Na Wainohia 7 p.m. today Hawai'i Theatre $18 528-0506 Featuring: Tony Conjugacion, Jerry Santos, Peter Rockford Espiritu, Kau'i Kamana'o, Manu Boyd, Robert Cazimero, Bill Ka'iwa, George Holokai, Darren Benitez, Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett, Keawe Lopes, O'Brian Eselu, Michael Kekaimoku Yoshikawa

"It's been my most popular recording," he said of the package that contains precious Hawaiiana, mostly sung in crisp falsetto tones, wrapped up with simple but poignant instrumentation. He reassembled his original back-up musicians to play on the new session, note for note, just like the first. Thus, something old is new again in his life — an unprecedented venture in his profile.

The Hawaiiana evening also is close to his heart and reflects the breadth of his involvement in the music community. "It's all about who contributed what in the Hawaiian music industry," Conjugacion said of "Kamau Pono VI — Na Kane O Ka Mele, Na Kane O Ka Hula (A Tribute to Men of Song, Men of Dance)," which is an all-male version of an all-female evening he staged last year.

"It's not really based on friendships," Conjugacion said of his star-studded cast. "It's mostly an opportunity to work with people who don't normally get to perform together. It's not even about competition — we all get along."

The point, he said, is to provide visual and aural punctuations in the annals of Island music. It's kind of a mix-and-match formula, linking a dancer with a singer who rarely share the same stage, or are doing it with a new wrinkle.

For instance, Robert Cazimero, known principally as a singer and kumu hula, only dances here. Manu Boyd, who often combines dancing with his singing (with his group, Ho'okena), sings for Cazimero.

Jerry Santos, the stalwart with Olomana, sings his signature "Ku'u Home O Kahalu'u" vocal, while Peter Rockford Espiritu, the prime mover of Tau Dance Theatre, re-creates the indelible choreography of the late Earnest Morgan, which has become his own calling card, in a matchless fusion of modern dance and ballet in which the language of hula takes on a magical hybrid.

When Santos got together with Espiritu for a photo shoot for this story, they quickly exchanged views about their collaboration.

"I think we can't miss a bar in the middle there," Santos said about "Kahalu'u." "You're folded like half a pretzel; we have to go slow, yeah?"

Espiritu countered: "No, you can speed it a little bit."

Is what they're sharing hula?

"There are elements of hula, or at least an extension of the hula vocabulary," said

Espiritu. "It's really a modern dance with a Hawaiian spirit, but without being disrespectful. I think that's what Earnest envisioned when he first choreographed it."

"I think we were trying to do the same thing with Hawaiian music at the time the song was written," Santos said of his groundbreaking Olomana roots. "Earnest wasn't only doing modern; he had jazz and hula too."

Santos said when he appeared in a recent program at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo campus, a Hawaiian girl danced to his "Kahalu'u" vocal. "It was slightly different from Peter's, but clearly Earnest's choreography," said Santos. "Earnest is gone; it's really nice that people are doing his dance."

In producing and directing "Kamau Pono," Conjugacion said that his participating troupers have demonstrated an uncanny level of mutual respect. "These guys wanted to be a part of it; there is so much trust among them."

By comparison, he said, working with women last year was, er, a challenge. "The guys understand the concept; all kane singing and dance, for the common goal. The women? Well, there were some early questions: Who's doing that song, and why? I anticipated some ego problems, but as it turned out, there were no divas, no trouble. But the guys are easier to deal with."

While he remains an advocate of hula, Conjugacion said his halau fund-raising efforts go beyond the boundaries of dance. "Our shows allow for some leeway. One of the things I have a hard time with is going to another halau fund-raiser, and you see students doing nothing but hula. While I enjoy hula, it's not always for everybody, particularly if you're not connected to a specific halau. It's so much more entertaining to enlist your peers and put on a program that's fun — and varied."

For this production, only men of his Halau Na Wainohia will join the cast.

There is one woman involved, however — The Honolulu Skylark will emcee.

In remounting "Hawaiian Passion" for a new generation of listeners (and older folks who yearn for a CD version to replace old vinyl), Conjugacion had a lot of ground to cover. The original masters were owned by a Japanese company, which wasn't going to release the material.

With continued interest in that nearly-18-year-old release, Conjugacion huddled with record producer Jon de Mello of the Mountain Apple Company and tracked the logistics of asking the original musicians if they didn't mind the stroll down memory lane, getting the original arrangements down on paper, and finally recreating the original.

"Fortunately, I had a bootleg CD copy of the disc; my reference copy is an LP (long-playing 33¡ disc), which I cannot play 'cause I don't have a turntable anymore," Conjugacion said. "So we had to play the CD and get the proper instrumentation."

"We were able to put the components into place," he said. Leila Kiaha returned on keyboards, Charlie Fukuba on steel guitar, Jeff Rasmussen on guitar and vocals.

"The test was to show the maturity in my voice; it has been 18 years," he said. "Over time, people change, voices change. It was a stroke of luck that we were able to round up the original crew and do the whole thing over, yet capture the spirit of the original."

The original was recorded at John Chang's downtown studio. The new version was done at de Mello's home studio at Palehua.

Conjugacion — known variously over the years as Little Anthony, Tony C. and Tony C. Avanti — has had a blessedly varied career, singing and dancing Hawaiian, infrequently resorting to pop, temporarily turning to the Broadway stage (in "Miss Saigon") and lately serving as a TV talent show judge (on "Hawaii Stars").

In completing the album, Conjugacion faced some personal crises. "Some songs I wrote for specific individuals (who are) gone, passed away. So singing the original songs, knowing the early relationships no longer exist, changed the mana'o a little bit. Hawaiians always write a specific song for a specific person or purpose."

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

• • •

The sultry Don Tiki Dancers — from left, Carrissa, Summer, Alaana, Julie and Lokelani — will add their own brand of exotica to Saturday night's "Primitiva" event.

Martin Denny tribute seeks vision of paradise

SATURDAY

If all goes as planned, "Primitiva," Don Tiki's high-spectacle tribute to exotica pioneer Martin Denny, will conclude with the guest of honor essentially paying tribute to himself with a performance of some of his classics.

And that's just the way it should be, says Don Tiki choreographer Tunui Tully.

Tully said the perfect exotica stage performance is a melding of music and movement, a moment in which performers and audience surrender their conscious minds to "a beautiful dream of paradise."

•	'Primitiva' 7:30 p.m. Saturday Hawai'i Theatre $22-$36; also, $92 VIP ticket includes pre-show reception at Indigo, two-CD set of Don Tiki, poster signed by Martin Denny and Don Tiki. 528-0506

And what better way to honor the dean of exotica than by having him participate in a dream of his own making?

"I see this performance as a return to paradise for (Denny) and for all of us who enjoy his work," said Tully, whose mother and three aunts were Denny's first dancers.

"Primitiva," which borrows its name from an old Denny recording, takes place Saturday at the Hawai'i Theatre. The event features performances by Don Tiki and the Don Tiki Dancers, with special guests Ho'okena, Teresa Bright, Buddy Fo, Chant, Willow Chang, and Augie and Lopaka Col—n. To complement Don Tiki's eclectic brand of jazz-based exotica, Tully said his dancers will take a classical burlesque approach, with retro choreography that invokes everything from Josephine Baker's African-influenced performances to French can-can to '50s-era Hollywood revues.

The show has been in the works since May, when Denny joined Don Tiki at a tiki-themed show at La Mariana. Though he wasn't scheduled to perform, Denny obliged the overflow crowd that came to see him with a short set of classics. After the performance, he told Don Tiki co-founder Lloyd Kandell that it had always been his dream to play Carnegie Hall.

"I told him that I don't have those types of connections," Kandell says, laughing. "But I said, 'What about Hawai'i's Carnegie Hall — the Hawai'i Theatre?' "

DENNY

With the old master's blessing, Kandell, who grew up with Denny's album covers framed and mounted on his bedroom wall, worked with partner Kit Ebersbach and the rest of the Don Tiki crew to organize Saturday's show.

"We're doing this to pay tribute to Marty because he really is an international icon," Kendall said. "His song 'Quiet Village' spawned a million lu'aus worldwide. He represents the sense of fun that was there around the statehood era."

Tully, who has spent his entire life around the Waikiki entertainment scene, said he hopes the performance will serve as a call to local establishments to return to the strengths of Hawai'i's unique and diverse entertainment history.

Tully said the tiki culture so often associated with exotica music and South Seas kitsch is rooted in a very real appreciation and recognition of the past.

"Tikis are time capsules that show human conditions at different times," he said. "They preserve for us a vision of what paradise means. That's what exotica does, too. It frees us from the constraints of the mind and brings us back to the primitive origins of dance and music."

• • •

Woodland theme weaves through hula concert

SUNDAY

It's a rare day when kumu hula Manu Boyd isn't juggling several jobs at once, so now and then he appreciates a friendly nudge in the right direction. The theme for his sixth annual fund-raiser, for example, was one such welcome suggestion.

"I needed something so I could see the forest for the trees, so I could focus in on that," said Boyd, as he launched into the final days before Sunday's "'Aha Mele" concert.

Manu Boyd, with members of his Halau o ke 'A'ali'i Ku Makani. Sunday's concert at the Hawai'i Theatre will feature Boyd and his musical ensembles, the halau and several guest performers. 'Aha Mele VI Featuring Manu Boyd and Halau o ke 'A'ali'i Ku Makani 4 p.m. Sunday Hawai'i Theatre Guest artists: Raiatea Helm, Kaumakaiwa "Lopaka" Kanaka'ole, Ho'okena and Na'a $20-$40 528-0506

So in one of those gang brainstorming sessions that's part of halau life, he said, the dancers called out some favorite songs about birds and flowers and such until one student, Cathy Kam-Ho, noticed the woodland thread that ran throughout the list.

"Ka Wao Nahele — The Forest" is the idea that helped him select an assortment of compositions. Anyway, forests are classic hula settings, so it wasn't hard to find songs about everything from snails to waterfalls.

"From that I was able to build a segment that combines oli (chant), hula kahiko as well as modern songs and hula 'auana," he said. "There will be a video multimedia presentation; it's an unusual blend of live dance, live music and prerecorded narration."

The kumu's brother, Tommy Boyd, who manages the grounds at Bishop Museum, will be stage designer again. The assembled ferns, the 'ie'ie vines, the lehua and koa branches will create a bit of a woodland look for Hawai'i Theatre, Boyd said; some of them are sacred to hula, which is always a fairly verdant presentation in any case.

The concert will spotlight guest artists such as singers Raiatea Helm and Kaumakaiwa "Lopaka" Kanaka'ole, as well as Boyd's two musical combos. There's the well-known Ho'okena and the recently formed ensemble, Na'a. The new group, with whom Boyd hopes to record, includes Kala'i Stern (formerly of Ale'a), his hula brother Keala Chock and Ikaika Rawlins, a fellow staffer with Boyd at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Boyd works as a public affairs officer at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs during an exceptionally busy year for that agency; and, if that's not enough on his plate, he's planning to bring Halau o ke 'A'ali'i Ku Makani to its first Merrie Monarch hula competition in April.

Boyd has chosen a chant written by his great-great-grandmother for the kahiko (ancient hula) portion of that auspicious debut, but is undecided on the modern ('auana) selection. Not that it's a problem: Composer Boyd will probably write that himself.

But even someone like Boyd, who laughs when accused of being an overachiever, can't do everything. He's had to bow out of his spot as KITV commentator for the prestigious, televised hula event.

"I only want to go to Merrie Monarch two times," he said, "so I asked KITV if I could have my job back after that."

In 2005, Robert Cazimero will mark his school's 30th anniversary by bringing Halau Na Kamalei to compete at the Merrie Monarch. Cazimero was Boyd's and Chock's teacher, so Boyd wanted to return that year, too.

After weighing in on other performances in his commentator role, Boyd feels a touch of pressure now that his students are taking the stage.

"This is like putting my money where my mouth is," he said. "It was always my job to react to other performances. Now it's my turn to put what I've done on the table."