SHOW BIZ
'Ukulele happenings here, there and everywhere

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

GROOVIN': Jake Shimabukuro, the leading 'ukulele stylist of the moment, will be featured in a DVD set for June release. It will be a keeper, with a concert segment, a how-to-play section and a music video sequence. Japan (where he is ichi-ban) gets first dibs on the release; we have to wait till summer. ...

Bryan Tolentino, another uke whiz, is off to the Uke Fest West, under way today through Saturday in Santa Cruz. Other local strummers involved in the festival (a project of the 'Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum) include Byron Yasui, Chris and Casey Kamaka and Asa Young; Hoku Zuttermeister also will perform. On Sunday, the gang ventures to Hayward, Calif., for the Northern California 'Ukulele Festival. ...

Owana Salazar's "Hula Jazz" CD is just out and it sounds like a winner — a jazz motif underscoring a batch of hula classics. She'll be off to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival April 30, the first Island entertainer so honored, and the new album arrives at a fitting time. In Nawlins, Salazar performs at 12:45 p.m. April 30 in the Blues Tent and appears at 1:45 p.m. May 1 on the Fais Do-Do Stage. ...

Andy Bumatai, who'll have a recurring role in NBC's "Hawaii" series (as detective Gordon Pahu Jr.), had a flashback moment when the pilot was filmed recently. Cops descended on an apartment that turned out to be where he used to live, at 1330 Wilder Ave. "My old landlord Connie (last name omitted to protect the innocent) still lives there and had fun telling everyone how I used to drive everyone nuts talking about how I was planning to be a comedian." Hey, he wasn't lying. ...

ITEMIZATIONS: Some mean-spirited soul has stolen that banner in front of Maryknoll High School that proclaimed "Maryknoll School, Home of Jasmine Trias, Our American Idol." OK, it could have been a zealous fan, but a friend wouldn't steal something like that huge sign, would he/she?. ...

"Rock Legends," which opens a three-day run tomorrow at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, boasts a four-member combo enacting the Beatles. The actors-singers, in their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band outfits, will be out selling Kids Day editions of The Advertiser next Tuesday. Jonathan Black (as John Lennon), Russ Spencer (as Paul McCartney), Mark Lawson (as George Harrison) and Paul Sumner (as Ringo Starr) will be on Kuhio Avenue near the Ohana Maile Skycourt and TGIFriday's. A host of other local notables, from entertainers to politicians, will also be selling papers in the benefit for PACT (Parents and Children Together). ...

And even though the winners of Kids Day won't be known until Tuesday, when the special "What Ohana Means to Me" edition of The Advertiser hits the streets, one local girl is already a star: Chandler Cone, 6, a first-grader at Wai'alae School, who did the public-service announcement for the program airing on all TV stations. Little Chandler already has emerged as a celeb at her school and young fans recognized her at the Kahala Mall. ...

HERE 'N' THERE: Harry B. Soria Jr., the expert in territorial sounds, will be a Poi Boy (as in K-POI Poi Boy) for a day, when he spins rare and vintage 45-rpm discs (kids, ask your parents what these are) from 5 to 6 p.m. Sunday on "Territorial Airwaves" on Hawaiian KINE 105.1. Record collector Keven Hirabara will be a guest and provide notes and comment on classic local stars such as the Royal Drifters, Ronnie Diamond, Lance Curtis, Robin Luke, the Exquisites, the Jokers and Darlene Yoshimoto. Be there, or be square. ...

And that's Show Biz. ...

Show Biz is published Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach Wayne Harada at 525-8067, fax 525-8055 or wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.