Posted on: Tuesday, October 19, 2004

SHOW BIZ
Keola Beamer lands major recording deal

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

CULTURE CORNER: Since winning a Na Hoku Hanohano Award earlier this year, Keola Beamer has been plenty busy — touring and recently signing a major recording contract with Phoenix-based Canyon Records to collaborate with R. Carlos Nakai, the world's premier Native American flutist who has 27 albums (and counting) and Grammy nominations and awards.

After a tour of the Southwest, Maui-based Beamer spent some time with Nakai, establishing a friendship and developing a groundbreaking musical vocabulary that will explore his Hawaiian cultural roots with Nakai's own indigenous heritage. Should make for a landmark album of cross-cultural implications.

Beamer will have a chance to extend the aloha spirit when the Nakai family visits him on the Valley Island; in Phoenix, Beamer and his dancing wife, Moanalani, were hosted by the Nakais. The fruits of their collaboration and labor will be showcased in a world-premiere concert Nov. 27 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Perhaps Beamer will share his story of initiation into the desert eco-culture via an ancient olive tree. ...

Nakai earlier collaborated with Barry Flanagan, of Hapa, on specific album tracks, so his "Hawaiianization" continues to expand with the Beamer project. ...

GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Brickwood Galuteria hosts "Honolulu Magazine's 50 Greatest Albums of All Time" — the TV version — at 7 p.m. tomorrow (repeating at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30) on KGMB-9. Though formulaic in its countdown process (No. 50 to No. 1), the special unveils periodic nuggets of trivia about classic Island artists and albums. The TV treatment enables the songs and artists to be heard, albeit in brief bites, with ample reflection and comment from either the performer or a longstanding musical wizard in the community. This is a valuable document.

Among the factoids revealed: Shortbread cookies helped finance Keali'i Reichel's groundbreaking "Kawaipunahele" debut CD; the original Pure Heart (with Jake Shimabukuro) merely hoped to have an audition tape (but wound up with a hot seller) with its first CD; Kalapana derived its group name with a random point of a finger on a map; and Marlene Sai's "Kainoa" project was recorded in the old HRT bus barn.

Phil Arnone directed and produced and Robert Pennybacker scripted the show. If you've forgotten, Keola and Kapono Beamer's "Honolulu City Lights" was the No. 1 honoree in the listing. And for your information, a Mountain Apple CD highlighting tunes from the magazine article has been given a Vol. 1 tag on a new cover that removes pictures of those not heard in the release. ...

WHEE, THE PEOPLE: Maui publicist Bonnie Friedman is back from a Vermont-New York jaunt and is happy as a clam because she had perfect weather, ate a lot of good food and spent time with family. Not only that, she became a celebrity spotter, too. At Chicago's O'Hare Airport, she saw

Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, former chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism and administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004; he was surrounded by six Secret Service agents. In Vermont, Friedman encountered singer Elisabeth von Trapp getting coffee and a muffin at a cozy café; her dad was a member of that "Sound of Music" family. On a subway train in the Big Apple, Friedman spotted a solo-traveling Lauren Hutton, "looking positively stunning in sweats and a cotton cloche (bell-shaped hat) that almost-but-not-quite obscured that much-photographed face (her fabled gap teeth were a giveaway). And at John F. Kennedy Airport, she spotted singer Frankie Valli, bound for Los Angeles. ...

Hawaiian Airlines, which marks its 75th anniversary Nov. 11, had a celebration last Saturday night for its 'ohana and friends at the Waikiki Shell, with such performers as O'Brian Eselu and Halau Ke Kai O Kahiki, Maunalua, Na Palapalai, Auntie Genoa Keawe, The Makaha Sons and Kapena. ...

Last week's People magazine noted the Sept. 24 show-biz wedding at Hanalei Bay Resort, Kaua'i, uniting former "Baywatch" star Michael Bergin and movie makeup artist Joy Tilk. Bergin was the hunk who wrote a book about his relationship with Carolyn Bessette. ...

And that's Show Biz. ...

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