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Hawaii
THE downtown jazz festival Saturday ran a full eight hours, long enough to sate the most avid jazz fan. There was a nice variety of jazz styles as well, ranging from the coolness of Frank Morgan and Azure McCall to Dixieland to a Stan Getz tribute, to Brazilian and Hawaiian jazz sets, plus a swing group and a big band. It took place, as it did last year, in the courtyard of the downtown Post Office, but about three times as many people showed up this year. And like last year, a sign announced plans for the Galleria Shopping Center Bill Yee wants to create on the site. Phase I is supposed to open in July and Phase II later in the year. Last year's announcement was roughly the same, so it's reached the "I'll believe it when I see it" stage. I'm hoping it'll happen as it would be a nice addition to downtown with more shops and restaurants and a jazz club ... Good season
for jazzINCIDENTALLY, Azure McCall has added a jazz and blues jam to her schedule, and now appears every Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. at Virtual Experience, the site of the old Malia's Cantina, Keone's and for the real oldtimers, the Embers ... Still more jazz: Fliers were passed along at the festival Saturday plugging Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra March 11 at the Blaisdell Arena, part of their World Tour 2000 ... Mom & Pop shops provided refreshments. I had a delicious cappuccino served up by former model Ruth Lin of Illy's, and some awa from the Kava Wine Co. that mellowed me out ...
My, my Mimy
IT'S taken her a long time, but Mimy Chen hasfinally come out with her CD, "Hawaiian Music in Chinese." Mimy has been working on the CD since 1996, when she was a student at HPU. She became enamored of Hawaiian music when she first heard it on the plane bringing her from the Far East. The CD has 10 songs that would make nearly every list of most performed songs in Hawaii, the difference in this case being that they're sung both in English and Chinese. Mimy will be performing some songs in person Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center Stage ...
IT has to be a record. I saw and enjoyed HPU's production of "Tintypes," a musical history of the United States between 1865 and 1921, and was amazed to find the five performers in the show sing and dance to a total of 46 songs. And it doesn't run too long either, as some of the songs are done in snippets. Two additional performances have been added to the weekend schedule with additional playdates on Feb. 23 and 24 at 7:30 p.m. A jolly good time ...
Short putts
MAUI artist Jan Kasprzycki did a portrait of golf course designers Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Jr., which eventually will end up at the Coral Ridge Golf Course in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But before that, it will be on display at Jones Jr.'s company booth at a conference of golf course engineers in New Orleans ... Localite Byron Feldman has a lasting memory of late "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz. Feldman got to know Schulz when both played in the pro-am of an LPGA tournament run by Herb McDonald at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. Feldman was promotion director of the Argus Leader, South Dakota's largest newspaper, and they had a 100th anniversary coming up. One call to "Sparky" and he responded with a large-scale drawing with fitting caption. Says Feldman, "I hope someone back there still has it, framed and mounted." ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com