The Na‘auao sound THIS Saturday night, Sean Na'auao takes his first foray into Hawaiian music. That is, playing a program of all-traditional Hawaiian music. The multi-talented performer, who's one of the prime forces behind the popularity of the "island rhythm" sound, will debut a direction of his music tomorrow night at the Academy Theatre that promises to come to fruition later this year in the form of a new CD.
Sean Na'auao debuts more
traditional Hawaiian music
By Gary C.W. Chun
Star-BulletinStarting in '97 with his breakout hit "Fish and Poi," the 31-year-old Na'auao has made the strong case that contemporary Hawaiian music can incorporate other tropical pop rhythms from Jamaica and the Caribbean to enliven our native sounds.
"Fish and Poi" and "Surf Pa'ina" may make it into this weekend's song listing, but other than those two songs, expect nothing but the good ol' stuff.
In concert: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow HEAR NA'AUAO
Place: Honolulu Academy of Arts Theatre, 900 S. Beretania
Call: 532-8700
Cost: $15
"This performance will be a unique one for me," Na'auao said earlier this week. "To do an all-traditional Hawaiian show, where I usually do more reggae in my concerts."
Besides his backup band of bassist Jack Ofia, guitarist Joe Uwahinui, steel guitarist Greg Sardinha and percussionist Bobo Butires, Na'auao will have special guests with him that night, including Jerry Santos of Olomana, former Ikona member Bernard Kalua and members of his mother-in-law Aloha Delire's Keolalaulani Halau Olapa Olaka.
It's a special thrill to have people like Santos and Kalua performing with him, because it takes him back to the day when Hawaiian music was going through its renaissance.
"Olomana, the Sunday Manoa, the Makaha Sons of Ni'ihau...this was the Hawaiian music I was brought up on," said Na'auao. "But the kids nowadays are more influenced by the mainland sounds like rap, hip-hop and urban R&B.
"And now anyone can make an album, using a home-studio setup. With every new album I've made, not only have I had to prove to ourselves and my peers that I can make the best music possible, but I wanted to gain the respect of those groups that I grew up with and came previous to me.
"I'm trying to see what I'm all about," Na'auao said. "There's been really a lot of change in Hawaiian music over the last 10 years, where once it was an all-reggae influence, and now hip-hop and rap have generated changes in our sound and stirred up the local music business.
"I wouldn't mind using those newer sounds in my own music --in fact, I got one of the boys in Sudden Rush who raps in the native language to perform on my song 'Hawaiian,' " he said.
That particular song led off Na'auao's latest CD, "Neutralize It."
Along with the rap bridge, add Frank Hewitt's 'oli and Sardinha's steel guitar and what could've been a well-intentioned but failed experiment is an effective blend of island rhythm only someone as musically savvy as Na'auao could've pulled off.
With Na'auao's star burning as brightly as it is now, there's no turning back, careerwise. High-profile gigs like the one he did recently with the Makaha Sons and the Brothers Cazimero at the Hawai'i Theatre are the kind he's aspiring to.
"I want to perform in more concert settings more often than not," he said. "When I started off in the Mana'o Company, it was more like bar gigs. It's not like I don't ever want to do bars again, but now I'm not playing within that 18-to-23-year-old age bracket -- I want to do more traditional music."
It's that desire that is driving Na'auao to make his next album an all-traditional one.
"Me and my wife, who helps make the decisions in my career, decided we should kind of slow down on the reggae music, and, besides, I've always wanted to do this kind of Hawaiian music ever since I was little. Me and my band already play mostly traditional Hawaiian when we travel to the mainland."
Na'auao is shooting for a release date around the Thanksgiving holiday, taking advantage of the wider national and international release distribution that the Mountain Apple Co. offers since he switched from local power Olinda Road Distribution, previous to last August's release of "Neutralize It."
"I was blessed to get help from Uncle Frank Hewitt on the last album," Na'auao said.
Not only will the more tradition-minded songs from that album -- "Ka Pilima" and "Kupu'eu" -- be performed tomorrow, but Na'auao and his band will play those same two songs at this year's Merrie Monarch Festival for Delire's halau during the women's and men's auwana competitions ,respectively.
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