RHIANNON

Artistic progression
spans singer’s life

Rhiannon brings her music to the isles

---

By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com

Before Stevie Nicks started singing about a witch named Rhiannon, a singer named Rhiannon was making magic in jazz clubs, beginning in 1976, as a member of a band called Alive.

Ten years later, she moved on to a longtime, and still active, collaboration with vocalist Bobby McFerrin and his 12-voice Voicestra, working her way up to featured soloist status on his U.S. and European tours from 1997-2000, something she'll be repeating this year.

"So I went from theater to vocal improvisation, singing with a jazz band to a cappella work," she said.

At 57, Rhiannon continues to work hard on both her art and her career as a performer, composer and teacher, with a connection to the islands that helped to bring her to tomorrow's concert at the cozy Atherton Performing Arts Studio of Hawaii Public Radio.

"A Gathering of Voices" will include a group of local singers that will accompany her throughout the evening.

"It's been a constant progression," she said by phone from her Bay area home. "I took classical music studies as a kid while being raised on a farm in South Dakota, but I quit when I decided I didn't want to be a classical singer."

Her artistic journey would later take her to study theater in New York, "but I always went to jazz clubs, and even though I enjoyed the improvisation and polyrhythms of the music, I was an actor. Later, I got tired of typecasting, so music slowly got back into my life."

She's finishing a new album, and three tracks completed on a demo CD -- two originals written with her accompanying pianist Frank Martin, "Start Again" and "Amazing," and a confident reworking of the Beatles' "Blackbird" -- are indicative of this overlooked talent.

"The music has all of the richness of the friendships I've made. I went out and hired the best, like percussionist Alex Acuña and ex-Yellowjackets member William Kennedy, used the best studio in the Bay area ... but this is such a gnarly time to be in the industry! Still, I'm resolved to do the best music I can, and plan to approach the Blue Note label in hopes of signing or, if that falls through, have the CD distributed independently.

"There's got to be room for a jazz veteran like me. Whenever I buy CDs, I'm always happy to find another middle-aged singer, someone with experience in her voice. But I'd be happier if the business wasn't so closely tied to these multinational corporations."

Once the CD's out of the way, one of the things Rhiannon plans to do is continue work on a film project based on a solo performance piece of hers started back in 1992 called "Toward Home." While it's been developed as a theatrical production through the years, she hopes she can translate that love of her birthplace to another media.

"While filming hasn't started yet, it was good to go back to the Dakotas and talk to artists who live in the area. It's my intention to have the film be music-driven, not as a musical, but to have the singing voice an integral part of the film.

"Having originally thought that I had to leave South Dakota to do my art, I was shocked that so many artists were living in the outback there, where it's cheap to live, you got your wide open spaces and get inspired by all of this raw nature. It won't be my story. It will be about the land."

But you won't find Rhiannon going back home anytime soon. "I got tired of being snowbound every winter while growing up, although it makes people bond together."

Instead, she's more than happy to continue her regular visits to Hawaii, ones she's made over the past 20 years.

Recently, she's brought voice students to the Hui Ho'olana Center on Molokai during the winter, on a retreat to learn both voice and something about our native culture. "I teach an intermediate-level group of mainland and European students, but before coming here, I do the groundwork with the local people because I want them to connect with the culture, so we go on walks, make lei and talk story with kupuna. And you can see how the students change through their understanding of the Hawaiian culture, like learning songs in Hawaiian."

The participation of the kupuna even include singing on their third visit. "We used a technique I learned from Bobby McFerrin, where you get five groups interlocking vocal parts, harmonizing and improvising, moving from the basic form of traditional Hawaiian singing."

Along with Frank Martin on piano, another Molokai student, Gwen Jones, will offer some instrumental accompaniment during tomorrow's concert. The rest of Rhiannon's guests will be Zelie Duvachelle, Bronwyn Cooke and Heather James from Molokai, Ehulani Kane from Maui and Oahu residents Diane Koshi, Pam Maiawa and Susie McCreary.

"Gathering of Voices" Featuring Rhiannon Where: Atherton Performing Arts Studio, Hawaii Public Radio, 738 Kaheka St. When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Admission: $15 general, $12 HPR members, $10 students Call: 955-8821

Click for online
calendars and events.