COURTESY OF REA FOX Rea Fox returns with a new name and a mellow jazz show.

New name puts
singer in tune

Rea Fox, formerly Ektara, has Ship's Tavern gig

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Who's Rea Fox? My initial reaction was that I never heard of her, when I was flooded with e-mails announcing that someone by that name was going to be opening at the Ship's Tavern in the Sheraton Moana-Surfrider this month.

"This isn't going to be another of those karaoke things, is it?" I thought, wary of people who come out of that scene, convinced that all it takes to become a big-name entertainer are pre-recorded backing tracks and a stage.

My suspicions proved unfounded on both counts. Fox will have musicians with her when she opens tonight, and although it's been a while since she's performed here, she's not a karaoke crooner either. Local nightlife veterans will remember her when she called herself Ektara.

Rea Fox Where: Ship's Tavern at the Sheraton-Moana Surfrider Hotel, 2365 Kalakaua Ave. When: 9 to11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays Cover/Minimum: TBA Call: 922-3111

"You want the behind-the-scenes story," she said, anticipating my first question of "Why'd you change your name?"

And so she related how a seemingly minor car accident had, in fact, inflicted potentially life-threatening injuries, and how, while receiving treatment, she met "a very sort of unassuming-looking local woman" who asked questions about her name.

"She turned to me with this sort of hip inner-city kind of groove and said, 'Honey, your name is not working for you ... The vibration of your name doesn't match the vibration of your birth date, and that's why these sort of things are not working in your life ... You need to change your name!' "

Fox obtained lists of first names and last names with vibrations that matched those of her birth date, and from the two lists picked "Rea" (which she pronounces to rhyme with the Hawaiian word "kea") and "Fox." She toyed with the name for a few weeks and then took it legally.

"It's been a much smoother ride ... very, very nice," she said of her life since the name change. She feels singing at the Ship's Tavern is one example.

"I'd stopped thinking about doing jazz in Honolulu. It's a small market and there's only so many places and so many people," Fox said. She opens tonight as part of a trio, with Jacob Koller on piano. (Fox says, for now, they'll have a "featured bass player" each weekend.)

"We're going to be doing songs from what is starting to be called 'The Great American Songbook' -- songwriters that people recognize from the '30s and '40s, and then some new stuff. We're setting a mood in the room so that it's more like a showcase and, at the same time, it's such a lovely, intimate room that you can come and hear the music and have conversation."

Fox says frankly that the engagement is "a test" to see what the market for mellow jazz is these days. Waikiki has had some good jazz rooms in the past, and the Ship's Tavern has some great history of its own, but the next few weeks will determine whether or not the jazz has a future at the Sheraton Moana-Surfrider lounge.

"I have a good feeling that it's going to go very well," she said. "We may add a little bit more rhythm. I think the room can handle it and I think it will add a fuller sound."

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