COURTESY OF LARRY WARD
Jazz couple Dan Del Negro and Keahi Conjugacion will be just two of the many performers at this year's Great Hawaiian Jazz Blowout.
Dixieland, bop
and all that jazz
It was February 24, 1994, when Herb Ward's vision was realized. Through countless hours of planning, labor and an unfailing commitment to sharing music with local musicians and music lovers, he converted the attic of his Kaimuki home into a rehearsal and performance space, complete with a picturesque view of East Oahu.
Ward legacy
7th Annual Great Hawaiian Jazz BlowoutWhere: Kapono's, Aloha Tower Marketplace
When: Noon to midnight tomorrow and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday
Admission: $15 for one day, $25 for both
Call: 734-0397
It was a day his wife Jackie remembers well. "I was out in the garden and he came out on the lanai, looked down on me and said, 'Well, it's all done; I'm finished now,' " she recounts. "That very night he collapsed. It's almost like he let go. In memoriam, we called it Ward's Rafters because he had put his blood, sweat and tears into it."
The lifelong minstrel had left the island a greater musical legacy than he imagined. The Wards had already enjoyed regular weekend get-togethers with musician friends at their Maunaloa Street residence, and the arrangement continued, even after Herb's passing. Although Jackie contends the affairs were private, low-key functions, in 1997, the city, perceiving the musical gatherings to be public events, levied $3,200 in fines against her. To help with legal costs, musicians across Oahu rallied behind Jackie by organizing the first Great Hawaiian Jazz Blowout at Mid-Pacific Institute's Bakken Hall.
"During the course of fighting with the city, we grew together to form a wonderful esprit de corps," she relates. "Everybody sort of got involved in the cause and we grew into a very strong jazz community, unlike any other place I've lived in, and I've lived all over the world."
That's high praise, coming from someone who's settled in jazz hotbeds like New York, Los Angeles and Europe, but Jackie cites the growing interaction in Hawaii's jazz scene, not just among musicians, but between musicians and their audience as proof of Oahu's unusually close-knit jazz community. "I don't know if that's happened anywhere else, because no (jazz scene) has been under siege like we were," she notes. "There's a wonderful feeling of camaraderie. The best friends of my life have been made through the jazz activities here. It's evolved into a social phenomenon. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere."
So deep are the Wards' roots in Hawaii's music community that Jackie remembers many of the performers at this weekend's 7th Annual Great Hawaiian Jazz Blowout as youngsters, taking lessons from her husband at their Kaimuki home. "Bruce Hamada, Steve Jones, John Kolivas -- you name 'em, they've all been here as students," she says.
LAST YEAR, the festival was relocated to the more accessible Kapono's at Aloha Tower Marketplace and its hours extended. It's a situation that now allows many working musicians with regular Saturday night gigs to participate. In addition, the featured musicians who once performed at the Blowout out of the goodness of their hearts can now split proceeds earned at the gate.
More than 100 of Hawaii's jazz and blues musicians will be involved in the two-day concert, representing all facets of the genre, from dixieland to fusion, bebop to Brazilian. It not only brings together musicians of various disciplines, but different generations as well. Included in this weekend's bill are father-son teams Chuck and Jerome James, and Jimmy and Corey Funai.
These cordial gatherings have also resulted in a few life-altering encounters. Just ask Kalihi-raised jazz songbird Keahi Conjugacion, sister of noted local musicians Noland and Tony Conjugacion, who upon returning to Oahu after several years of studying jazz in Seattle, found Ward's Rafters through word-of-mouth. "That's where I met Dan," she says.
That would be Dan Del Negro, the gifted multi-instrumentalist and former pianist for the "Miss Saigon" touring production, whom she met through Jackie's Sunday functions. On occasion, they even collaborated musically. "We just hit it off just like that," gushes Keahi. "I just thought he was a really sweet, gentle person and a great accompanist. I found out after we started dating that when he met me, he put in his Palm Pilot 'Excellent singer and scats well'." The recollection elicits from her a hearty chuckle. "He's not only a talented musician but a really fun guy to hang out with." After three months of dating, the pair made plans to marry. They were wed last October.
"Now we've got these families playing together," says Jackie, with a delighted giggle. "It's become a really interesting collaborative effort and I think it's the closest thing I've seen to a community effort than any musical event I've seen here."
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Lineup of jazz
On the Mainstage tomorrow:
Noon -- "Voices of Praise" City of Refuge Gospel Choir featuring Azure McCall and Tennyson Stephens
On the Mainstage Sunday:
>> 4 p.m. -- Bluzilla
Click for online
calendars and events.
