JULY 29/30/31

DAVE SWANN / DSWANN@STARBULLETIN.COM

Jazz notes

Musicians gather at Hawaii Theatre
for the music festival of the summer

Meet Abe Lagrimas Jr., calculated risk taker. And you must excuse the young and talented multi-instrumentalist if he seems a bit distracted these days. Lagrimas just finished guesting on vibes at last weekend's Don Tiki stage shows at the Hawaiian Hut, and now he has to switch gears to being one of the featured musicians at this year's edition of the Hawaii International Jazz Festival.

Hawaii International Jazz Festival Where: Hawaii Theatre When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday Tickets: $25, $40 and $50 Call: 528-0506 or go online at www.hawaiitheatre.com Friday 10 a.m.: Free educational clinic by Abe Weinstein & Friends 7 p.m.: "Piano Titans & Hawaiian Strings" with guitarist Larry Coryell, trumpeter DeShannon Higa and pianists Dong Grusin and Makoto Ozone, all with the HIJF All Stars house band, and Hawaiian Strings with Owana Salazar, Jeff Peterson and Abe Lagrimas Jr. Saturday 10 a.m.: Free clinic with Coryell and bassist John Kolivas 11:15 a.m.: Free clinic with Ozone 7 p.m.: "Tributes & Latin Soul": Honoring Ray Charles, Artie Shaw and Martin Denny, with Bobby Thursby, Ginai, Keahi Conjugacion, Kelly Covington, Gabe Baltazar and Waitiki, and Latin soul with Coryell and Scott Martin, with HIJF band

The 22-year-old will step out on stage from behind the drum kit (where he was the festival's house percussionist last year) to show off his skills on the ukulele as part of both the Hawaiian Strings showcase Friday night -- along with slack-key guitarist Jeff Peterson (see story at right) and steel guitarist Owana Salazar -- and the following night as a member of Waitiki in an exotica tribute to the late Martin Denny.

Lagrimas has wrapped up his studies in music education at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Mass., now a second home for him and where his other musical projects, like Waitiki, are based out of. And while he's made his reputation as a fine and facile drummer, Lagrimas has been working on his chops on the uke -- which are pretty darn good, considering he's strictly a by-ear player -- as a way of staying connected to his island roots.

ON THE DAY we meet up with him, he proudly shows off his special edition Ko'olau four-string ukulele, made of Brazilian rosewood and spruce, secured by a koa wood binding, and his name "Abe" in white marine pearl inlay in the neck.

"I took up the uke around April of 2003," he said. It was a time when he was away for an extended time at school and, by chance, some friends of his from nearby Boston University asked him to help provide the musical entertainment at a luau they were putting on. So since he was listening to ukulele jazz master Lyle Ritz's recordings while at Berklee, why not take up the uke himself?

So Lagrimas played a couple of standard tunes, things like the Ka'au Crater Boys. The response was so favorable, and Lagrimas was jazzed, so to speak, by the uke's sound, that "when I went home in the summer, I basically taught myself to play more," broadening his inspiration from just Ritz to include the late guitar master Joe Pass' work.

When he went back to Berklee in the fall, he started up the trio Waitiki with fellow students Randy Wong on bass and Brian O'Neill on vibes. The band was formed initially to play at a tiki-theme bar in Beantown, "but even though we ended up not getting the gig there, we've played in other places in Boston, as well as Pittsburgh and in Rhode Island. Next we'll be doing a tiki festival in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., called the Hukilau."

(O'Neill will be switching to piano during the Denny tribute at the festival this weekend, as Waitiki will play with guests Gabe Baltazar, Jason Segler and James Ganeko, doing the hits of the main man of exotica.)

And on top of all this, Lagrimas wrapped up recording last month his first album of all original material titled "Charred Mammal Flesh" -- inspired by the hilarious Conehead characters of "Saturday Night Live" -- to be released sometime in December.

"The solo album is basically a ukulele album, and I do all the composing and arranging," he said.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Abe Lagrimas Jr. playing during a promotional show for the Jazz Fest at the Sunset at the Beach in Waikiki last weekend.

LAGRIMAS leaves for Boston soon after the festival is pau, to start promotion for Waitiki's own album, out on Sept. 16, as well as continue work on yet another side project of Lagrimas', a band called Prelude, made up of fellow Berklee students and alumni, which has been focusing on the Korean market.

Formed in the fall of 2003, the band has been to South Korea twice, over the past two winter breaks from school. "We just recorded our debut album this past June in Boston and are anticipating a December release in Korea," Lagrimas said.

"I always try to give every gig and recording session 110 percent," he said. "I feel that I am extremely fortunate to have such a talent that I should never take it for granted. I approach my music very seriously and try to gain and absorb as much knowledge about music, whether it be composing, learning new instruments, and constantly listening to all genres of music.

"When I perform, I always keep in mind that music is art and that I be as creative as possible, yet play to my highest potential. I also try to take a lot of risks, and that keeps the creativity flowing. It's awesome when I try to do something I've never done before in a live situation and be able to pull it off."

All right, so he got married LAST year. But we'll call 2005 another momentous year for slack-key guitarist Jeff Peterson, and with five months to go, it's far from over.

One of the featured performers during the "Hawaiian Strings" portion of the Hawaii International Jazz Festival Friday, Peterson introduced his concept of slack-key jazz earlier this year in concert, then produced and released his solo album "Slack Key Jazz."

Peterson was also one of the musicians featured on Charles Michael Brotman's Grammy Award-winning compilation album, "Slack Key Guitar Vol. 2." The album featured individual recordings by 10 separate artists, and was defined as a compilation rather than a group project. Under the standard governing body rules of the Grammys, only producer Brotman was eligible for the award.

Peterson is OK with that, but finds it irksome when clueless people misrepresent him as being a Grammy winner himself in advertising.

"It happens all over the place (and) it's not so good. I have to tell people that 'cause even with what I'm doing they put that in front of my name. It's been hard for me, and I think for everybody (else involved)," Peterson said Monday.

While many working musicians have a "late to rise" lifestyle, work started early for Peterson that day. He'd gotten up at 5 a.m. to help promote the jazz festival on KHON-TV. After the festival, he's off to Alaska.

"It's partly vacation. My father has wanted to go there. He's a paniolo from Maui and he's always loved the outdoors. That's how I was introduced to music -- when we'd go on camping trips, he'd always have his guitar," Peterson explained, adding that there's enough interest in ki ho'alu among expatriate Hawaiians and other residents there that he expects to be doing some informal teaching and maybe a show or two.

PETERSON returns to Oahu to co-host a slack-key workshop with Ledward Kaapana at the Outrigger Waikiki from Aug. 17 to 20, perform at Milton Lau's annual free slack-key guitar festival on the 21st, and join Brotman for a slack-key concert at the Hawaii Theatre in October.

In between he'll also be playing his usual low-profile gig at Michel's in Waikiki and plans to record a track for Brotman's next slack-key compilation and record and produce an instructional DVD with Keoki Kahumoku.

Peterson also gives private lessons and teaches classes at the University of Hawaii. However, he will be taking a semester off to promote "Slack Key Jazz."

"To have a new recording out feels real good, especially when it's a recording I've done all on my own," Peterson said.

"Now I'm playing like crazy, and I'm really having fun ... The music has evolved and it keeps evolving. At the festival ... I've arranged a few songs like 'E Ku'u Morning Dew' to change the feel ... to really make it jazz."

Peterson adds that traditional slack key and jazz aren't mutually exclusive.

"The feeling and the phrasing is very similar. In Hawaiian music, there's a lot of that swing feeling that's already there that came from Hawaiian musicians hearing jazz music being played in the '20s and '30s. Playing in slack key, in ki ho'alu, it's not as common to add a lot of the extended harmonies and different chord progressions in jazz, so I find the main difference is it's a little bit of a different harmonic language, but we're still building on the foundation of what's there in the structure of the song. We're just adding more chord changes. It's very similar to what happened in the evolution of the blues into jazz."

While saxophonist-flutist Scott Martin will be making his debut as a special guest at this year's Hawaii International Jazz Festival, he's no stranger to Hawaii, having last played here with powerhouse percussionist Poncho Sanchez' Latin band while on tour.

Martin still sits in on occasion with Sanchez, even though he officially left the man's band about a year ago. But if albums like "Cafe Cubano" and "Menudo & Gritz" are any indication, Martin has not strayed too far from that infectious Latin sound.

"After being on the road for 13 years with Poncho," Martin said recently by phone from his Los Angeles home, "I want to stay home more. Now my kids at least recognize me when I come through the door."

Martin is a freelance musician and producer of his own record label, SCM Records. Through a group he and his brothers put together in the 1980s, "I first met Poncho, because we did a few of his tunes. In fact, all three of us (brothers) played with him at different times.

"Music definitely had a strong pull on me," he said. "My dad used to have jam sessions with his buddies at the house, and it was a great motivator for me, seeing how much fun they had, and the camaraderie."

Sanchez, his brothers and his father have all guested on Martin's solo CDs, which Martin will bring out to the festival to sell in the lobby of the Hawaii Theatre during the weekend jazz festival.

"They're all great players. With my music, there's always been a family feel. I was with Poncho for so long, it felt like a good family. It was natural, with his band filled with great players."

Martin should be mixing up a heady brew of Latin jazz 'n' soul with the festival house band Saturday night.

"I hope the people will dig the music and have a good time," he said. "Latin music is great to dance to, and I'll try to mix it up with some soul stuff. I think the music should always be about having a good time."