On Top of the Aloha Beat BLOG

If you like the Hula and are on Kauai at the end of June, then we've got just the thing for you!

Hālau Hula Ka No`eau will present  “HAWAIIAN LEGACY … the deconstruction of music and hula … Kahauanu and Maiki Aiu Lake”, Saturday, June, 28 @ 7:30 p.m. at the Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center in Lihue, Kauai.
            The evening performance will highlight the work of the late Kumu Hula Maiki Aiu Lake and ukulele virtuoso Kahauanu Lake.  Kahauanu is noted for his Hawaiian musical arrangements with the ukulele as the lead instrument and his signature “Hawaiian Jazz-Swing Style” of music.   His late wife Maiki, who is often credited as “mother of the Hula Renaissance”, trained the majority of Hawai`i’s leading kumu hula during the 1970’s and early 1980’s.  Today, there are three generations of kumu hula that maintain her legacy.  The work the Lakes produced was the front-runner to the Hawaiian Renaissance and it continues to be the standards of excellence all others try to emulate.  The concert is presented in part by a grant appropriation from the National Endowment for the Arts and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts American Master’s Program.
            “It is exciting to have Auntie Maiki and Uncle “K” considered American Masters by the National Endowment for Arts”, says Michael Pili Pang, kumu hula of Hālau Hula Ka No`eau.  Kumu Pang, who is also the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts in Honolulu, has been working for ten years to have the Lakes be recognized as “American Masters”.  In the spring of 2004, Pang took part in the “20th Century Dance Masters … Sharing the Legacy Dance Concert” at Hunter College in New York City, where he presented three of Mrs. Lake’s chorography on the same concert as the choreography of other dance masters such as Martha Graham, José Limón, George Balanchine, and Merce Cunningham.
            “Just because we’re in the middle of the Pacific doesn’t mean we don’t have great Masters; we have some of the best and they need to be recognized” explains Pang.  “This grant from the NEA and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts validates the achievements and merits of our Hawaiian Masters, particularly the Lakes who contributed so much to the arts and culture.”          
      Pang conceived the idea of presenting the evening concert in a “talk story format” last summer when he and his hānai Uncle “K” released the Lake Trio’s Kaimana Beach CD.  Joining Pang and Lake on stage will be the teachers of Hālau Hula Ka No`eau, Huliau Dance Company.  These are a few of the people who maintain the “Hawaiian Legacy” of hula and music of the Lakes shared with Hawai`i. A $90,000 grant from the NEA American Master’s Program has allowed Pang and his hālau to bring this concert to Kauai. Previous performances have been in Honolulu and in Waimea on the Big Island, and the MACC on Maui.

The Kauai real estate market is chugging a long with some nice high end escrows closing and some very good values from developers on inventory that has not yet moved. Incentives to buyers and buyers agents help to keep inventory moving. Foreclosures and short sales however are still on the rise. Many people inquire about these types of properties with the notion that they can "steal" something, but, that is pretty unlikely since banks generally hire appraiser and perform a broker price opinion in order to have a pretty fair opinion with regards to the value of a property they are foreclosing on.

The two lists below contain properties that are currently scheduled for auction and a separate chart for those properties that are in pre-foreclosure. Just because an auction date is set for a property heading for foreclosure, this doe snot mean the auction will actually occur on time. As an example, I attended last Friday's auction at the Lihue Courthouse. One of the auctions was for Wyndham timeshares, and in this case, the developer bought back all the inventory that was being foreclosed on. The other 3 auctions, a home in Hamamaulu, one in Wailua and one in Kalaheo, were all postponed. Two of the parcels were postponed til 7/18 and the other property was postposed unitl 6/20.

If you see a property on either of these lists that interests you, drop me an email or call me, and I'll give you whatever info I can regarding this property. Notice on the 2nd list the property on Niulani St. That is an oceanfront parcel with a small home and zoned open which allows up to a 3,000 sq. ft. footprint. The property was listed for under 1.3 Million and the default is over 1.5 million.

KAUAI PROPERTIES FOR AUCTION

KAUAI PROPERTIES IN PRE-FORECLOSURE

One of my community involvements here on Kauai has been to participate as a board member of the Kauai Concert Association.
Last evening KCA held its final concert of the '07 & '08 season. It was fondly titled, The 1st Annual Red Clay Jazz Festival. The purpose of the event is to keep great jazz alive on Kauai. The event was a huge success. Everyone had a ball and what a great value to hear three fabulous ensembles for only $45. I imagine the cost could be closer to $100 if held in a mainstream mainland venue. Below is a short article I drafted this morning commemorating the event.

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I don't know if it's what Pete had in mind, but, if the late Pete Robinson was watching from somewhere up above last night at the Marriott Luau grounds, I'm sure he would have been smiling and grooving. The Kauai Concert Association hosted the 1st Annual W.S. Pete Robinson Red Clay (named for the Freddie Hubbard tune and our red dirt) Jazz Festival. It's a dream that Pete had for a long time. Now, a new tradition has been established in Pete's namesake. And Pete's wife, Judy Arrigo, was the driving visionary and energetic force to spearhead the creation of this new tradition on Kauai.

I could not imagine a more splendid ambience for listening to live music anywhere on this planet. Picture a large white stage tent at the very end of the beach at Kalapaki Bay. As you look to your right you see and hear the ocean softly breaking on the shore. In the background, the Ha`upu mountains complete the panoramic magic. Being outdoors, everything sounds better. There are no walls to reverberate off of and the sound just massages your being.

The Red Clay festival began with the energetic big band from Kauai High School. The Kauai High Jazz Raiders played through a selection of straight ahead jazz, funk, and Latin big band arrangements. Daryl Miyasato, the band director and the sit-in bass player for the evening, conducted the band as they journeyed through some ambitious arrangements including Chick Corea's Spain, and a beautiful ballad from smooth jazz horn maven, Kenny G. The band featured one of their trombone players, Kyle Furusho, as a fabulous lead vocalist on the great Sinatra classic, "Come Fly With Me".



During the breaks between the music groups, patrons browsed the grounds which featured yummy Marriott cuisine like chili dogs and chili with rice, and fine beverages. Young marketing execs promoting Steinlager Pure shared complimentary beverage tickets from Steinlager, one of the events' premier sponsors. Other major sponsors of this inaugural event included the Marriott,  the County of Kauai - Office of Economic Development & the  Hawaii Tourism Authority The art exhibit from the Kauai Society of Artists was displayed in the courtyard adjacent to the concert grounds.  And KCA sold CDs of the artists, T-shirts, and shared the mission of KCA with the attendees, several of whom were tourists visiting. I am sure, despite the vog, the visitors could feel the aloha spirit present everywhere around the festival grounds.

The music shifted gears when the Honolulu Jazz Quartet took the stage. Led by bassist John Kolivas, an Oahu native, the quartet serenaded the crowd with a long set of straight ahead and progressive jazz, mostly original compositions. One interesting piece, Heater's On, was a musical depiction of John's first experience of the bizarre sounds of a radiator heating a cold apartment in Manhattan. The radiator, portrayed by drummer Von Baron's fabulous cymbal work, made most unusual sounds and rhythms. Von Baron's cymbal techniques were both innovative and effective. Another piece, a three four rendition of a Keola Beamer tune, Real Old Style, was a sweet variation on a slack key theme. HJQ is a tight ensemble with Chicago native Dan Delnegro and saxophonist Tim Tuskiyama rounding out the ensemble. As emcee Tony Kilbert proposed, each city has its own style of music; NYC, Chicago, Philly are renowned jazz towns. Tony suggested the feeling of the tradewinds was the quality of this Honolulu-based quartet. Though Kona winds made the air still, the slick melodies and rhythms of HJQ blew through the air with a majestic quality all its own.

Highlighting the night was the effervescent and delightful Joyce Cooling. Hailing originally from Newark, NJ, Joyce has been in the Bay area for years. And while here chart topping sounds are affectionately labeled "Smooth Jazz" by the music industry, her superlative rhythm section of writing partner Jay Wagener, Billy Johnson on drums, and Victor Little on bass laid down 90 minutes of solid grooves that integrated funk, fusion, and intricate polyrhythms into a groove that made me want to get up and dance. In fact, I did, and so did others.  Johnson, a Philly Native, and Little, added such a strong funk groove to every melody, it was simply infectious. I could feel the ocean dancing in response to the tight and exciting rhythms.

It may have taken a number of years for Pete Robinson vision to give birth. Perhaps the Red Clay Jazz Festival was being birthed on "Kauai time". Whatever the reason, hopefully the RED CLAY Jazz Festival, presented by the W.S. Pete Robinson Memorial Jazz Fund and KCA, and sponsored by Marriott, Steinlager Pure and others, will have a long extended stay on Kauai. And Pete Robinson can keep smiling and grooving, like hundreds of jazz enthusiasts did last night on the beach at Kalapaki Bay.