Dionne Warwick returns for Blue Note Hawaii gigs

Thursday won’t be the first time Dionne Warwick has performed in Hawaii — she was here twice last year — but the five-time Grammy-winner’s engagement at Blue Note Hawaii will be the first time fans here will be able to see her in such an intimate setting. With a seating capacity of slightly more than 300, the Blue Note is about as close up as fans can get to Warwick in a concert setting.

Fan excitement is so high that bar seating for all four shows sold out more than a week in advance. Seating in other sections was still available at press time.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Warwick said, calling from her home in New Jersey on Sunday.

Coming to Hawaii holds an extra attraction for Warwick now that her son, producer/recording artist Damon Elliott, aka NomaD, lives in Honolulu. She slips in to visit him sometimes when she doesn’t have a concert scheduled; fans may see her while she’s visiting — in a restaurant or “just relaxing.” Warwick said people here are a bit more welcoming than in some parts of the mainland, but most folks respect her privacy when she’s not on stage.

On stage she gives her all.

“I try to do the songs that most people expect of me,” Warwick said, explaining how she gets a half-century of hits into a single show. She could easily do a full show of nothing but the hits written for her by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in the 1960s, but that would mean leaving out everything that came later for her — “Then Came You,” “Heartbreaker,” “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” and “That’s What Friends are For,” to name four.

Warwick expects to stay in the islands for a couple of days after she closes at the Blue Note on May 20, and then she’ll return home. She has tour dates in England and Europe set for later this year. She’s also planning a tour of Australia and is finishing work on a new CD.

“I’m very, very busy,” she said.

WARWICK HAS been “busy” ever since Scepter Records released her first single, “Don’t Make Me Over,” in 1962. Listening to the song 56 years later, amid the groundswell of #metoo and Time’s Up, the song’s message of “accept me for what I am, accept me for things that I do,” is a strong statement.

“You realize during the course of growing up the meaning of ‘don’t make me over,’” Warwick says. “Today it is a very strong statement.”

Warwick’s work with Bacharach and David was one of the greatest musical partnerships in American popular music. Bacharach discovered Warwick singing backing vocals at recording sessions and asked if she would also make demo recordings of songs he and David were writing. One of those demos got her the record deal with Scepter, and Bacharach and David as her production company. For years afterward, Warwick’s hits were written specifically for her by Bacharach and David.

“They were writing those songs for me to sing so that means an awful lot. It’s like a well-tailored suit that’s been made for you,” Warwick said. “You try to interpret them as best as you possibly can.”

Among those unforgettable songs: “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Walk on By,” “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” “Reach Out for Me,” “Are You There (With Another Girl),” “This Girl’s in Love With You,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”

WARWICK CHANGED record labels in 1971. Her working relationship with Bacharach and David ended a couple of years later, but the hits kept coming.

In 1974 she partnered with the Spinners to record “Then Came You.”

“We were finishing up our closing night in Las Vegas,” she recalled. “Thom Bell, who recorded the Spinners and was their manager, happened to be in the audience and said he had a wonderful going-away gift for all of us — and that was ‘Then Came You.’

“We went into the studio the following day and recorded it. It took about 15 or 20 minutes.”

“Then Came You” was Warwick’s first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100; she topped the list a second time with “That’s What Friends are For,” recorded with Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Elton John in 1985.

That musical history and more — Warwick will include a couple of new songs too — will be shared in Warwick’s four shows at the Blue Note Hawaii, beginning Thursday.