Warwick and son help launch Hawaii Invitational of Polo

Dionne Warwick has come to Hawaii so rarely in recent years that any opportunity to see her becomes a date to circle. Saturday is one of those dates.

The five-time Grammy Award-winner will take the stage with her son, Damon Elliott, also a Grammy winner, at the Kahala Hotel & Resort Hawaii Invitational of Polo 2017 at the Waimanalo Polo Field.

Warwick and Elliott, who is also known professionally as the producer NOMAD, are coming to support the Hawaii Polo Productions’ annual fundraising event on behalf of the Hawaii International Polo Association. The association, founded in 2013, works to increase awareness of polo as an island sport, to care for retired polo horses and to provide horsemanship classes for at-risk youth.

Both the polo and the entertainment will be big-league.

Polo was first played in Hawaii during the reign of King David Kalakaua almost 140 years ago. That tradition will be represented by Hawaiian falsetto vocalist Pomaika‘i Keawe Lyman, who will sing “Hawai‘i Pono‘i,” and kumu hula Hiwa Vaughan & Halau Hula Ka Lehua Tuahine, who will perform traditional oli (chant) and hula kahiko before the match. Windward Oahu video recording artist Ashley Lilinoi will perform at halftime.

“It’s a big dream of mine to bring this kind of polo to Hawaii,” said Christopher Dawson, Hawaii International Polo Association president and founder. “We have world-class horses, we have world-class players, we’ve brought in a world-class announcer and an international all-pro system. … Everybody wants to come to Hawaii to play polo, and my personal goal is to make Hawaii a world-class venue.”

Warwick is certainly world-class in terms of her career accomplishments. Her career began in 1962 with the release of her debut single, “Don’t Make Me Over.” It continues with a phenomenal string of hits and coulda-been hits written for her by composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David.

“Anyone Who Had A Heart,” “Walk On By” and “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?” were three of the many.

“Those songs are fresh at all times,” Warwick said in a phone call last week. “They’re songs that people have had in their hearts and minds from the time that they’ve been recorded, and the wonderful thing about the songs is that they’ve been able to grow with people through time.”

Bacharach and David excelled at writing songs with unconventional rhythm patterns. If David’s lyrics were seen on the written page as Warwick sang them, a line might end in the middle of a sentence, or a line of six words might be followed by a line of 12 words or 16 words. And while many artists recorded the songs of Bacharach and David, no one interpreted them with Warwick’s finesse.

Most of the songs Warwick hit with were about heartbreak, loneliness or troubled relationships. “Message to Michael” and “Trains and Boats and Planes” described missing someone who had gone away. “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me” is about being unable to forget the person who broke your heart, and the title of “Are You There (With Another Girl)” is self-explanatory.

Warwick gives lyricist David the credit or blame for the subject matter.

“The lyrics were the brainchild of Hal David, so that’s what he was thinking about at the time he was writing,” she said.

She also did quite well with two Bacharach-David songs that were much more upbeat. “This Girl’s In Love With You” peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart early in 1969, and the whimsical “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” reached No. 6 later in the year.

After her collaboration with Bacharach and David ended and she changed record labels in 1972, Warwick didn’t slow down. She scored her first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 in 1974 when she teamed up with the Spinners to record “Then Came You.”

Warwick topped the Hot 100 a second time with “That’s What Friends Are For,” which she recorded with Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Elton John in 1985 as a benefit single to support AIDS research and prevention. The song won two Grammys — Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or a Group.

A lot of the tunes associated with Warwick have been remade by other artists. Two of her favorites are Isaac Hayes’ 1969 recording of “Walk On By” and the 1981 recording of “A House Is Not A Home” by Luther Vandross.

“The beauty of it I find is that they didn’t try to sing them exactly as I did,” she said. “They found their own way to do them.”

AN INTRO TO ALL-PRO POLO

The Hawaii Invitational of Polo has been sanctioned by the international All Pro Polo League and will be played using newly implemented all-pro rules designed to make the game faster and more spectacular.

It promises to be polo played at a level Hawaii has never seen, featuring eight of the world’s top-rated players.

“The speed that these guys play at is unbelievable,” said Christopher Dawson, Hawaii International Polo Association president.

Getting the All Pro Polo League sanction makes Hawaii “an All Pro destination,” Dawson said. The All Pro Polo League is headquartered in Buenos Aires, and Argentina is the birthplace of professional polo, which replaced a common practice of pairing professionals with amateurs in a match, instead fielding a full team of pros.

Almost all of the world’s top-rated players are Argentinian by birth; three of the invitational’s players are from that nation.

The game will be played by teams of four professional polo players on a grass field. Goals are scored by hitting the ball into the opposing team’s goal.

Saturday’s match will consist of six chukkers – five-minute periods. Action is so hot and heavy that the breaks are twice as long, with a 20-minute break at halftime.

Aside from the players, tomorrow’s match will feature John Kent, a player with serious polo credentials, as announcer. Nina Clarkin, the world’s top-rated female polo player, will be on the sidelines cheering on her husband, John Paul Clarkin of New Zealand, and will saddle up herself as a designated alternate if necessary.