Following his June 20 debut at Blue Note Hawaii, Konishiki (Saleva‘a Atisanoe) and his performing wife, Chie Iijima, embarked on a cruise ship to return to Japan, joined by their entourage of singers-dancers.
Konishiki’s new regimen for sharing his music and aloha with fans will indeed include a gig at the Blue Note Nagoya July 18, but the retired sumotori will be on the high seas performing his see- and sea-worthy revue in the months to come. In fact, he’s so busy, he turned down a December return to the club in the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort.
His performance — the first for a paying public, since Konishiki had only been doing private corporate shows — was multicultural, with songs delivered in English, Hawaiian and Japanese. A misstep was the omission from his Samoan heritage, such as the widely known “Siva Siva.”
Clearly, though, Koni-chan — as he is known from his children’s TV show in Japan — delivered a 90-minute show bubbling with his easygoing manner, sweet vocals and a genuine sense of “kokoro,” the Japanese word for spirit, manner and feeling, akin to Hawaii’s “aloha spirit.”
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” alternately sung in Hawaiian, Japanese and English, was a charmer. His repertoire of Hawaiian tapped “Waikiki,” “For You and I,” “Noho Pai Pai,” “Uwehe, ‘Ami and Slide,” “Sophisticated Hula” and “Ka Makani Ka‘ili Aloha.”
The show included four hula dancers clad in swirly costumes in hues in the neon-bright genre. As a cruise attraction, Koni-chan’s sumotori pedigree has box-office appeal. …
A JOY-OUS BIRTHDAY
Joy Abbott, the Hoku Award-winning jazz stylist who also is rooted in the Broadway community (her iconic late husband, George Abbott, was a director-producer-writer of such giant shows as “Damn Yankees” and “Pajama Game”) was speechless and stunned when she showed up at the Arcadia Retirement Residence on June 24. It was her 87th birthday, and her Punahou School chum Elva Yoshihara, an Arcadian, orchestrated the surprise luncheon with kokua from her fellow residents (mostly former participants in Jack Cione’s “Follies” shows).
There was a faux tiered cake, festooned with real whipped cream, with paper hula dancer figures acknowledging Abbott’s early years as a Polynesian dancer, but Yoshihara baked a real red-velvet cake. Gag gifts included a personalized book, a “Damn Yankees” baseball cap, a golf pouch laden with Band-Aids and Aleve, and a pair of “pasties.” As a thank-you, Abbott performed an a cappella version of “You Make Me Feel So Young.” …
BRUNO WINS ANOTHER
A shout-out to hometowner Bruno Mars, named Best Male R&B/Pop Artist, in the June 24 BET Awards, from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Another feather in his cap, more juice for his upcoming Aloha Stadium shows Nov. 10 and 11. …
A GANNENMONO TUNE
Jake Shimabukuro, Hawaii’s resident ukulele wizard, debuted his original seven-minute song in honor of Gannenmono, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii, at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s recent “Sharing the Spirit of Aloha” gala at the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Coral Ballroom. Shimabukuro was among the honorees (others included nisei veterans Donna Tanoue, Ellison Onizuka and George Takei); a video of the uke king was shared. In his remarks, Shimabukuro paid tribute to his parents and grandparents (his grandmother had passed two weeks earlier), and when he performed the inspirational Gannenmono tune, it brought tears to the audience of 750, prompting Carole Hayashino, JCCH president, to say, “We’re in good hands with the next generation.” …
And that’s “Show Biz.” …
Wayne Harada is a veteran entertainment columnist. Reach him at 266-0926 or wayneharada@gmail.com.
