THURSDAY-JULY 14
>> Trumpeter Botti blows back into town
Trumpeter Chris Botti brings his innovative stylings back to Blue Note Hawaii this weekend.
The son of a music teacher from Oregon, Botti’s been playing professionally since high school and got a grant to study with jazz great Woody Shaw while still in college. He also toured with Frank Sinatra back then, and shortly after college his career took off with a five-year stint playing with Paul Simon. He’s toured with Sting and performed on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and at the concert for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
That year he was even named one of “People” magazine’s Most Beautiful People, coinciding with a period of artistic creativity and virtuosity rarely matched in modern music. From 2004 to 2012, Botti produced four consecutive No. 1 albums, “When I Fall in Love,” “To Love Again: The Duets,” “Italia” and “Impressions.”
“Impressions” took home the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2013. The album put Botti’s versatility fully on display, with music ranging from a tango by Astor Piazzolla and George Gershwin’s “Summertime” to Frederic Chopin’s “Prelude No. 20 in C Minor,” the latter a far cry from what Barry Manilow did with the piece in “Could This Be Magic.” The music website Allmusic.com calls the album “a languid and expertly crafted album,” praising Botti’s “burnished, lyrical trumpet tone.”
CHRIS BOTTI
Presented by Blue Note Hawaii
>> Where: Outrigger Waikiki
>> When: 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Thursday-July 14
>> Cost: $75-$95
>> Info: 777-4890, bluenotehawaii.com
FRIDAY
>> 1990s R&B crooners to sing love songs
Nostalgia never gets old, even though, by definition, it is concerned with the past.
That’s why “My 90s Music Era,” a concert of 90s R&B from three top vocal groups of the era, should bring back plenty of good memories for those who lived through those times. This was an age of smooth, mellow vocals, suggestive but hardly raunchy lyrics, and dreamy romantic imagery.
This could be an interesting evening. One of the bands performing will be Color Me Badd , creator of No. 1 hits “All 4 Love,” “I Adore Mi Amor,” and “I Wanna Sex You Up,” which was featured on the film “New Jack City.” Lead singer Bryan Adams and tenor Mark Calderon, although childhood friends, have been at odds, with both appearing on tell-all television shows recently criticizing each other.
Also on the bill is Shai, the quartet that sang the hit “If I Ever Fall in Love.” The song had the misfortune of coming out at the same time as Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” yet still spent eight weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which was then a record. The group also is known for the song “The Place Where You Belong,” which appeared on the “Beverly Hills Cop III” soundtrack.
The third group is quartet Nu Flavor , which had the two gold-certified singles “Heaven” and “Sweet Sexy Thing.”
MY 90S MUSIC ERA
With Color Me Badd, Shai and Nu Flavor
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 7 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $69-$159
>> Info: (800) 745-3000, ticketmaster.com
SUNDAY
>> Orchestra concert features budding and proven talent
Fans of live orchestra music don’t have to wait until the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra starts up again in September. This weekend, the Pacific Music Institute presents an intriguing program featuring musicians from the HSO and mainland orchestras, along with talented local youth.
The institute has been the Hawaii Youth Symphony’s summer education program for more than 30 years. This year, symphony leaders and HYS music director John Devlin, who worked with the National Symphony in Washington D.C. and other East Coast orchestras before coming to Hawaii last year, arranged to bring more than a dozen professionals from a mainland program, the National Orchestral Institute, to mentor students.
On Sunday, the professionals will perform together for half the concert, and then will be joined by students for the second half.
The program includes Mendelssohn, Respighi, Kodaly and Japanese composer Somei Satoh. Devlin said he especially wanted to bring a work by a Japanese composer to reflect the local community. “Japanese music is so rarely performed on the mainland,” he said. “This is one of the best works I’ve found.”
Young pianist Adrian King, winner of the local Aloha Piano Festival, will perform Prokofief’s challenging “Concerto No. 3” with the professionals, while the youths will join their mentors for Leonard Bernstein’s “Suite from West Side Story” and a portion of Stravinsky’s “Firebird.”
The evening concludes with David Popper’s “Hungarian Rhapsody,” featuring cellist Joshua Roman, right, now 28, who won the Seattle Symphony’s principal cello position as a teenager. “He is a soloist of international reputation,” Devlin said. “The kids cannot wait to perform with him.”
PACIFIC MUSIC INSTITUTE ORCHESTRA CONCERT
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 4 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $5-30
>> Info: (800) 745-3000, ticketmaster.com
MONDAY-JULY 20
>> Steel guitar festival keeps tradition alive
The singing, sliding sound of Hawaiian steel guitar will permeate the Royal Hawaiian Center’s Royal Grove next week with the return of Waikiki Steel Guitar Week.
Each night from Monday until Thursday features an hour of steel guitar music performed by artists young and old, including young phenom Malie Lyman , a student at Ke Kula Mele Hawaii School of Hawaiian Music who performs Monday with teacher Alan Akaka along with other students. The programs expand to full-length evening concerts next weekend, with Greg Sardinha, Scott Furushima, Kapono Lopes and Paul Kim performing July 19; and longtime star Japanese artist Kiyoshi “Lion” Kobayashi, Steve Cheney and Paul Agar and others performing July 20.
Steel guitar, while now typically heard in country music, is a truly original Hawaiian instrument, first developed in 1885 after a young Joseph Kekuku found a rusty bolt and pressed it against the strings of his guitar. If you want to learn more about the instrument, this year’s festival also includes an exhibit of historical instruments at the Royal Hawaiian Center’s Helumoa Hale (between buildings B and C). The exhibit will be open July 19-20, and demonstrations on the instrument will be given.
The festival precedes the annual ‘Ukulele Festival Hawaii at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand on July 21 and is intended to give fans of Hawaiian music to enjoy and expand their appreciation of both instruments.
WAIKIKI STEEL GUITAR WEEK
>> Where: Royal Hawaiian Center
>> When: 6 p.m. nightly from Monday through July 20
>> Cost: Free
>> Info: 922-2299, waikikisteelguitarweek.com
