SATURDAY
>> Celebrating Hawaii’s Hispanic heritage
Hispanic people have been contributing to Hawaii’s modern heritage for two centuries. Spanish-speaking Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) came to Hawaii from California in the 1830s to teach Hawaiians how to herd cattle — and laid the foundations for both paniolo culture and ki ho‘alu (slack key). Puerto Ricans came in the early 1900s to work in the sugarcane fields and brought musical traditions with them that Hawaii embraced as “katchi-katchi.”
Modern Hawaii is familiar with many more types of Hispanic music, food and beverages, and that’s the cause for celebration Saturday in Chinatown, at the Hispanic Heritage Festival. Headlining the day-long party is the Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno from Oakland, Calif. Hawaii is being represented musically by Eddie Ortiz & Son Caribe, the Agua Dulce Salsa Band and The Ramba Kings, and by Hawaii DJs Da Lion of Judah, Ever, Rico, Fee, CoCoMan and Nando.
Several traditions of Hispanic dance will be presented by the Linda Melodia Dance Company, Honolulu Zouk, Samba Reggae Hawaii, Grupo Folklorico de Panama, Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de San Miguel and Carolina’s Zumba.
Miss Latina Hawaii 2018 Shay-Lynn Mohika-Farias and the 2020 Miss Latina Hawaii contestants will also be in attendance.
Other parts of Hawaii’s Hispanic heritage can be sampled at food booths, cultural displays, Latin dance workshops, a fashion show, and with information from community and health agencies.
HISPANIC HERITAGE FESTIVAL 2019
>> Where: Nuuanu Avenue between Beretania and King streets
>> When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m Saturday
>> Cost: Free
>> Info: hispaniceventshawaii.com
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
>> Powwow brings top drumming group to isles
Native American groups from the mainland join Hawaii’s Native American community to celebrate the 45th Honolulu Intribal Powwow this weekend.
If you’re into taiko, or beat the bass drum for your school’s marching band, or bang the “dagu” for your lion dance troupe, you might want to check out the powwow’s guest performers, Northern Cree, perhaps the most prestigious Native American drum group in North America. Hailing from Alberta, Canada, the group is noted for its high-spirited performances, generating tremendous energy with high-pitched shrieks and chants and about a dozen men pounding on a single drum. With nearly 40 albums released since 1980, the group has received eight Grammy nominations and performed on the 2017 Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony with Mexican pop singer Carla Morrisson.
The two-day powwow will also feature several dances. Some come from specific tribes, such as the Ponca Nation’s Men’s Fancy Dance, a particularly strenuous but also a very colorful dance, with the performer wearing regalia representing the colors of the rainbow. Other dances have been adopted by several tribes, such as the Hoop Dance, a dance of healing in which the hoop is said to symbolize the circle of life.
Visitors are welcome to participate in group dances, so long as they observe basic rules of courtesy and respect, including wearing appropriate attire. Get details at honoluluintertribalpowwow.com.
45th ANNUAL HONOLULU INTERNATIONAL POWWOW
>> Where: Ala Moana Park
>> When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
>> Cost: Free
>> Info: honoluluintertribalpowwow.com
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
>> Film explores musical link between Hawaii, Fukushima
When a major earthquake and tsunami devastated Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, Hawaii responded with fundraising concerts and performances to help out the victims.
Another kind of help, also musical but more spiritual in nature, is told in the film “Bon Uta, a Song from Home.” It revolves around the song “Fukushima Ondo,” which was brought from Fukushima to Hawaii by Japanese emigrants more than 100 years ago and is now one of the most frequently heard songs at Hawaii bon dances.
“It’s the only live song that is played all over Hawaii on bon dance nights,” said Ai Iwane, a photographer and associate producer of the film.
After the 2011 disaster, the people of Fukushima, particularly those in the town of Futaba, had to be evacuated and could no longer have their own bon dances, Iwane said. But they took heart when they learned of the bon dances in Hawaii and the popularity of “Fukushima Ondo,” eventually coming to Maui to celebrate with a taiko group there.
“The film also tells you the story of how immigrants lived with music throughout history, for instance through wartime, and up to the present, when people are having to evacuate Fukushima,” Iwane said.
Saturday’s screening and reception will include performances of some of the traditional songs, which were preserved in Hawaii by so-called “nisei orchestras” — ensembles of 10 to 20 musicians established to perpetuate the history and culture of Japanese in Hawaii.
Among the performers will be Cara and Lacy Tsutsuse, also known as the Enka Sisters, who studied with Harry Urata. Urata ran a school that helped preserve the music of the sugar plantation workers in Hawaii. Also performing will be Marion Arakaki, a retired elementary school teacher and one of Hawaii’s most renowned karaoke teachers.
The film will be screened again at 2 p.m. Sunday, followed by a bon dance led by Aiea Taiheiji Yagura Gumi, a bon dance group founded during the plantation period.
“BON UTA, A SONG FROM HOME”
>> Where: Honolulu Museum of Art
>> When: 6 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $20; Sunday screening $15
>> Info: 532-6097, honolulumuseum.org
MONDAY
>> Recital features top classical saxophonist
We’ve all heard the saxophone in part of a jazz, pop or rock music. Here’s the chance to hear it in a classical context when acclaimed saxophonist Christopher Creviston performs at Orvis Auditorium.
Early in his career, Creviston played jazz and pop for 13 years in New York. He is now on the music faculty at Arizona State University. He has appeared in places like Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater, and has performed with several major symphonies. He’s been called “a simply amazing and artistic player” on the online music site Audiophile Audition, which praised his “nearly perfect blend of beautiful, liquid tone, incredible technique and good taste” in a review of his 2014 album of French and Russian music.
Creviston will perform with his wife Hannah in a program that features Glazunov’s “Concerto, Opus 109,” one of the most well-known works of its kind. The 14-minute-long piece, through performed as a single movement, features everything from plaintive, drawn out melodies to dance-like sections. Creviston will also perform William Albright’s “Sonata” — in many ways a minimalist work, with repeated notes and simple motifs.
William Bolcom is known for being one of the more accessible classical composers of the day, especially with his ragtime compositions. Creviston will perform his “Concerto for Soprano Saxophone,” which has a third movement “Shimmy” that will have you jumping for joy.
CHRISTOPHER CREVISTON
>> Where: Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawaii-Manoa
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Monday
>> Cost: $10-$14
>> Info: 946-8742, manoa.hawaii.edu/music/events
