Micheal Suprenant arrived on the Big Island 10 years ago with music on his mind. Having been a studio musician and performer in New York City, Suprenant wanted to create a musically fulfilling life here in Hawaii.
Micheal Suprenant arrived on the Big Island 10 years ago with music on his mind. Having been a studio musician and performer in New York City, Suprenant wanted to create a musically fulfilling life here in Hawaii.
“I had this idea to create a funk band,” says Suprenant. “It seemed the best way to unite audience satisfaction and real musical creativity.”
In this pursuit, Suprenant started meeting other like-minded musicians, and the evolution of this year’s Kona Jazz Experience began.
“I kept running into these really great, quality musicians, like Andrea Lindborg, Jesse Snyder, Loren Wilken and Bill Noble on the island as I was trying to put this funk band together.” Suprenant explains. “We are all really musically symbiotic, but there were still a few key elements we needed.”
Suprenant then met up with Sarah Bethany and was awestruck by her vocal talents.
“Bethany’s voice is just extraordinary.” Suprenant says. “We suddenly didn’t have any restrictions, vocally. That opened up a whole new world for us.”
Bethany, a Hilo resident for the last eight years, says that being a part of this group of musicians has been a great gift to her.
“There is such a feeling of community on the Big Island. And the same is true with this group of musicians,” says Bethany. “I have never felt so apart of something musically. We really push and inspire each other to go beyond what we thought we could do.”
Then this ohana of musicians ran into what Suprenant calls the “missing link” for their musical endeavors.
“I almost cried when I first listened to Brian Crist,” says Suprenant. “His ability to play both upright bass and electric bass was exactly what our music needed.”
From there, the group has performed all over the island. This year’s Kona Jazz Experience will be their fifth year at the Aloha Theatre.
The show will be one night only at the Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu, at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Opening the show will be The Bethany Trio with Sarah Bethany, Micheal Suprenant and Brian Crist, with special guest Loren Wilken, delivering their jazz-neo-soul sound.
Next up will be The Bill Noble Jazz Ensemble. Bill Noble is the Big Island’s preeminent big band musician with a long lists on his musical-experience dance card, including performances with Ray Charles, The Temptations, The Fifth Dimension and Gladys Knight.
Tickets, $20 for adults and $10 for kids under 18, can be purchase online at www.apachawaii.org or at the door at the theater.
It promises to be an evening of the best jazz found on the island.
“It’s a dream come true for me to play at Aloha Theatre,” Bethany says. “It’s my favorite theater on the island.”