The Honokaa High School Jazz Band has created a musical legacy during the past four decades, under the award-winning direction of teacher Gary Washburn. ADVERTISING The Honokaa High School Jazz Band has created a musical legacy during the past four
The Honokaa High School Jazz Band has created a musical legacy during the past four decades, under the award-winning direction of teacher Gary Washburn.
This month, members of the band will perform onstage with soulful blues storyteller Marcia Ball and career R&B bandsman Johnny Nicholas and his band Hellbent, in an unprecedented four-island concert tour.
“Johnny got in touch with me through a friend,” said Washburn. “He’s been working with kids, involving kids in the music business — and he invited the band to play with them. I said ‘OK,’” said Washburn, himself winner of the Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction Award by the National Society of High School Scholars.
“So, on this island, the band will play a 30-minute warm-up set for them at their two shows in Waimea and Hilo, and then we’ll play a few tunes with Johnny, and with Marcia, including ‘Foreclosed on the House of Love,’ which is on our CD,” said Washburn.
Following a kickoff concert Sunday at Waimea’s Kahilu Theatre, the eight young musicians will travel to Hilo, Kauai, Maui and Oahu, to perform with Ball and Nicholas. The Dragon Jazz Band includes Kamea Phenicie on tenor sax; Elliot Reddekopp on trumpet; Emma Reddekopp on piano; Kamaehu Arraujo-Duldulao on trumpet; Andrew Connors on trombone; Nick Rohfeld on drums; Ron-Jon Pira on bass; and Lexi Dalmacia on guitar.
The performance tops an already impressive list for the band. They’ve played on National Public Radio’s “From the Top,” and opened for the Royal Hawaiian Band at Iolani Palace, where they were recognized by the state Legislature. They do a yearly multi-concert tour of Oahu to celebrate National Jazz Appreciation Month, and their 14th CD (an annual fundraiser) has just been released. In 2011, they received a national Grammy Signature Schools Award.
Ball’s signature Gulf Coast blues is a sound described as “a one-of-a kind-musical gumbo.” Known as a musical storyteller, the New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.”
Four of her previous five releases received Grammy Award nominations. In 2014, Ball received the Blues Music Award for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Of The Year, for a total of 10 BMAs and 44 nominations. She also received a 2015 Living Blues Readers’ Poll Award for Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard) and holds eight Living Blues Awards. She was inducted into the Gulf Coast Hall of Fame in 2010 and into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
Since the 1960s, Nicholas has played rhythm and blues with bands from Rhode Island to Chicago, Louisiana and Texas. After some time off to raise a family, he returned to music in 1991, teaming up with Johnny Shines and Snooky Pryor on the album “Back to the Country.” Nicholas has kept the momentum going with a studio album and three live albums on Topcat Records, in addition to regular live shows.
The kickoff concert is Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Kahilu Theatre. Tickets, which are $20-$43, are available online at www.kahilutheatre.org.
The second Hawaii Island concert is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Palace Theater in Hilo. Tickets, which are $30-$55, can be purchased at the theater’s box office or with a credit card by calling 934-7010 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The trio will also play Jan. 28 at Charley’s Restaurant on Maui, Jan. 29 at Kauai Beach Resort on Kauai, and Feb. 2 at Hawaii Theatre Center in Honolulu.
