Search - Owana Salazar :: Hula Jazz

First Rate Hawaiian jazz

Joseph W. Whitecotton | Oklahoma | 06/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With this superb album, Owana Salazar has done much to augment the rapport between jazz and Hawaiian music. She gives us mostly Hawaiian songs (both traditional and hapa haole) played with a jazz beat and style (including bossa nova, of course). This is not totally new for Hawai'i has a jazz history dating back at least to the 1920s, but this is a very strong performance. Giving us perhaps a tag for Hawaiian-jazz fusion with her original introductory song (Hula Jazz) , she shows that Hawaiian music is very adaptable to the jazz idiom. Like the Hawaiian elites of old from whom she is descended (her full name is Owana Ka'ohelelani Salazar) , Ms. Salazar and her fine musicians are very eclectic in their approach while at the same time they preserve the "essence" of the Hawaiian tradition.

Songs on the album are sung in both Hawaiian and English and include such gems as "A Song of Old Hawaii"(Johnny Noble and Gordon Beecher), "Sand" (Billy Abrams and Andy Iona), "Lei Lokelani" (Charles E. King) and "Kamalani o Keaukaha" (Lena Machado). One of her strongest performances on the album is Cole Porter's "Night and Day. "a jazz-swing classic, showing that she is very adept at mainstream jazz as well. Owana has a beautifully clear voice with a two and a half octave range particularly useful for Hawaiian music. *She also is a master of the ukelule, the steel and slack key guitar, three original Hawaiian contributions to world music (of course the ukulele was inspired by an instrument brought to Hawaii by the Portugese, but the Hawaiians soon made it their own). Owana has recorded on each of these instruments and has won numerous awards for her playing.

This album won the prestigious Hawaiian Na Hoku Hanohano Awards (comparable to the Grammies) as the best jazz album for 2005. Owana has appeared at numerous jazz festivals around the world including the presitigous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the first Hawaiian musician to ever do so.











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