MAUI NEWS -MAUI BEAT:
Brittni Paiva Most Promising Hoku winner
has a talent for doing it all
By JON
WOODHOUSE, Contributing Writer
Sixteen-year-old Brittni Paiva couldn’t believe the news when
she heard her debut recording, “Brittni x3” had been nominated for two
Na Hoku Hanohano awards. The prodigiously talented, Hilo-based
teenager was nominated in late April for Most Promising Artist and
Instrumental Album of the Year.
“Our computer was down at the time and my grandma was checking my
e-mail for me,” Brittni reports. “I asked her to check my e-mail and
she said, ’Brittni, you’ve got all these e-mails saying
congratulations. I’m like, congratulations for what? She says,
’Brittni you were nominated for two Hokus.’ I was just blown away.”
So imagine her surprise when on June 3, she walked away with the Hoku
for Most Promising Artist beating out nominees such as Maui’s Hula
Honeys and the late Wendell Warrington.
“It was really exciting,” she continues. “I got to meet so many people
and they all told me to keep practicing and keep up the good work.”
Recorded when she was 15, “Brittni x3” showcases the instrumental
talent of a very gifted young artist. The title reflects the fact that
she is the only musician on the album playing all the ukulele,
Hawaiian slack key guitar and bass guitar parts. And she produced it
all herself.
What inspired her to play everything herself?
“One of the reasons had to do with hiring other musicians and how long
it would take,” says Brittni, who first began learning ukulele at 11
and slack key guitar at 14. “My brother got a bass for Christmas and I
was like, can I use it? Another reason I came up with playing all the
instruments is I won a scholarship at the 2004 Hamakua Music Festival
competition and I used the money to record songs and that became the
prototype for the CD.”
The teenager, who will play at the 14th annual Ki Ho’alu Festival at
the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Sunday, demonstrates a remarkable
instrumental proficiency with some lovely slack key playing on Ozzie
Kotani’s “Ewalu” and the classic “Radio Hula,” along with some
skillful ukulele plucking on the gypsy-influenced “G Minor Fleas” by
Herb Ohta Jr.
Besides having a love for traditional Hawaiian music, the album
displays her curiosity for music from other lands and other musical
styles.
“I like to play songs from different countries and play stuff on
ukulele that’s not normally played on it,” she notes.
Thus she covers the popular Jewish song “Havah Nagilah.”
“My mom liked the song so she said, ’Brittni I want you to go in your
room and see if you can put this on ukulele’,’ ” she recalls. “I was
all stressed out, I don’t know what to do. I spent the whole day
trying to figure out the parts.”
And she includes a charming instrumental rendition of George
Gershwin’s classic “Summertime.”
“My friend’s mom challenged me to put that on ukulele,” she says.
“Fantasia Barrino on ’American Idol’ sang it. She thought it was nice
and wanted to see if I could play it on ukulele.”
No ordinary teenager, Brittni spends an average of four to five hours
a day practicing to develop her high level of skill and dexterity.
“I’m not your average teenager or 16-year-old,” she says. “I’m home
schooled so I don’t much associate with normal teenagers. It’s a good
thing because there are no distractions with home schooling. At
regular school, kids are very distracted and if they play music, they
want to go off and do something else. They don’t set their mind to
it.”
Studying piano from the age of 4 up to 11, she switched to ukulele
when “my grandfather found a cheap one for me and it was love at first
sight. I think ukulele is my forte. I like the versatility. It’s a
small instrument but it can do a lot, play so many styles.”
Watching Grammy winner Keoki Kahumoku teach a class inspired her to
pick up slack key guitar. “I wanted to try another instrument,” she
says. “I found Keoki Kahumoku, who is my guitar teacher. He was
teaching at one of the cultural centers here and I went just to
observe, and then I started taking lessons.”
“She’s a very gifted and talented musician. I’m honored to be part of
her life,” says Kahumoku. “
Among the younger artists who have inspired her, she cites Herb Ohta
Jr, Imua Garza from the Opihi Pickers and David Kamakahi. As for
legends, “Eddie Kamai is one of the main guys I listen to,” she adds.
In January, she got to jam with the ukulele virtuoso at a club on
Oahu.
Reviewing the performance, Keith and Carmen Haugan commented, “Brittni
wowed everyone, demonstrating both her amazing manual dexterity and a
gift that would make this shy, humble teen the envy of almost everyone
who ever played either instrument. Eddie and the other musicians all
expressed genuine pleasure that the future of Hawaiian music is indeed
bright, with up-and-coming players like Brittni.”
“That was really cool,” says Brittni about her opportunity to play
with Kamai. “It was a good experience watching how he plays and the
different strumming techniques he has.”
So did he have any words of encouragement?
“I really don’t like to talk about myself that much,” she answers,
“but he said, I’m really amazing and to keep up the good work.”
Also this year she demonstrated her ability as a blues player, jamming
on ukulele with the Colin John Band.
“They were playing a concert here and the promoter wanted me to open,”
she explains. “I like to play blues because you can do a lot of
different runs and riffs.”
As for other styles of music, she is intrigued by Jewish klezmer music
(“It’s really fast and technical and I decided I liked it”), has been
recently enjoying Shania Twain (“I’m going to add some country
instrumentals to my new record”) and is rocking out to the music of
Los Lonely Boys and Santana (“I’m experimenting with it, trying to
acquire the feel.”)
Exploring and growing Brittni feels most motivated by a desire to
encourage other young people in Hawaii to help preserve the
traditional music of this land.
“That’s one of my goals, to perpetuate slack key especially and
Hawaiian music,” Brittni affirms. “The kids nowadays are just into the
Jawaiian stuff. I have no problem with Jawaiian, but kids are not
picking up slack key and Hawaiian music and it could die out. So
that’s one of my goals, to perpetuate it.”
Copyright © 2005
Maui
News. All rights reserved.
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