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All grown
up
Friday, November 24,
2006 9:48 AM HST
New Brittni
Paiva CD is a musical coming-out party
for instrumentalist
by John
Burnett
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Hard to
believe, but Brittni Paiva is now 18 --
legally an adult. Hilo's resident
ukulele and slack key guitar prodigy has
just released her third album, "Brittni,"
on her own Talmidim Productions label.
Graphic artist Christopher Cokeing's
cover art on the CD is exquisite,
featuring a damp-haired and
bare-shouldered Paiva in a shimmering
pool of water with a corona of white
light surrounding her visage.
"The cover
basically symbolizes the growth and
maturity I've experienced since the last
two CDs," Paiva said. "I'm emerging from
the life-giving waters of my music and
my life.
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"I'm more
confident about playing music now."
"Brittni,"
which is basically Paiva's coming-out
party as a world-class instrumentalist,
also marks the second time that the teen
sensation has worked with engineer and
co-producer Wendell Ching at Studio One
in Honolulu. They have assembled an
all-star cast of supporting musicians
for the CD, including Ching on drums,
Hapa's Nathan Aweau on guitar, bass and
keyboards, Dan Del Negro of the Honolulu
Jazz Quartet on keyboards, Jack Ofoia, a
longtime member of Amy Hanaiali'i
Gilliom's band on bass, island music
maven Shawn Pimental on bass, Ryan
Hiroaki Tsukamoto on violin and the
legendary Melveen Leed, Paiva's vocal
teacher. Paiva and Leed sing a ha'i
(falsetto) duet on Keith Haugen's waltz
"Pua Karauna." And while neither Leed
nor Paiva are known for their ha'i, both
acquitted themselves nicely on the song,
a homage to
Queen Lili'uokalani.
"It's an
honor working with her," Paiva said
matter-of-factly. "She works hard and
she expects you to be prepared and work
hard, as well."
No problem
for a young musician who wowed the
judges at the 2004 Hamakua Music
Festival -- where she won the
first-place scholarship -- both by her
musical facility and by her admission
that she practices between four and six
hours daily.
Another
Hawaiian cut is Helen Lindsey Parker's
"Mauna Loa," which takes Paiva back to
her roots of traditional slack key with
ukulele instrumental.
Four of the
11 songs are original compositions,
including the opening cut, "Riding
Honoli'i," which features Pimental on
bass.
"That one
was inspired by riding over the Honoli'i
Bridge," Paiva said. Even though it's,
like, a short three- to five-second
drive over the bridge, I saw a surfer
get on his board, catch a wave for maybe
two seconds, and fall off. That sort of
inspired that track."
Her original
"Journey Home" goes back to her original
"Brittni x3" formula, with her on
guitar, 'ukulele and bass -- this time
with Ching on drums. The song sounds
like it will become a contemporary
island instrumental standard, in the
vein of Keola and Kapono Beamer's "Kaliponi
Slack Key" or Peter Moon's "Pandanus."Some
savvy radio producer or programmer will
likely use it as a music bed for surf
reports.
Perhaps an
even more accessible original is "Just
Once More," an infectious, up-tempo jam
featuring Aweau on guitar, bass and
keyboards. With the right promotion and
a little luck, it could put Paiva on the
national smooth jazz charts.
Her covers
are diverse, as well, including a
slow-dance favorite of Baby Boomers,
Carlos Santana's "Samba Pa Ti." Her
rendition is faithful to the original,
with organ accompaniment by Del Negro.
"I'm kind of
surprised that 'Europa' (which has been
recorded by Jake Shimabukuro) has been
taken by ukulele players, but not 'Samba
Pa Ti,'" Paiva said. "Since it's one of
his biggest hits, I wanted to take this
one and arrange it for ukulele. I think
it came out pretty nice."
Paiva also
displays a musical sophistication well
beyond her years with Cole Porter's
"Begin the Beguine."
"My
grandfather wanted me to put it on my
first album, but I never really learned
the whole thing," she explained. "When I
finally got around to learning it for my
second album, I had so many tunes
already that I decided to hold it for
this one."
She also
took on the Baroque period's ultimate
one-hit wonder, Johann Pachelbel's
"Canon in D."
"I guess I
played it by mistake," Paiva said. "I
kind of figured it out by listening to a
(string) quartet on the Internet. I
figured the slow part out. Then I heard
a heavy metal version on YouTube and in
my mind, mixed that with the slow part
and I came up with a ska version for the
second half of the song. I thought that
was an interesting experiment."
The
familiarity of the piece itself, plus
the shuffling ska rhythm of the second
movement could make Paiva's "Canon" a
winner on local radio.
"Csardas," a
modern version of a Hungarian folk dance
tune, starts out slowly, but builds to a
frenzy of staccato picking that rivals
Shimabukuro for both speed and accuracy.
The final
cut, "Kadosh," is a traditional Hebrew
song, where she sings in an ethereal,
Enya-like style over a haunting
minor-key tune and then voices a
benediction in four different languages.
"It's kind
of like a blessing for my entire album,"
she said. "I sing in Hebrew first, and
what I'm singing is 'Holy, holy is the
Lord God Almighty.' Towards the end of
the song, I go into my own
nationalities. I sing that exact same
phrase in my own nationalities, which
are Hawaiian, Portuguese, Danish and
Japanese."
Paiva
continues to learn her craft, currently
taking a correspondence course in music
theory from Berklee School of Music and
has also become a sought-after speaker
for school and community groups, having
spoken Wednesday to the Hilo Rotary
Club.
"My horizons
have really broadened," she concluded.
"A lot of doors has
opened and I'm really thankful for that.
I'm sure now that this is what I really
want to do. I want to play music and
bless other people with it."
On the
Internet:
http://www.brittnipaiva.com/.
John Burnett
can be reached at
jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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