On Saturday, July 12, 1997, Kealiʻi Reichel performed in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City with artists Uluwehi Guerrero, Kekuhi Kanahele, Eric Gilliom and the Hula Halau O Ka Makani Wili Makaha O Kauaʻula. My wife and I traveled to New York for the concert. This was our first visit to New York City since we were in college over twenty years ago. This week's feature is a report on our trip and the wonderful concert on Saturday night.
New York City is like no other place I have ever been. Everything is bigger - the buildings, the crowds, the traffic, the prices - everything. We had reserved a room at the Crown Plaza right off of Times Square. The room price was reasonable by New York standards but we were shocked to learn that overnight parking was $ 34.00! Our first destination was to make the ten block walk to Carnegie Hall to pick up our tickets.
Fred Krauss of Punahele Productions had graciously reserved two seats for us in the 10th row dead center. Having purchased our tickets we had several hours to explore the city before the doors opened at Carnegie Hall at 7:30 p.m. for the 8:00 p.m. concert.
We decided to explore the Times Square area. One of our stops was Virgin Records where there was a nice display of Hawaiian records and a big blowup of Kealiʻi Reichel's Kawaipunahele CD cover on the wall. We ate a quick dinner at T.G.I. Fridays and then headed back to our hotel to dress for the concert. We put on our aloha shirts and headed back to Carnegie Hall.
The doors were scheduled to open at 7:30 p.m. and there were lots of folks waiting to enter the hall when we arrived. Many of the ladies were wearing beautiful Hawaiian dresses and we were amazed to see so many leis in the heart of New York City. Once the doors opened we made our way to our seats with great anticipation for the show.
At 8:00 p.m. the lights dimmed and the evening's Master of Ceremonies, Puakea Nogelmeier, came on stage to greet the audience, set the stage for the show and introduce the first performer, Uluwehi Guerrero.
Uluwehi, whose full name is Rodney Kauluwehi Guerrero is a man of many talents and many directions. He not only is one of the three backup vocalists for Kealiʻi Reichel, co-founder of the Halau Hula Ka Makani Eili Makaha O Kauaʻula, composer, arranger and office manager for a transportation and tour company on Maui, but he also is a wonderful solo artist with his own solo album, Ka Manawa Pono. He is also, a very funny man with a wonderful personality which came across so well in his part of the show.
Uluwehi performed for about a half hour and sang wide variety of songs featuring both his wonderful falsetto voice as well as his beautiful natural voice and the wonderful harmonies of his band. Together with the Halau Hula Ka Makani Eili Makaha O Kauaʻula he and his band performed the hula that recently won at the 1997 King Kamehameha Hula Competition.
It was, however, more than just the music that made this set so wonderful. Uluwehi really connected with the audience with his stories of his trip on the airplane to New York He even showed the audience how he had learned to speak just like those from "New Yawk" and how he could say "cawfee" (coffee) and "get owt a'heah" (get out of here). Uluwehi's half hour set went by much too quickly.
The next artist to perform was Kekuhi Kanahele, whose full name is Kekuhi Kanae Kanahele Frias. Kekuhi's first album Hahani Mai was nominated for six Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. Like Uluwehi Guerrero, Kekuhi is one very busy person. While raising a family, teaching two language courses and a culture class at Hawaii Community College, attaining a master's degree in Hawaiian Studies, coordinating events for the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation and developing a cultural school for Hawaiian youth, she still managed to find time to complete her first album which features songs written by her husband Kaipo and put to music by Kekuhi.
Kekuhi also had a half hour set of music. I have never seen anyone with so much energy in my life. She had the whole audience dancing in their seats. Citing the importance of the need for Hawaiian people to propagate, she performed a beautiful song about lovemaking. She was also joined by her family for several songs. On stage were her husband, three sons and two cousins together with her band. They performed a wonder a capella number. Kekuhi's personality comes across very well and she is able to make a great connection to her audience.
Following Kekuhi's performance there was a twenty-five minute intermission after which the featured artist of the night, Kealiʻi Reichel, would perform. You could sense the excitement in the audience during the intermission.
