John Pizzarelli: Guitarist to headline Hulaville Festiville

September 26, 2013

Before jazz guitarist/vocalist John Pizzarelli was invited to play on Paul McCartney's latest album, "Kisses on the Bottom," he encountered the legendary Beatle at a New York City hotel."I was waiting in the lobby of the Carlyle to go on and he walked in with his girlfriend Nancy," Pizzarelli recalls. "I was holding my guitar and he said, 'What have you got for me?'"So I started to play (the Beatles' song "Money") 'The best things in life are free.' And he finished the line, 'and you can give them to the birds and bees.' We laughed and chatted and as he left he said, 'You have to go do a ...

How Leon Russell got his groove back

September 19, 2013

Leon Russell was hanging out at his home in early 2009 when he got a surprising phone call. It was Elton John calling from a safari vacation in Africa, suggesting they collaborate on an album.The two musicians had first met in 1970 when Russell attended John's American debut at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles. The meeting heralded the beginning of a long friendship and a mutual appreciation between the two artists."In the late '60s and early '70s, the one piano player and vocalist who influenced me more than anybody else was Leon Russell," John said in a press release. "He was my ...

Tony Bennett

September 12, 2013

After performing with Tony Bennett in January at an inauguration ball for President Barack Obama, Lady Gaga tweeted a photo of the duo with a text that announced, "Here's me and my handsome date, I simply cannot wait for our album together."The two New Yorkers had so much fun teaming for a version of "The Lady Is a Tramp," on Bennett's hit album, "Duets II," released in 2011, that they have decided to collaborate on a jazz recording. In interviews about the intriguing project, the veteran artist hailed Gaga as one of the best jazz singers that anyone's ever heard."We are planning on ...

Lenny Castro heats up Maui Jazz & Blues Festival

September 5, 2013

When Mick Jagger needed a percussionist to play on his solo albums, he hired Lenny Castro. Besides working with Jagger and the Rolling Stones, this legend has recorded and toured with many leading artists from Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton to Fleetwood Mac, B.B. King and George Benson.Castro will make his Maui debut at the third annual Maui Jazz & Blues Festival, which runs through Sunday at various venues.While he's never played on our island before, this veteran musician recalls performing at a couple of historic Diamond Head Crater Festivals in the 1970s as some of his favorite ...

Ali Campbell

August 29, 2013

When he was fronting UB40, Ali Campbell would sometimes transform pop gems like Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love," Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe," and Neil Diamond's "Red, Red Wine" into hits for the British reggae band, so it's probably no surprise that for his fourth solo album the popular singer would choose to release a whole CD of covers.But who would have guessed he would pick classic tunes by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Kinks?Released in the U.K. in late 2010, "Great British Songs" compiled a bunch of pop and rock hits from the 1960s and '70s, ...

Crosby & Nash

August 22, 2013

Wishing to help an old friend, David Crosby will team with Graham Nash to perform a benefit concert at Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Castle Theater in Kahului on Thursday, Aug. 29.Concert proceeds will be donated to Crosby's friend, Bob Benavides, who needs a wheelchair accessible van for his 10-year-old daughter, Ruth, a Kula Elementary School student who is global developmentally delayed and cannot walk on her own. For the last two years, Ruth's dad has unsuccessfully participated in the national Mobility Awareness Month Contest in the hope of winning a wheelchair and wheelchair ...