Na Hoku Hanohano Award winning band celebrates the holidays by bringing A “Kanekoa: Make Any Kine Christmas” presentation in Kihei.

The Maui News

It’s Kanekoa Christmas time on Dec. 23, when Maui’s acclaimed Na Hoku Hanohano Award winning band celebrates the holidays at the ProArts Playhouse. Performing for over 25 years, what they describe as “ukulele-powered Hawaiian jam-rock,” Kanekoa just released their latest album, “Make Any Kine Christmas,” resplendent with seasonal classics like “White Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland” and “Silent Night,” sung with Hawaiian and English lyrics.

“As the producer of the album I really wanted to feature Kaulana Kanekoa and his vocals and let his vocals shine,” explained the band’s ‘ukuele whiz Vince Esquire. “He did a great job.”

Working closely with Kauai producer/musician Michael Ruff, Esquire embellished several songs with a jazz flavor. “I really love jazz and I associate jazz and Christmas music,” he said. “With Michael’s tracks and his instrumentation it really helped mold the songs. He’s really amazing.”

Other guests on the new album include soulful vocalist Danyel Alana teaming with Kaulana Kanekoa for a playful, jazzy take on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” featuring a “waves on a tropical shore” local lyric updating. In recent years, this Christmas favorite has become kind of controversial with some radio stations refusing to play it.

Aware of the controversy, the band injected their own unique spin. “That’s kind of the part of the reason why we flipped the narrative on it,” Esquire explained. “We had Danyel singing what is normally the male part and Kaulana sing normally the female part. We also changed a couple of lyrics, took our own lyrics and made it, I don’t want to say a little more politically correct, but we kind of softened it a bit.”

Other gems range from “Mele Kalikimaka” with a tasty ‘uke interlude by Esquire, and a zippy “Winter Wonderland” with Ruff on piano, to a sweet instrumental version of “O Holy Night.” “There are so many classic versions of ‘O Holy Night’ with singers,” he said. “You can’t really top Willie K’s version. That’s the pinnacle, so we were like, let’s not sing it and just do it as an instrumental.”

They intentionally speeded up “Winter Wonderland” to give it a fresh makeover. “A lot of times you hear that song, it’s kind of slow and maybe it swings a little bit, but I never found a version that was kind of a triple time, uptempo jazz, swing thing.”

A brilliant ‘ukulele talent, Esquire included some prominent soloing on the album. “It’s not really a Kanekoa album without a bit of ‘ukulele,” he noted. “I’ve actually gotten complaints from people about our previous album not having enough ‘ukulele leads. So I wanted to feature that for people looking for it.”

To close the grand collection, they pull out all the stops for a delightful version of “Carol of the Bells,” complete with a female choir. Some people might not be aware that “Carol” is actually based on a Ukrainian song called “Shchedryk.”

“I found a female vocalist on Instagram, Arreanna Lerner, that specializes in singing jazz,” Esquire explained. “She threw some background vocals down on a couple of tracks. I let her have fun with the arrangements and she sent back a bunch of gold.”

With Kanekoa on lead vocals and rhythm ‘ukulele, Esquire on lead ‘ukulele and backing vocals, Don Lopez on bass, and Travis Rice on percussion, the band will include a few of their Christmas arrangements at the ProArts show. “We’re not going to do a whole set of Christmas songs,” he said. “We’re going to pick out a couple of favorites and do the normal Kanekoa thing.” Which means enthralling their audience with a novel mix of rock, Latin, R&B, reggae and Hawaiian music, which has won them fans around the state and across the Mainland.

A “Kanekoa: Make Any Kine Christmas” is presented on Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the ProArts Playhouse. Tickets are $60 for premium seating, $45 preferred seating, and $40 for regular seating. Call (808) 463-6550 for more information.