Tarvin Makia recently won the Jazz Album of the Year Hōkū, pictured with Gilbert Emata. Courtesy photo

The annual Maui Seed to Cup Coffee Festival at the Maui Tropical Plantation on Aug. 10 features a wide range of island talent from Hawaiian to jazz with several Nā Hōkū Hanohano award winners performing.

Among the artists, Tarvin Makia will perform a jazz set with Gilbert Emata and Alan Villaren. He recently won the Hōkū award for Jazz Album of the Year for the album “Ho’okanikapila, Mau’i” with Faith Ako.

With a lengthy resume that includes performing with Hau’ula, Mele ‘Ohana and Hapa, Makia was thrilled to win a jazz Hōkū.

“It felt great,” he said. “I’ve sung variety music all my life. I’ve done Frank Sinatra music from back when, like all his standards, even stuff as old as ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco.’ I know all these standards by heart. I’ve been singing for 50 years, ‘Misty’ and ‘The Nearness of You.’ Winning this award was such a great opportunity because a lot of people questioned me, ‘Tarvin, you sing jazz?’ What do you think ‘Fly Me to the Moon is?'”

“Ho’okanikapila, Mau’i” featured a collection of jazz standards like “Autumn Leaves,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Misty” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” with a few originals.

“Faith did a fantastic job doing the songs that she loved,” he said. “She performs these tunes also in the Bay Area. The kicker for me was I told her anybody can record jazz songs but lucky if our radio stations will play them. Why don’t we take our old standard Hawaiian song ‘Sweet Summer’ and sing it the way they did it back then. It had a little kick to it when I learned it as a child, a little swing. And sure enough, the radio stations played it crazy. We did it simple. We just both sang it with our harmonies to a ukulele played by Kala’i Camarillo. He laid down that track, and when we heard it, we said, ‘That’s it, no bass, no guitar.'”

Makia previously won Hōkū awards as a member of the group A’ea’e, with Keola Donaghy, Kenneth Makuakāne and Jeff Dayton. They won Group of the Year and Hawaiian EP of the Year in 2023.

There’s talk of a new collaboration. “We have been working on the side on some material,” he said. “Ken is a very busy man. Besides music, he’s got to run a church.” Makuakane is the Senior Pastor or Kahu Mua of the historic Kawaiaha’o in Honolulu.

In the meantime, he is looking forward to releasing a solo album. “Just peaceful listening Hawaiian music both in English and Hawaiian,” he said. “I’m going to feature it at a performance on Sept. 3 and 4 with comedian Ronny Chieng, a fundraiser for the Hawaii Theatre. Myself and my daughter (Mapua Makia) will be the only singing act in his performance. I’m going to introduce my new song, ‘Waikiki in the Moonlight.'”

The forthcoming single of “Waikiki in the Moonlight” has Jeff Peterson playing guitar and Nathan Aweau on fretless bass.

Arriving on Maui from Oahu in 1979, Makia first performed at the old Maui Inter-Continental hotel in Wailea. Growing up, he loved singing from an early age.

“At about 5-years-old I used to go surfing early in the morning all alone so that I could sing out there and nobody could tell me to shut up,” he recalled. “I loved singing. As I was getting older, I kept on, and I knew how to play a ukulele. Then, when I became a senior in high school, we had a talent show. There were the three of us, and I started my career right out of high school.”

For the Maui Seed to Cup Coffee Festival, the trio will perform jazz standards and songs from “Ho’okanikapila, Mau’i.”

“I will be playing bass and we’ll have the world of jazz under our belt,” he said.

Other performers at the fest include Eric Gilliom and Vince Esquire, the Maui Jazz & Blues Festival Duo Dr. Joie Taylor and Jeff Helmer, the Hula Honeys, and Hana’s Lahela Lee Park, who won the inaugural Carmen Hulu Lindsey Leo Ha’iha’i Falsetto Contest at the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua in 2022.

Makia usually plays at various Wailea resorts, but an accident has sidelined his gigs for a couple of months. Besides the Waikapu concert, he plans to join Kala’i Camarillo at a show at The Shops of Wailea on Aug. 15.

The Maui Seed to Cup Coffee Festival will be presented at the Maui Tropical Plantation with music from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 10. Admission is free.

Falsetto contest winner Lahela Lee Park also performs at the Maui Seed to Cup Coffee Festival. Photo courtesy Ken Martinez Burgmaier