Paiva’s album “Tell U What” won Hōkū Awards for ukulele album of the year and instrumental composition of the year. Courtesy photo

Having recorded a cover of Carlos Santana’s song “Europa” on her album “Four Strings: The Fire Within,” multi-Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winner Brittni Paiva heard the Latin rock legend was going to play Oahu in 2013 and made contact through her management.

Santana invited her to meet him backstage. Thrilled at the opportunity, she was stunned when he suggested she join him on stage. “It was the most nerve-wracking moment of my life,” Paiva recalled. “It’s one of the highlights of my career.”

Paiva jammed with Santana on his song “Samba Pa Ti,” and the Blaisdell Arena crowd roared in approval. Backstage before the show, Santana had asked Paiva if she knew how to play any of his songs.

“So I told him I knew ‘Samba Pa Ti’ and ‘Europa,’ and he asked if my ukulele had a pickup and if I would love to jump on stage with them,” she said. “Of course I had to say yes.”

The previous year, the Hilo-born multi-instrumentalist had released the album “Tell U What,” which won Hōkū Awards for ukulele album of the year and instrumental composition of the year.

Produced by sax legend Tom Scott, guests included trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval, Ray Parker Jr., trumpet player Chuck Findley (Rolling Stones, Steely Dan) and Michael McDonald, who sang on Paiva’s cover of “I Keep Forgetting.”

She also interpreted Gabriel Fauré’s “Pavane,” Bela Fleck’s reggae-flavored “The Lochs of Dread,” “Comin’ Home Baby” popularized by Herbie Mann, “A Taste of Honey,” which the Beatles covered in 1963, and Eddie Harris’ jazz standard “Cold Duck Time.”

“I told Tom Scott I wanted to try out the jazz genre, which I hadn’t really done before, so he gave me some song suggestions,” Paiva explained.

Having McDonald on the album “was very surreal because the yacht rock stuff I’ve listened to for a really long time,” she said. “Having him on the project doing this back-and-forth with the ukulele and his vocals turned out to be really cool.”

Once praised by Ukulele Magazine as “the next Jake,” Paiva will perform at 7 p.m. June 26 at the ProArts Playhouse in Kihei. Tickets are available at proartsmaui.org.

Known for improvising on classics like Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” and Gershwin’s “Summertime,” Paiva released her debut album “Brittni x3” at age 15, producing it herself and playing all the ukulele, slack key guitar and bass guitar parts. The feat helped her win the 2005 Hōkū for most promising artist of the year.

The late ukulele master Eddie Kamae recognized her prodigious gift. “Brittni is different,” he said. “You can see it in her face and the way she plays her music. It comes from her soul.”

A classically trained pianist, she began taking lessons when she was 4 years old. Homeschooled, she later attended Berklee College of Music.

Her second album, “Brittni,” showcased her instrumental dexterity and adventurous spirit on a handful of original compositions and novel interpretations of Baroque works, Hawaiian, Latin rock, Hebrew and Hungarian Romani songs.

After the release of “Tell U What” in 2012, she stepped away from the spotlight.

“There’s a period from after my last Hōkū wins in 2013 all the way through mid-2019; those are kind of the roughest years,” she said. “I fell into an abusive relationship and then I fell into addiction after that. So there was a lot that I had to deal with and work through. I’m still in therapy, and I’ve been sober for going on seven years in August. A lot of stuff fueled my creativity now.”

She recalled that at a couple points in time she was living out of her car. Playing ukulele, piano, bass and percussion, she released the song “Don’t Let Me Fade” about sitting on the edge of an overpass in Hilo, watching the traffic drive by underneath and contemplating life.

“This was a couple of months before I got sober, feeling I need to learn how to love myself before I expect to be loved by other people,” she said.

Winning Instrumental Composition of the Year in 2024 for her song “Heartbeat Melody,” Paiva said she feels renewed and excited about her forthcoming album.

“It’s going to really take the ukulele into a completely different planet of music,” she said. “This will be the first album that I have all original music. A lot of things went on in my life since the last album, so I wanted to showcase the maturity of my songwriting and the versatility that I’ve always approached with the ukulele. I’m collaborating with producers the Brewz. I’m really excited. It showcases the ukulele in a different light than what is currently out there. This is a style of music that I don’t think anybody has ever heard on the ukulele.”

For her ProArts show, Andrew Molina will guest, and she will play with Keala Buhr. “Keala and I have really great energy on stage,” she noted. “He’s an amazing guitarist, and Andrew and I go way back. I’m super excited for the ProArts show.”