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Acclaimed kumu hula and multi-Na Hoku-winning musician Robert Cazimero recently led his halau Na Kamalei o Lililehua to victory as the overall winner at the 52nd Merrie Monarch Festival.
“I’m so happy for the guys,” says Robert about his halau, which was also declared winner of the Kane Overall and Kane Auana divisions. “We all worked so hard.”
The last time his halau competed in 2005, they also won the overall title and swept the Kane divisions. Only competing around every 10 years, they won their first Merrie Monarch title in 1976.
“There was no real significance other than I like the sound of 10,” he explains. “It was a number in 1979 that I just pulled out of the box. And I was thinking about how much money we would save.”
This year’s annual Cazimero concert at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center will be a little different. As Roland Cazimero is unable to attend, the Ohana Lei Day Concert on Friday will feature Robert joined by guests like Raiatea Helm, along with members of his halau.
Roland became ill during last year’s MACC concert, suffering from a recurring bout of pneumonia. Until Roland is strong enough to return to the stage, the Brothers Cazimero are on a temporary hiatus.
Performing without his brother feels “awkward and kind of scary,” Robert says. “It feels almost terribly incomplete. It was really a shock last year when Roland went through what he did on stage. Both of us have never had to deal with our mortality as sharply as we both had to do that evening. He was fighting for his life. It’s taught me a lot and I’ve grown in different ways. Roland wanted to come back this year, but the doctors had asked that he not work for a whole year.”
In the last few years, Robert has released two wonderful solo albums that have focused on his love for hula music. Released in 2011, “Hula” won a Hoku for Hawaiian Language Performance. “Hula 2” earned him Hoku nominations last year for Hawaiian Music Album and Male Vocalist of the Year.
Both albums featured him in an “unplugged” format, just singing and playing the piano.
“The piano is my first instrument,” he notes. “I was playing it from when I was a little kid. And I find the most comfort if Roland is not there in the fact that it has been my best friend for so many years. But it’s still very challenging to make it the orchestra that I’m used to.”
His love for playing the piano is so palpable on the recordings – they exude a feeling of joy.
“I find my joy in waking up every morning,” he adds. “Just knowing I have a new day to play with is pretty wonderful.”
Robert closed “Hula 2” with a lone orchestrated track, “Beyond the Reef,” which he recorded as a tribute to Jack de Mello and his pioneering, lush orchestral production work in the 1950s and ’60s.
“I have a great deal of appreciation and love for Jack de Mello,” he says. “Even as a kid, I would listen to his albums. It would make me homesick for a place that I was supposed to be living in. It was a fantasized idea of the home that I was living in. It was an escape for me and it still is today. When I met Jack for the first time, it felt like I walked into Walt Disney’s office.”
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Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah Nelson recently completed a new album, “The Monsanto Years,” with legendary rock star Neil Young, which will be released June 16. The brothers’ band, Promise of the Real, will also head out on the road with Young beginning in July on a Rebel Content Tour, with the possibility of some island gigs.
“We’re very excited,” says Micah about the new recording. “It’s a concept album focusing on how corporations have essentially hijacked the American government. It’s highlighting Monsanto and their monopoly on food, and it calls b.s. on a lot of corporations like Wal-Mart and Starbucks, big businesses that have corrupted democracy in this country. It’s become a corporatocracy. Neil is stating hard facts on this record. I hope it will spark public conversations about what’s going on, at least get folks talking about it.”
The brothers collaborated with Young last year performing at Farm Aid, and they just played a surprise show at a popular Southern California bar debuting new songs from the album.
“Neil has been our hero forever,” Micah continues. “We work really well together and it feels like a band, not like we’re hired session guys. Neil treats us like his band.”
Their tour will kick off in Milwaukee.
“There’s nothing on the West Coast or the Hawaiian Islands yet, but at some point it would be great to do a little island run,” he says. “I’ve suggested it. I think people would really appreciate the content of these songs.”
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In 2006, the Maui Film Festival screened an extraordinary documentary about an African band called the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars. The film chronicled their amazing odyssey of how, as refugees from a war-torn nation in West Africa, they formed a group and used their music to uplift their audiences.
Nine years later, the stars of the film will make their Maui debut tonight performing their exuberant music in Castle Theater.
In 1999, Sierra Leone descended into chaos with rebel forces and government troops alike perpetrating atrocities, forcing a flood of refugees into the neighboring Republic of Guinea. Several musicians were amongst the refugees who came together through a combination of luck and perseverance in one of the ramshackle camps.
Led by charismatic songwriter Ruben Koroma, the band members eventually returned to their homeland to record their debut album, “Living Like a Refugee,” which included a disc of raw field recordings from the Guinea camps and a studio recording of infectious Afropop and reggae tinged songs that extolled peace and forgiveness.
It’s been their mission ever since to spread joy. One reviewer has hailed them as ambassadors for everything good and happy.
“I feel I have a responsibility,” says Koroma. “It’s a responsibly to use a positive message, positive music that uplifts peoples’ lives. I believe music can make a difference.”
Inside World Music raved that their latest recording, “Libation,” is “a celebration of life with 12 tracks of deliciousness.” And Performer Magazine hailed it as “an album infused with an authentic energy and spirituality that can be instantly felt by listeners across cultural boundaries.”
The All Stars’ music is an eclectic mix of vibrant West African rhythms with some reggae.
“We try to present a blend of West African rhythms including highlife from Ghana and gumbe from Sierra Leone, which is like the soukous style of the Zairean people,” Koroma explains. “Gumbe is our traditional beat.”
As to reggae’s influence, their 2012 album, “Radio Salone,” included “Reggae Sounds the Message,” while “Libation” includes reggae-infused tracks like “Rich But Poor” and “Treat You Right.”
This influence reflects their nation’s origins. Sierra Leone’s Krio people are descended from freed slaves from the Caribbean and North America.
“We had a very strong history of slavery,” he notes. “The most common language spoken today in Sierra Leone is Krio, which comes from people who came from Jamaica, and some (former slaves) from Nova Scotia and England. So there are similarities between Sierra Leone and Jamaica, and we have a music called baskeda, which is like reggae.”
Since their earliest days, their infectious music has drawn praise from famous fans. Keith Richards and Paul McCartney helped fund the documentary on the band. Oprah Winfrey had them on her TV show, and they were chosen to perform U2’s song “Seconds” for the benefit album “In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2.”
Rockers Aerosmith are also fans. The All Stars collaborated with Aerosmith, performing John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” on the album “Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur,” and they were invited to open for the group at the 12,000-capacity Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
After watching the All Stars documentary, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry told Nashville Scene: “It was absolutely mind-blowing. We were speechless. They’re an incredible band. We all talk about the power of music and all that, but when you see how important the music is to them, how it kept them alive, it’s amazing.”
* Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars perform at 7:30 tonight in Castle Theater at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Tickets are $42 (plus applicable fees) and are available at the box office, by calling 242-7469 or by visiting www.mauiarts.org.