Maui Beat

Baraka Moon

Debuts on Maui with two performances Upcountry

An internationally acclaimed player of the ancient Aboriginal didgeridoo, Stephen Kent has pioneered its use in contemporary music for more than 30 years collaborating with leading musicians such as Brazil's Airto Moreira, India's Zakir Hussain, jazz legend Wayne Shorter and Door's drummer John Densmore.

Over the years some of the innovative groups he's performed with include the world music ensemble Trance Mission and ambient electronica pioneers Lights In A Fat City. These days Kent is most excited about Baraka Moon, another novel collaboration, which will make its Maui debut this weekend.

Known for their exuberant trance-dance music and rhythms based on Pakistani Sufi and other Hindustani tunes, the members of Baraka Moon features Kent on didgeridoo, percussion and bass; Sufi Qawwali vocalist/ harmonium player Sukhawat Ali Khan; guitarist/vocalist Anastasi Mavrides; and drummer Peter Warren.

Khan is an 11th-generation Sufi singer from the Sham Chaurasi traditional school of music that has been performing traditional North Indian and Pakistani classical music for more than six centuries. He began singing and playing harmonium as a young child under the guidance of his father, the legendary master vocalist Ustad Salamat Ali Khan.

Reviewing his album "Laaj," World Music Central praised: "A master of the five traditions of Indian and Pakistani music: Hindustani Classical, Sufi Qawwali, Punjabi Folk and Bhangra, Geet and Ghazal, Mr. Khan dazzles by conjuring up a sound that is simply intoxicating."

Viewing music as a sacred experience that unites the performer with the listener, in concert Khan is often spellbinding. "My family's been doing this music since the 16th century, Indian classical ragas and Sufi music," he explains. "My songs in the band are influenced by Qawwali music and our take is more Sufi style, which leans towards dancing grooves with Stephen's beautiful didg and Anastasi's beautiful guitar. I play harmonium and my training is in raga music. I'm kind of an energy guy, so I do become a channel and project good energy like a little shaman."

Taking its name from the Sufi word for blessing, the band creates a joyful, soulful fusion of spiritually charged dance music that seamlessly fuses primal influences from four continents.

"The band is quite unique," says Kent. "It's in the Sufi ecstatic trance tradition of Pakistan, but mainly driven by drums and didgeridoo with Anastasi on the guitar, who is a master of color and shading, and Peter Warren, the drummer, plays a lot of African music with different African bands. It's quite a different combination from anything else I've heard, and it's very infectious. Sukhawat is a very charismatic performer."

Born in England, and raised in East Africa, Kent has played the didgeridoo for 35 years. He is acclaimed as a pioneer of the modern day use of the ancient Aboriginal instrument beginning with his days as musical director of Australia's Circus Oz.

"I ended up leaving the circus wanting to go deeper into the origins of Aboriginal culture and the didgeridoo," he recalls. "My experiences on Aboriginal settlements led me to become a didgeridoo player and going deep into the land. I got permission to play the didgeridoo and I was encouraged to go out with the instrument as long as I always respected where it came from. I still feel a very strong connection to the source, although my own music is far removed from any kind of real Aboriginal musical sensibility. It's vital to have that connection and maintain the contract I have with Aboriginal people to honor their culture with my playing. It's very different from a lot of people playing the didgeridoo these days who simply use it as a musical instrument without any reference to where it comes from."

Co-founding Baraka Moon in 2008, he explains: "My playing with Baraka Moon is a wholly different style of didgeridoo playing because as it's mostly driving dance music and I'm matching the drums and working with ecstatic Sufi music and Hindi ragas."

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Bonnie Raitt's memorable return to Maui last weekend felt like an immersion in the coolest roots jukebox performed by a remarkable band. There was a tribute to rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry with a rave-up on the Thunderbirds' "I Believe I'm in Love," a dip back to the blues of Sippie Wallace with "Women Be Wise," a taste of Chaka Khan funk, some lively Zimbabwean gospel and a dazzling version of B.B. King's "Don't Answer the Door," performed by keyboardist Mike Finnigan on the Hammond B3.

Not one to rest on her laurels, the multiple-Grammy winner offered a handful of gems from her latest album, from the Stonesy political rocker "The Comin' Round is Going Through" and a burning version of INXS' "Need You Tonight," to her heart-wrenching ballad "The Ones We Couldn't Be."

Throughout the show, her slide playing was always brilliant, and vocally she sounded as soulful and as strong as ever, maybe even better.

After the concert, Raitt seemed thrilled by the evening, and praised the fabulous, New Orleans-influenced opening band, the California Honeydrops, and singled out her keyboardist, who she marveled played on Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland."

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PBS Hawaii has teamed with the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation to present "The Films of Eddie and Myrna Kamae, From the Heart," which will be broadcast and live streamed from April 6 through 9. The festival will showcase 10 award-winning documentaries in "The Hawaiian Legacy Series," released between 1988 and 2007.

The series will open at 8 p.m. on April 6 with Eddie's first and last films, "Li'a -- The Legacy of a Hawaiian Man" and "Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae." In a 1988 Maui News interview, Eddie talked about meeting one of his mentors, Waipio Valley musician Sam Li'a. "Everybody told me to go see him. I needed to find out if I was headed in the right direction. All he said was, 'play it sweet and keep it simple, that's Hawaiian music.' "

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Multi-Grammy Award nominees Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai and pianist Peter Kater will reunite tonight for a special evening of music. The two musicians have previously collaborated on a handful of recordings including "Through Windows & Walls," "Honorable Sky" and "Natives."

Now living on Maui, Kater has released more than 60 critically acclaimed CDs and has scored the music for many TV and film productions including "Civil War: The Untold Story," "10 Questions for the Dalai Lama" and "How The West Was Lost."

Kater's 2014 Grammy-nominated, improvised album "Ritual," included Nakai on Native American flute. " 'Ritual' is a thing of beauty, flowing from one track to the other," praised Zone Music. "Superb . . . sublime, 'Ritual' will almost certainly land on many critics' Top 10 lists for 2014."

The pianist's most recent album, the solo recording "Love" in 2015, was also improvised. A Hypnagogue review of "Love" noted: "There's no doubt that as far as New Age-style piano albums go, this is a winner. This return to the simple beauty of solo piano will surely please his existing fans while making new ones."

Of Navajo-Ute heritage, Nakai is the world's premier performer of the Native American flute. He began his musical studies on the trumpet, and later was given a traditional cedar flute as a gift and was challenged to master it. Nakai's first album, "Changes," was released in 1983.

Worldwide he has sold more than 4 million records. His albums "Canyon Trilogy" and "Earth Spirit" have been certified gold, and he's been nominated 11 times for a Grammy, including for "Awakening the Fire" in 2013.

• Native American flutist Nakai and pianist Kater perform at 7:30 p.m. today in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's McCoy Studio Theater. Tickets are $30, $40 and $50 (plus applicable fees). For more information, call 242-7469 or visit www.mauiarts.org.

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Maui's ukulele-powered Hawaiian, reggae, folk rock band Kanekoa has a new CD out, "Tales of the Fruit Stand Mystic," which the group has been promoting in shows around the island.

• Kanekoa plays from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Nalu's Southside Grill in Kihei, with no cover. Then they will perform from 6 to 9 p.m. April 7 at Wailuku's First Friday event as part of a fundraiser at the Wailuku Coffee Co. for 6-year-old Kahuena Kanekoa, who has cancer. On April 9, they appear at the Pacific Ink & Art Expo at the Lahaina Civic Center from 1 to 2 p.m. Admission is $25 to the Expo.