Inside HILife: All Natro

All Natro drops first CD

Cindy Ellen Russell / crussell@starbulletin.com

‘ALL NATRO CD RELEASE PARTY’ With openers Ooklah the Moc, Konfrontation, Pohaku, Thrive and Kahakea Where: Pipeline Cafe When: 8 p.m. today Cost: $20 to $23 (18 and over) Call: 589-1999

After years of ducking the question from fans, the seven members of All Natro finally have an answer when someone asks, “Where can I pick up a copy of your album?”

Originally formed in 2001, the Mililani-based band relied on word-of-mouth promotion and profiles on social networking Web sites like MySpace.com to inform fans about upcoming gigs. A series of lineup changes also affected the group as they developed their sound at house parties and smaller venues around Oahu.

“It took about three years to produce this first CD,” guitarist Toby Fujihara said last week following band practice at his Mililani home. “We had a dead zone for about a year, trying to find people for the band.”

That was in 2004, after All Natro lost four out of its original seven members. Fujihara, fellow guitarist Isaac Amado and lead singer B.J. Crisostomo were eventually joined by Amado’s brother, Gabby Amado on drums, bass player Chad Soueira, keyboardist Rockwell Rapada and percussionist Kawika Samson. In 2005 the band entered “Brown Bags to Stardom” and placed third behind a dance team and a rock band.

“We were still positive about it,” Crisostomo said. “At the beginning we was just Jawaiian music … but we started finding out why we play music and what sound we wanted to go with.”

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Inside HILife: Island Mele

‘Girl Talk’
Hula Honeys
(Ululoa)

The traditions of smooth jazz and hapa haole music are blended in perfect measure in the second album by Maui’s Hula Honeys — Ginger Johnson and Robyn Kneubuhl. The vocal duo works their musical magic across a collection of 14 romantic selections. A slight majority are jazz or hapa haole classics; the others are originals that could become classics in the years to come.

Hawaii is represented by the works of John Kameaaloha Almeida (“Kiss Me Love”), Melvin Paoa (“Waikiki Chickadee”) and Norman Kaye (“A Maile Lei for Your Hair”). The pop and jazz selections include songs by Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer and Jerome Kern.

“Girl Talk,” written in the ’60s by Neil Hefti and Bobby Troup, adds a bit of humor in expressing the feelings of many women: Much as we enjoy talking among ourselves, we also like having you men around.

Kneubuhl’s “Hana by the Bay” describes the delights to a journey to one of the most isolated parts of Maui. Johnson’s “I Dream About You” and “The Lei You Made for Me” are more intimate in their descriptions of marvelous dreams and a romantic gift.

www.TheHulaHoneys.com

“Kiss Me Love”
“Hana By The Bay”
“My Heart, Your Heart”

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