2010 Maui Invitational Music Festival

Saturday, June 26, Jazz and Blues Fest

An evening of great music by Highseas Dixieland Jazz Band Mana‘o Radio Orchestra featuring Vince Esquire
Omar & The Soultones featuring Ken Stover on Keys and Rick Yamashiro on Sax Jamallad and the AECG student ensemble with emcee Kathy Collins

Saturday, June 26, 6:30pm

Historic Iao Theater
68 N. Market Street,  Wailuku

$10 suggested donation at the door

The concert is presented by Arts Education for Children Group (AECG) and is supported by the County of Maui, Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, and Mana‘o Radio

Notes on the Performers

High Seas Dixieland Band

High Seas Dixieland Band plays authentic New Orleans style jazz.  The group consists of traditional instruments used in this form of jazz: trumpet, clarinet, banjo, tuba, and drums.  The drummer also doubles on vocals.  The group has played together for over twenty years and can be heard at conventions, private parties, fund raisers and other places where rip-roaring, toe-tapping jazz is desired.

The musicians are Lisa Owen, tuba/leader; Jerry Eisenberg, clarinet; Willie Boughton, trumpet; Mickey Felipe, banjo; and Jimmy C., drums/vocals.

The Mana‘o Radio Orchestra Featuring Vince Esquire

The band is made up of volunteer musicans/djs from Maui’s noncommerical, listener-supported, radio station KEAO-LP 91.5 better known as Mana‘o Radio. Kathy Collins and her late husband, Barry Shannon, founded the llive, free form station several years ago.

In Mauian Vince Esquire’s brief but impressive career, he has been featured with and opened for such music luminaries as Willie Nelson, the Gregg Allman Band, The Allman Brothers, Los Lonely Boys, Little Feat, Coco Montoya, Tommy Castro, Chris Duarte, Eric Johnson and The Doobie Brother's co-founder and guitarist Pat Simmons.

Dorothy Betz

Dorothy’s artistic resume included performing in coffee houses during high school, mentoring by esteemed folk singer Fred Neil,
and fronting a Boston rock band. On Maui, she has performed with Willie Nelson and the Planetary Bandits, the Road Alligators, the Upcountry String Band and as founding member of the Mana'o Radio Orchestra.

Les Adam

Also an alumnus of Willie Nelson's former backing band, the Planetary Bandits, Les Adam has played keyboards with an array of musicians on Maui including Kris Kristofferson, the Doobies' Pat Simmons, Merl Saunders, Bill Kreutzman of the Grateful Dead, and Los Lonely Boys, as well as the Road Alligators and the Vince Esquire Band.

Adisa ‘Omar’ Camara - Lead Vocals

A mellow baritone, Omar has been singing and performing with bands and groups for many years. He began performing his soulful sounds as a teen using street corner symphonies. His vision is to continue creating music that touches the hearts of all who hear him.

Ken Stover – Keyboards

Ken plays a rangeof styles including classical, blues, jazz, rock and R&B. He has created groups featuring world beat sounds with local luminaries such as Divino Smith and Willie Wainwright.   Ken has also performed with other well-known Maui talent such as Eric Gilliom, Keali‘i Reichel, and Henry Kaleialoha Allen. During the 90's he toured with Rodney Franklin and Gerald Albright and recorded with the Doobie Brothers. He composes, produces and operates his own midi-studio. Ken endeavors to be fluent in all forms of music, recognizing the universality, joy and transformative power of our one global language - music.

Rick Yamashiro – Woodwinds

Rick is a professional musician/vocalist with more than thirty years of experience performing and recording. His plays alto and soprano sax, flutes, harmonica and percussion. Rick was a founding member of the award-winning Bay Area-based world beat band Zulu Spear, which featured South African vocalists and dancers. Zulu Spear performed at many Bill Graham Presents concerts with artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masakela, The Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker, and Bonnie Raitt.

Jamallad

Jamallad, aka Lucien Kouassi, plays inspiring dance music incorporoating rock, reggae, folk rock and other cultural influences that the has experienced in a musical career that has taken him from his West Africa birthplace through Europe and across the United States (including a music degree from Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA) to Hawaii.

The Arts Education for Children Group (AECG) student ensemble or AECG Blues Band will be comprised of advanced students who have participated in the Maui Invitaitonal Music Festival’s  summer session, “Making a Band.”