Just Trust Me On This One!
By George D’range
Where: Ong King Arts Center, 184 N. King
Sunday nights 9 PM-1:00 AM
Cost: $1.00
Did you ever wish you had caught a really talented musician early in their career? You know the old story, the inside scene was all abuzz over some rising star, and yet somehow it got right by you? And now, tickets are so pricey, and if you had only been there, you could have met actually them after one of their gigs!
Meet Taimane Gardner, lovely, vivacious and extremely talented. She is an incredible young ukulele virtuosa, but to compare her to her contemporaries, like Jake and Bruce Shimabukuro would be not be fair to all concerned, especially since she sites them as teachers and influences. I could use all the trite clichés to describe Taimane at this point in her young career: "rising star", "on fire", or "wunderkind", and all that might be very true, but it's all for the better if you simply go see her play.
There simply is no easy way to convince you to catch her act before she goes stellar, so you’re just going to have to trust me on this one! And I know just the place, at a cover anyone can afford! How's Ong King Arts Center in Chinatown, Sunday night for just a dollar donation sound? Sure, you could catch her at the Royal Hawaiian Luau every Monday after having paid a tidy sum for a sumptuous meal in a retro-tourista environment, —and one Taimane song— completely safe from the random elements of the world and the crowd, but it’s so much more fun to brave Chinatown by night to catch a truly memorable and unpredictable entertainment experience! (Besides, it’s local tradition!)
And local tradition flows through Taimane’s skilled fingers from the renowned instruction of Roy Sakuma, and a whole host of others she lists as teachers, including Brother Nolan, Herb Ohtasan Junior, Aunty Genoa and many others. And most recently, Tai has gotten a taste for Indian music from Shree Saragopan of Quadraphonix.
The first time Taimane played at Ong King there had been a momentary MC vacuum early in the evening, and MC See Ellauri asked me to hold down the fort for an hour or so, whilst he and co-owner Jonathan Heraux tended to other business matters. I did, trying to keep things moving along as best I could. Just as I was running out of folks to pull up on stage, and was about to subject the crowd to my own D’ranged tunes, Jonathan and See came back and I was much relieved to be relieved of duty. But not before I had scoured the audience for the next few acts and slipped See a piece of paper with the name: Taimanne. (OK, I got it wrong the first time, but I would never, ever forget the name!)
To use another trite expression, she blew our minds! And that's saying quite a bit considering she can segue seamlessly between "Stairway to Heaven", Beethoven's "Fur Elise" and flamenco style all on her ukulele! Adding to her interesting blend of tastes, she has begun to jam regularly with the boys of Ong King’s house band, Quadraphonix. Running her instrument through Shree’s guitar effects, her music takes on a whole new dimension, and Taimane easily does for the uke what Indai of Tempo Valley does for the cello.
There is also an uncompromising depth to her original songwriting that I find very appealing. She seems unafraid to tackle social and political topics other mainstream local artists might shy away from. In one televised appearance on Andy Bumatai, she bravely takes on the topic of health care and the elderly being forced to choose between their medications and their groceries in her song, “Clinically Insane”. In another song, “We Are The Chosen”, she compassionately sings about the cost of war to all of us.
But if you're still not convinced, and would like to get a dose of Taimane's music online, there's much to be had! In addition to her website, www.taimane.com, and she has a MySpace page at myspace.com/taimanegardner. She has also made three appearances on Nighttime with Andy Bumatai, which can be viewed on their You Tube channel, www.youtube.com/ntphawaii. Her “Clinically Insane” video is at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Edebn0GWKQ. From there, a quick search of You Tube will reveal such gems as Taimane performing at Don Ho’s aloha ceremony, her stunning performance before John Travolta and Kelly Preston of “Led Zeppelin meets Beethoven”, and a kick-ass version of “Wipeout” recorded right on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki.
After having done all this, the question won’t be whether or not this young lady has a future in music, but: “Why haven’t I heard of her before?!”
