A Night of Dazzling Music with Tia Carrere

Photos and videos are mine.

Content of post from Ted Benito with his consent:

“About ten years ago, I sat at a table with some colleagues to discuss producing an evening of music with Tia Carrere. The idea was to feature her in a one-woman journey of songs that she loved singing, that she wrote and that she could have fun performing. Well, last night at Herb Alpert’s Vibrato, that vision came to fruition.

Much to the delighted surprise and immense enjoyment of the audience, Tia simply dazzled!!!…performing a repertoire of songs from Blondie, the Pointer Sisters, a quick nod to Bobby Caldwell, some Hawaiian classics and a few original songs she wrote. Backed by a tremendously talented band (props up to Tina the trombone player!) who also provided some backup vocals, Tia performed the evening’s set list showing off her natural vibrato and effortless ease in jazz, pop and American standard tunes.

She ”sultried” her opening Sarah-Vaughan classic “Whatever Lola Wants” which, of course, led to her rendition of the Pointer Sisters’ classic “Fire” (competently joined by the entire audience yelling that one word during the chorus!). Inspired by Linda Ronstadt’s version, she “torched” through the Gershwin standard “I’ve Got Crush on You” and echoed that charming appeal when she performed Irving Berlin’s haunting “What’ll I Do”…..then, she did a complete 180 and “slow funked-up” the Carpenters “Close to You” with an arrangement that absolutely killed!

Thankfully for this audience member, Tia performed (probably for the first-time ever at Vibrato!) some Hawaiian songs from her Grammy winning CD;’s (she won the Grammy for “Ikena” in 2009 and a second Grammy for “Huana Ke Aloha” in 2011). For brief moments during the evening, we were all transported to paradise as Tia sang “He Nani”, “Hanalei Moon” and even the famous “Aloha Oe” (which she performed in “Lilo & Stitch”) but which also holds much significance to the Hawaiian people.

I almost fell off my chair when the band came back from break and started playing a Calypso-inspired rhythm only to have Tia come out and get the audience (and few of the wait staff!) dancing to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” (whomever did THAT arrangement needs a shout out!). THAT was followed by the Dobbie Brothers’ knockout “Listen to the Music” in which Tia mini-morphed into ‘Cassandra’ from “Wayne’s World” (she rocked out on that vocal!)

But my most unforgettable musical moment came she performed her original song, “I’m a Junky for Your Love”, a modern day torch song about the angst of insanely loving someone, which included a sampling of Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love”….just stupendously performed! As the penultimate song, Tia sang “I’ve Never Even Told You” from the ‘Batman’ soundtrack, something I’ve never heard her perform prior.

With Tia, as I’ve learned over the years, expect the unexpected! Her talent is limitless, her personality and stage presence is thoroughly enjoyable, and her voice is solid, playful, strong and soaring! Much mahalo, “sistah”, for giving the audience a warm-hearted, enthusiastic, and convincing journey through your musical wonderland!”