Friday, April 1, 2005

Looks like the '70s: Jazz fans of the time flocked to the         Hyatt Regency nightclub to hear Jimmy Borges and        Betty Loo Taylor in a grownup room.

Trap worth setting:A celebration of jazz restores the site of Trappers Nightclub to its former glory

"Swingtime In Hawaii, Part 2," opened with a 90-minute concert in the hotel's ballroom featuring Grammy-nominated pianist / composer Jessica Williams and a carefully chosen assortment of Hawaii's top talents. Dance floors available for fans who really wanted to swing.

"That's something the jazz festival wanted to add on top of the kind of semi-serious attitude that takes place at the Hawaii Theatre. I think it's important to have some party atmosphere somewhere along the line because it also helps people relate to jazz a little better. We want people to realize that jazz is fun. It's not just something to burn your brain out on ... and you don't have to be an expert to enjoy it," Weinstein explained with his usual enthusiasm earlier this week.

"(And) we continued dancing for an extra hour in the ballroom ... just to give dancers an extra bit of time to swing and talk and have fun. I think some people are going to want to just visit and talk, other people are going to want to dance, and other people are going to want to get down to Trappers (for the post-concert jam session). Like in any party situation, if you offer enough diversity, it's gonna work. ... It's a jazz party from 8 o'clock on."

An added attraction is his one-night salute to Trappers, the club / lounge that helped make the Hyatt Regency an important part of the local entertainment scene from the mid-1970s through the '80s. "As far as I know, there has never been another club that lasted that long that had a jazz theme over here ... and once we decided we were going to be at the Hyatt Regency, we wanted to bring back that vibe and we're doing our best to recreate it," he says.

Trappers wasn't the first jazz club in Honolulu by any means, but from the time it opened on the ground floor of the hotel until the day singer Jimmy Borges was lured away to another Waikiki hotel, it was the city's classiest and most consistent venue for jazz. Borges, already a fixture in local jazz, was its resident voice, and pianist Betty Loo Taylor (a headliner in her own right) shared the stage with guitarist Jimmy Funai and bassist Jerry Rousch.

Trappers had a quiet sophisticated ambience few nightspots could achieve. The male hosts (no one called them "bouncers") wore formal attire. The Trapperettes' uniforms were reminiscent of the famed Playboy Bunnies garb, but no one found the look objectionable. Mai Tai Sing, a celebrity in San Francisco before she came here, was the ever-gracious and unflappable general manager.

As if that wasn't enough to ensure the club's success, management also made a commitment to presenting some of the major talents of the day in the club's intimate venue, with a list that included Freddie Hubbard, Joe Sample, Wynton Marsalis, Stan Getz, Herbie Mann, Mose Allison and Gil Scott-Heron.

That era ended when Borges left. Subsequent changes in hotel management resulted in Trappers being replaced by an ill-conceived oldies club, and then by the colorful Texas Rock 'n' Roll Sushi Bar. Eventually the space was closed and then gutted. But now Weinstein and Sing are recreating Trappers from the ground up.

"There's nothing in there, it's empty. ... So we're putting in artwork and collages of photos and lots of helium balloons. We're going to try to get a mannequin and dress it up like a Trapperette," Weinstein said, adding that 12 of the old-time waitresses will be joining Sing for the evening -- as guests, not lounge workers.

"It's been fun talking to the Trapperettes. ... We're having a lot of fun with that, and the concert show is going very well. Things are shaping up real nicely. There's a nice buzz in town."

And there should be. Borges is back, and pianist Rich Crandall, the guy who made Bagwell's 2424 (now Ciao Mein) an intimate jazz spot at the other end of the Hyatt in the late '70s, will be backing Borges and also showcasing his own trio. There's always a chance that Crandall will sing as well.

While many veteran nightlifers will be looking forward to catching up with the ol' gang, the ballroom concert is a solid attraction as well. As the theme might suggest, Weinstein is celebrating island jazz traditions as well as those of the mainland. Slack-key guitarist Jeff Peterson, who happens to enjoy playing jazz as well as traditional Hawaiian music, is one of several featured artists whose repertoire represents the theme. Keahi Conjugacion and Owana Salazar are two of the others.

The all-star band will include Gabe Baltazar, David Choy, DeShannon Higa, Rick Broadwell, Brien Matsen, John Kolivas, Dan Del Negro, Darryl Pellegrini, Robert Shinoda and Scott Villiger.

And don't forget the dance floor.

"(It adds) a nice dimension. ... People like to dance to this music and they get frustrated if they can't. ... Between the mix of the standard big band stuff and the Hawaiian music, Owana Salazar is going to be playing steel guitar and singing her tunes from her 'Hula Jazz' album, and Jeff Peterson is going to do some jazz and some slack key. There'll be a nice mix there to help us depict the history a little bit."

And on that note, Weinstein finds it interesting "that the music here is indigenous to here and nowhere else. ... The Hawaiian musicians and the jazz musicians have shared styles. Jazz is very democratic. It likes to embrace styles from different cultures, but I think the Hawaiian culture has been very much in the forefront in terms of sharing, not just food and language, but the music. What we've tried to do is depict the way the history has been unique over here."