This Saturday you can hear a unique combination of instruments in your own living room. Ukulele, vibraphone, wind instruments and taiko will combine with a Chinese lute. Tau Dance Theatre is performing as well.
Taiko master Kenny Endo will be doing a duet with a dancer called Moon Wind. He plays an odaiko, a large barrel-shaped Japanese drum.
"When I worked in the kabuki theatre in Japan, the odaiko has the role of doing sound effects having to do with the weather, or the geography or the feelings going on in that particular scene. They're often very soft and very subtle," Endo said.
"It was really amazing, the way they used the odaiko as an accompaniment. So based on that esthetic, I'm using a padded mallet in one hand, and using a lot of vocalization used in kabuki," he said. "That's what Moon Wind is about."
Moon Wind is on Saturday night's program which is entitled Ame, a Japanese word meaning rain.
In this case, rain refers to tears shed around the world through the coronavirus pandemic. Rain also refers to the forces of nature that hold the promise of healing.
Experience "Ame, Tears of the Earth" live online at the Hawai'i Theatre at 6:30 p.m. on May 22. With registration, the concert can be viewed anytime through early June, according to the theatre.
