EKK: Chanel Flores’s Kitchen Sink Polynesian Revue
“I should be teaching Pidgin English 101” laughs the effervescent Ms Tita 2005 as she ever-so-often stops her 50 MPH narrative in Waianae/Anahola pidgin (which was challenging even for me to grasp as I was brought up on the much slower Waimea Valley pidgin English). Pidgin English is a cultural phenomenon that is rare for visitors to experience, but Chanel Flores dished it out with a lot of attitude. When she conversed with another pidgin English speaker in the audience, it was like a foreign language even to my ears. She caught herself ever so often and amended her narrative, e.g.—“mean’/herwelik’pla’an’teaseeachuddahtopaanian’wenocanevenpaina…heeeheehee…oh!’scuseme…HER and ME, we like to play and tease each other to pa’ani…that means to play instrumental solo…and HER and ME, we no can even pa’ani!” and she strums her ukulele with a vengeance.
Chanel Flores
Week #2 EKK Monday with Chanel Flores started off with her auto biographical musical journey from small kid time to the present but escalated throughout the evening into what I have to call “Chanel Flores’ everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Polynesian Revue”. I don’t know how she managed that but she kept pulling out number after number from behind the wooden louvers and could have gone on all night but for the Island School curfew hour (like a real local style kanikapila paina where the cops show up at 11 pm and ask you to turn down the amps but walk out with two luau trays of food but come back at 4 am and tell you that you really do have to close down because the neighbors are complaining). If she ever loses her day job, she can guarantee make a career out of springing impromptu Polynesian Revues around the island.
In addition to the faithful “snowbirds” and the local residents, about 50% of the audience turned out to be visitors seeking out the hidden gems of the island…and indeed they hit the jackpot tonight.
Chanel’s love affair with Kauai began at age 13 when she was sent from Waianae to Kaua’I to learn canoe paddling and visit Grandpa Kalani Flores. She opened with a song about Waianae. She loved her Grandpa who took her everywhere to see performances which she absorbed like a sponge and aspired to one day do. One never got to see this much entertainment in Waianae…had to go to Waikiki to get any of this. The reality check of school attendance at Kapaa, something she did not bargain for, made her return to Waianae but whenever she became kolohe (rascal) in Waianae, she was sent back to Kauai where she eventually decided was going to be “home”.
At age 13 she joined forces with Keli’i Kanei and Naomi Kaiwi, both of whom shared the stage with her, and was invited by Blaine Kia to play music at E Pili Kakou only to be traumatized when they began singing “Hanalei Moon” and discovered Keali’i Reichel sitting front and center. Performing in front of Sonny Ching, Keali’i Reichel and a number of other hula/musical greats was how they cut their teeth on performing in public. They sang “Hanalei Moon” and Chanel definitely belts out the songs with attitude. Naomi, a chef by day at Hanalei Gourmet, strums an awesome guitar as part of this trio. Young and handsome, Keli’i is a teacher of ages 2.5 to 5 at Punana Leo Charter School by day and strums an upright bass sitting across his lap like a little ukulele. That was the trio that carried the evening singing songs such as “Henehene Kou ‘Aka“ by Bruddah Iz, “Pi’i Mai Ka Nalu” and “Te’e No’o Nei Au” by Ku Kahakalau, “Ohikilolo” by her Dad, and many others.
She brought up her first guest, Bianca Stylez, who she roped in to do a hula because the local paper had an article about Chanel Flores doing EKK Monday erroneously coupled with a photo of Bianca. “Now you gotta show up at EKK; everybody expecting you!” she told Bianca. She got up and did a celebrity look alike pose with Bianca, much to everyone’s delight. Bianca’s hula, choreographed by Keli’I, to the song “Nani Kaua’I” was grace in motion.
Upon graduation, she got another reality check in that she had to find a job as she did not feel ready to continue her education. She told her Dad she needed to find a job but didn’t know what she could do. Her Dad asked her, “Well, what do you like doing?” “I like to sing,” replied Chanel. “I thought you wanted a JOB!” retorted her Dad. He took her to Smith’s Wailua River Tour Company where she was aghast that she had to audition. She sang the only song she knew, “Ku’u Hoa” which she sang for us and it’s no wonder she got the job; her singing was fantastic.
She showed up the first day on the job in her uniform and when she saw Uncle Rocky Pau, she greeted him and slid down the steps like sliding down a washboard and landed at his feet . . . not the best impression for her first day on the job. Shy and unable to sing when she made eye contact with the audience, she hid in the back of the other singers until one day she had only four guests and she had to step up to the plate and sing for them. That helped her get over her shyness in performing, but she was grateful she could not see anyone in the audience looking at her due to her short-sightedness.
She asked Uncle Rocky Pau and Cheryl Pagofuen, to come up and join the group; he sang his own version of “Ulili’e” and a medley of the “Hawaiian War Chant” and “Pagan Love Song”. Chanel acknowledged Cheryl’s song-writing skills and the fact that she has a whole village in Samoa because her father is a Chief; Chanel added that she did not know of any fathers in Samoa who were not chiefs of some kind. She could not resist rattling off a hypothetical Hawaiian family relationship which results in everybody being related to each other. “It’s scandalous!” she exclaimed.
Chanel’s stories were hilarious, describing her frequent visits to Punana Leo where the kids rattle off in Hawaiian and she responds, “Ai” (meaning yes), her one-word Hawaiian vocabulary to them. The kids go crazy when she sings “Pi’i Mai Ka Nalu” for them. Thinking that it was traditional for the males in the family to carry on the music tradition, she studied hula and later Tahitian, but she no longer dances. The other girls have to work so hard in Tahitian to shake their bodies, but all she has to do is one bump and her body carries the bump like a domino-effect ripple throughout her body . . . bumbumbumbumbum . . . She described her decision to enter the Ms Tita competition because she would never be able to enter a regular competition in which all competitors were as skinny as the mic stand, but in the Ms Tita competition, her abundance in physique, talent and attitude helped her walk away with the title; she emceed the final year of the competition and brought the house down with her comic ability.
She called for anyone in the audience who wanted to come up to do the hula. Annie Punoho, dressed in red holoku and haku lei, stepped up and requested “Hanalei Moon”, a song she learned from her kumu hula Helena Santos and one that she often danced at Tahiti Nui dressed in her apron when Louise Marston called her out from dish-washing in the kitchen to dance. Bianca, Annie’s niece, joined her on the stage. It’s always fascinating to see two different schools of hula interpreting the same hula— Bianca’s verson was slow and sensuous with movements reaching for the sky and down to the ground while Annie did a faster spunky interpretation of the song.
Chanel was clearly in her element and having the time of her life as the no-nonsense LEADER of the show as she kept waving her hand toward the wooden louvers and out popped another number. “No one is getting off the hook!” she admonished and out stepped four young handsome male dancers— Nick Kaneakua, Liko Naka’ahiki, Benji Daliva, and DJ Rapozo– who put on a powerful and very loud demonstration of the Maori “haka” chant and dance, ending in a dynamic pose with their tongues sticking out.
The young men were later commanded to do a male hula about “Manokalanipo”. Visitors definitely might like to catch these dynamic dancers in a real luau performance at the Hyatt where they perform every Thursday and Saturday night.
Chanel shifted gears to a soft and sensuous “E Pili Mai” by the slim and lovely Shannon Daliva, wife of Ben Daliva. The dance was choreographed by Nick Kaneakua. Making it a family affair, she called up Jordan Daliva, daughter of Shannon and Ben, who charmed everyone with her sassy version of “Sophisticated Hula.”
Making it even more of a family night, Chanel called up her brother Joshua who looks very much like her except his white ancestry pulled strong with his strawberry blond hair. Chanel, too, has “ehu-red” hair, but she pointed out that at one time she had black hair like Bianca . . . so there! Joshua played the ukulele and sang “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” accompanied by Chanel on guitar and Naomi on upright bass followed by a song that he wrote after a significant experience visiting the island of Kaho’olawe.
We had to call TIME on Chanel because she was definitely poised for an all-nighter. She squeezed in her last song about Waimea and led the audience in a room-vibrating rendition of “Hawai’i Aloha”.
Clearly, if Chanel ever loses her day job as a singer, she can fall back on organizing her Polynesian Revues as she clearly has enough talented friends to back her up.
Peter Apo and Zanuck Lindsey are excited about their musical adventure at EKK Monday on February 2. February 9 brings a whole contingent of talents led by Palani Vaughan— Isaac Kalua, Kimo Ashley, Eric Lee, Kilipaki and Mehana Vaughan. Palani invites anyone who wishes to enter a hula competition to his train song—“Ka’a Ahi Kahului” to show up ready to dance.
(s) Carol Kouchi Yotsuda “Celebrating 32 years of bringing ARTS to the people and people to the ARTS”
E Kanikapila Kakou 2009–Hawaiian Music Program is funded in part by the Hawai’i Tourism Authority, the County of Kaua’i Office of Economic Development, and Garden Island Arts Council supporters. Space made available by Island School.
Garden Island Arts Council programs are supported in part by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of Hawai’i and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.