With Four Strings and Fire, Ukulele Instrumentalist Brittni Paiva Brings Hawaii to Americana

But, the accolades, success and awards have come with the guidance of culture, family and based on her own sense of faith, a divine hand.  On first hearing this enormously talented young girl, it’s clear that she offers the best of her gifts, which she has honed and crafted with discipline and inspiration.  According Paiva in a recent interview, her grandfather had her take lessons for two years, but afterwards, she simply began to fly on her own. She said her main teacher has been her love for all styles and genres of music, which she aptly and ably applied to her beloved instrument.

Over her life time she has absorbed rock, bossa nova, gypsy jazz, flamenco, classical, soul among many other forms and has brought the melodies and rhythms she’s heard and loved to the under-sized four-stringed instrument we call a ukulele. In ‘hapa’ culture, the instrument is often trivialized, perhaps because of it’s size and identification with novelty music. But according to Paiva and quite ironically the ukulele “has no limits.”  It’s size may be small compared to its brother, guitar, but its ability is vast.  Paiva’s last two albums, 2009’s Four Strings: The Fire Within and 2012’s Tell U What solidify this as fact.  Her credentials as a jazz instrumentalist with an artistic and interpretive flair that is uncommonly unique in any genre is also evident on these fine albums.  

Co-produced with Grammy winning, Charles Michael Brotman, Four Strings takes a solid jazz stand with fusion leanings throughout the album. Paiva’s uke also leads us into a uniquely arranged classic “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” opening with the bridge then sweetly moving through the familiar melody with a lush sense of soul and melancholy.  It’s an authentic rendering that borrows little from past interpretations revealing her originality and ultimately, her heart for lyrical melodies that, while familiar, can sound entirely new when expressed with a fresh vision.  She also offers the sweet melody of her original love song,”Made for Me,”which gives a breath of rock-fusion that opens up with so much gentle romance, it is infectious.   Among the stand-out tracks on Four Strings is the oft-covered, Carlos Santana’s, “Europa.”  This track is as a much a testament to instrumentation inspiration as it is to the elegant arrangement which is equal parts bold, gentle and original.  On the song description found on the disc, she writes, “I can only imagine what it would be like to perform with Carlos.”  

Her dream came true, however, on a different song. On February 26, in Honolulu after meeting Santana backstage before the show, Paiva was invited onstage to play with him on his classic, “Samba Pa Ti.”  When asked if she was scared, she laughed and said, “I wasn’t scared, I was terrified!!”   However, it doesn’t show on the YouTube video where the two musicians play off each other with playfulness, finesse and kinship that comes only from the blood formed in the musical fire within the soul of each artist.  It’s chill provoking to hear young Paiva double leads on her uke as Santana’s familiar guitar seems to shout for joy when she bounces her instrument’s percussive sound around the song. What’s so engaging about this performance is the collective sense of love and respect that emerges across generations as the two artists perform together. It’s a moment of grace and miraculous energy that defies description and simply must be experienced to be appreciated.  

On her most recent album, Tell U What, Paiva is teamed with jazz-fusion legend, Tom Scott, the man known for helping Joni Mitchell find her jazz voice on the classic, Court & Spark. Scott produced, arranged, engineered and mixed the entire album.  The result is a beautifully textured jazz-fusion album with some nods to classical, rock, reggae and bossa-nova.  There is added brass that comes across as bold and demonstrates how a strong brass low end can allow the uke to go into new stylistic domains.  Paiva’s instrumental work finds her at home as though she’s sailing through musical seas on new vessels ready for each new adventure. The explorations are many on this Grammy-worthy collection.  Opening with the original title track we go into what at times sounds like a rock version of Peter Gunn then opens to some smooth-as-wind fret moves that then segues into Scott’s sax.  Track two takes us through the unfamiliar Liber-Stoller “I Keep Forgetting,” with a blue-eye’d soul vocal by the great Doobie Brother, Michael McDonald. Paiva’s ukulele plays like a vocal duet with McDonald’s soulfully rendered lead.  On her original, “Friends,” she reflects her love and joy found in her community with a sweet innocent melodic turn that reflects the love she has in her life with friends and family.  On the classic, “Taste of Honey,” Scott and Paiva work a bossa nova retro-feel with layered keyboard that adds mood while legendary Chuck Findley brings in the flugelhorn for texture and flavor.  Scott’s own,”Mira” allows Paiva to dance her way around a more Latin energy, while Faure’s classic, “Pavene” emerges with an ethereal romantic energy that still manages to keep the smooth island jazz feel.  The final track, “Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova,” gives the fusion theme a run for its money with the same layered horn-driven bottom and beautifully textured uke lead by Paiva.

With a legacy already in the making, Brittni Paiva continues to take her instrument and her art into new musical soundscapes with the beauty of her Hawaiian culture underlying everything she plays and a certain faith in her vision that is unshakable.   With an imagination as vast as the blue Pacific that surrounds her, Brittni Paiva is truly a nova whose brightest days still lie before her.