Great Musicians Who Left in 2023 – David Lindley

One of the most respected instrumentalists rock music has produced, David Lindley was best known for his long association with Jackson Browne. Other artists he’s worked with included Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Ziggy Marley, and Hawai‘i’s Pahinui Brothers.

Adept at an array of stringed instruments he joined guitar legend Eric Clapton on the tribute album “The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale,” which included guests like Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler and Willie Nelson.

In concert, Lindley drew from a rich pool of music which could embrace rock, folk, African, Hawaiian, Middle Eastern, reggae, bluegrass, Turkish, and blues styles. Vintage Guitar Magazine praised: “Over the past five decades he has studied, investigated, incorporated, and become an original, prominent voice in styles spanning the globe, on so many instruments he lost count long ago. In the process, he has expanded the parameters of popular music, stylistically and instrumentally, to a degree that few, if any, can claim.”

Great Musicians Who Left in 2023 – Burt Bacharach

Acclaimed as one of the 20^th century’s most significant composers of popular music Burt Bacharach was famous for his harmonically and rhythmically complex, highly orchestrated songs. Over the course of 40 years he composed more than 500 songs, recorded by more than 1,000 artists, earning 66 Top 40 hits, five Grammy Awards and three Oscars.

Working with lyricist Hal David, Bacharach changed the sound of mainstream ‘60s pop chalking up numerous sophisticated hits. Beginning in 1962 with “Don’t Make Me Over,” the team of Bacharach and David supplied Dionne Warwick with 39 chart records over 10 years, 8 of them Top Ten hits including “Walk on By,” “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Message to Michael,” “Trains and Boats and Planes,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” and “Promises, Promises.”

Great Musicians Who Left in 2023 – George Winston

Since he first heard the soothing sound of Hawaiian slack key guitar in the early 1970s, Grammy-winning pianist George Winston  devoted himself to educating the world about one of Hawai‘i’s artistic treasures. Beginning with albums by Raymond Kane and Sonny Chillingworth, Winston dedicated himself to recording primarily solo works by many of slack key’s leading players with the Hawaiian Slack Key Masters Series. Releasing an extraordinary series of recordings on his own Dancing Cat Records label. In pursuit of the quest to diligently archive the world’s greatest players he relegated his own music to the back burner.

“If I could work with any music tradition in history and I had a time machine and space machine I’d say take me to earth in the late 20^th century for Hawaiian slack key,” he said. “I feel real lucky, this is what I really want to do. You can’t do everything; you have to pick your priorities. We got everything on Sonny Chillingworth and Leonard Kwan before they passed on. If I could only do one thing it would be definitely recording the slack key masters. I consider myself a listener of music first and a player second. I only play because of things I listened to.”

Great Musicians Who Left in 2023 – Jimmy Buffett

If there was ever a perfect model for not taking life too seriously and dreaming outside of the box, it’s troubadour Jimmy Buffett, who has championed a laid-back lifestyle many of us can only dream about.

A cultural phenomenon and beloved icon, Buffett has carved out a remarkably lucrative career around singing tropical-inflected songs about living the good life. “I think escapism is something that is an essential part of survival,” said Buffett during one of his frequent trips to Maui. “You’ve got to be able to blow off steam. I’m grateful that I’ve come up with a phony-baloney excuse to come to Hawai‘i more often.”

Fans at his shows, he continued, “can go crazy for a couple of hours, then go back to work. I’ve just really targeted our market. It’s a lifestyle, and this music is part of their lifestyle. I tend to direct all my artistic endeavors at the people that like that lifestyle. I’m not the first person to create a career out of escapism.”

Great Musicians Who Left in 2023 – Tony Bennett

When Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Bing Crosby were all asked to name their favorite singer, they all suggested Tony Bennett. “They all endorsed me,” marveled Tony Bennett. “I was really surprised with Frank, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and Louis Armstrong said I was their favorite performer. It was way over anything I’ve ever dreamed of.”

Such glowing phrase inspired a high level of responsibility which Bennett said provided meaning in his life. “It made me what the Jews called a mensch. I had to be consistent and disciplined and attempt to contribute something. It’s like Laurence Olivier said in his autobiography, there’s nothing better than working because if you serve people, you have something to live for.”

Great Musicians Who Left in 2023- Harry Belafonte

Famous for introducing the lilting tones of Caribbean calypso to the American public, legendary musician, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte initially experienced tremendous opposition from his record company. “There was huge resistance in the beginning at RCA because nobody in America knew about that kind of music,” Belafonte recalled. “I went to the head of the company and explained the difficulty, and I was able to make the album. Then they shelved it for a while. But when another artist came out with exactly the same material, RCA released it, and it took off like a rocket. I was stunned by the inordinate success it achieved.”

With the calypso craze dominating the charts in 1957, Belafonte became so popular he sold more records that year than Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. His smash Calypso album topped the charts, on and off, for an unheralded 31 weeks, and it remained on Billboard’s chart for 99 weeks.

Great Musicians Who Left in 2023 -Genius of David Crosby

“I had my boat there for a couple of years,” recalled David Crosby about his connection with Maui. “I spent a long time anchored out at Mala Wharf. That’s really where I learned to dive.”

Crosby sailed his Mayan yacht to Maui in 1973, where he teamed with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and Graham Nash to begin work on what was planned as a follow-up to Déjà Vu. It was never completed. While spending time on Maui, the influence of Hawai‘i filtered into some of his compositions. “There are songs that talk about it,” he noted.

The legendary musician performed several times on Maui over the years – initially with the Byrds in 1967 at Wailuku’s War Memorial Gym, later with Crosby, Stills & Nash, with his own CPR band, as a duo with Graham Nash, and solo in 2016. “It’s fun to play in a band, but when you’re by yourself, the words really count, and you can take people on a voyage,” he enthused. “You’re not fighting a lead guitar to get the words across. You can work in more shadings and subtlety, and you’re not trying to wave at them from a stage that’s 100 yards away. I really like taking people on a voyage, so it works really well for that.”

Denny Laine of Moody Blues/Wings Fame Has Passed On

One of the founders of the Moody Blues, Denny Laine sang their first hit “Go Now,” and subsequently joined Paul McCartney’s Wings, where he sang and played guitar on such hits as “Band on the Run,” “My Love,” and “Listen to What the Man Said.”

Forming the Moody Blues in 1964, in Birmingham, England, Laine soon found himself among the elite of British rock and rollers, performing alongside the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Animals. “I was with the Moodies for about three years, and us and Spencer Davis were the only blues bands in Birmingham,” Laine recalled, on Maui for a World Classic Rockers show. “Our first national tour was with Chuck Berry when ‘Go Now’ was going up the charts. A year after that, I left because I was a bit disgusted with the business. I moved to Spain and got into the flamenco gypsy thing.”

2022 A Memorable Year for Music on Maui

Willie Nelson with Lukas & Micah Nelson at the MACC

One of America’s greatest rock bands, Los Lobos kicked off 2022 with at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s Castle Theater for a concert on January 15 with Maui’s Kanekoa opening. One would be hard-pressed to find another American band successfully releasing such diverse, exhilarating rock music, as on their most recent album of new material, “Gates Of Gold.” In 2020, Los Lobos’ saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Berlin began working as a producer on Kanekoa’s marvelous album. “We’re perfectly content to be in this weird planet that we’ve built for decades,” noted Berlin. “It’s a brotherhood, not unlike like Kanekoa who have been together for quite a while. There are a lot of similarities. They have a built-in tensile strength. They are all great musicians. For them, it’s just about making great music.”

My Top Favorite Best Movies & TV Shows of 2022 So Far

“Don’t Worry Darling”

In no particular order with movies first, and it’s basically spoiler free.

Don’t Worry Darling – Got mixed reviews (most critics probably didn’t get it) set in an idyllic desert town that’s not what it seems. Florence Pugh is fantastic in the lead role. With influences of Polanski, Hitchcock, the Stepford Wives, the Truman Show, and even a taste of Busby Berkeley, it’s a brilliant psychological thriller by director/actress Olivia Wilde. Maybe my favorite film of the year. Besides its stunning visual scenery and superb cinematography and phenomenal (Oscar) performance by Pugh, the film’s stars include the fantastic score (not the perfect retro soundtrack), but the jarring, ominous electronic sounds that pervade many scenes. Opening in a nostalgic, patriarchal paradise that some conservative politicians aspire to recreate – it’s a monument to kitsch, with “blissful” female homemakers and their faithful worker bee husbands. And then it all dramatically flips.