It’s a concept that actually beats the odds.
Robert Cazimero has been a prevailing vocal fave — a Waikiki attraction for decades, mostly with bro Roland Cazimero sharing the limelight in the finest showrooms like the Royal Hawaiian’s Monarch Room, or in a handful of casual lounges over the decades .
But Roland died on July 17, 2017 and Robert was suddenly a soloist who had to reinvent himself.
Some years ago, the transformation resulted. Restaurateur Chai Chaowasaree acknowledged Robert’s vocal talent and storytelling skills, from the time when he operated a restaurant at Aloha Tower Marketplace and featured Robert.
His serenades are sellouts; it’s casual ease, building on the informal piano bar format. The riches of Robert’s spontaneous stories fit and amuse the diners as they consume their appetizers, entrees or desserts.
No two performances are alike; the songs are varied, but the mood is like being in a festive private living room .
Last night, I revisited Robert at Chai’s, with my wife Vi and our soldier-boy grand-nephew John Rhoades, who is visiting from his South Korea stint with the Army.
Memories flowed.
Seemed like yesterday, when Chai moved to Chef Chai’s on Kapiolani Boulevard. So the restaurateur recognized that the power voice of Robert was up for grabs. Chai invested in a grand piano, tucked in one corner of the new Chai’s, where the monthly performances were dubbed Full Moon night. Curiously, some months, like November, had two moon outings (the last was this past Sunday). In December, there will be five full moon nights (go figure, the calendar doesn’t lie), which also will comprise Robert’s Christmas gift to his fans, since he won’t be mounting a lavish holiday show complete with his retinue of male hula dancers and singers.
But at Chai’s, the magic works. Less can be more; Robert and his two hula dancers, Bully and Sky, are part of the appeal. They dance, with Robert tickling the ivories.
I’ve seen him and his hula stylists more times that I can remember. I sat through Sunday’s show, and without taking my usual notes, I simply soaked in the sweet vocals and occasional hilarity typical in a Robert show.
Bully’s solo included “Holo Holo Kaa,” Sky’s included “Wahine Ilikea.”
Robert did a series of medleys that tapped Disneyesque classics like “Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah,” “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo,” and “When You Wish Upon a Star,” tossed in a haole classic, “The Nearness of You,” tasking Sky to turn a non-Hawaiian tune into a hula.
This triggered a memory of pupils interpreting Hawaiian carols with stiff, wood moves reconstructed by Bully and Sky in a satiric rendering of “Mele Kalikimaka,” a parody of the impropriety of hula when graceful movements are not fitting in the storytelling,
It’s a one-of-a-kind happening.
