DJ Trava

There is something that’s subtle in any kind of music, a certain bubbling beneath the surface that gets warmer the more you listen to it. In places, it can take a little while to get used to the sounds as they make themselves known there, and Hawaii has an undeserved reputation in the world for having a kitschy musical tradition. Like any music from any place, it has to have some background, or at least some familiarity, before the nuances can start to come through. Some time on the island isn’t just a great excuse to book a hotel but to also have a peek into the present and future of Hawaiian music.

That’s certainly true with the sounds of BB Shawn , who does seem remarkably capable of striking deep chords in the surface of the earth with his songs. It’s a very happy and bouncy kind of song that he’s emanating, but it’s likewise just as complex as learning a new scale. There are new scales here, too, and they do play on western forms in a radical and innovative way. What is entirely striking about the sounds is something that only comes through in bits and pieces, until the listener realizes they have suddenly turned into a dancer.

He was born less than a quarter century ago, and is a remarkable person as much as he is a marvelous musician. Born without sight, he was made some stunning moves in the world, and the future truly is bright. He is self-taught, too, and can play pretty much everything. Now going by his birth name Shawn Ishimoto , he is making music that crosses over into many forms, from jazz to blues to country to contemporary Hawaiian. He has a number of albums out, and is a force to reckon with, and one that will surely sweeten up the night.

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