Music Magic, their name lives up to the show!
Some 28 years after the group disbanded,
Music Magic proves worthy of their name with a string of reunion shows at
Jazz Minds Café. I was lucky enough to catch one of their weekend performances on a Friday night (one of five gigs total).
It blew me away.
Jay Molina, Darryl Blouin, Fred Screuders, Al Pascua, Peter Factora, and Fred Li all sounded tight as ever. (Not that I would know, this was my first-ever Music Magic performance!)
Super funky, super soulful, super jazzy. Just the right blend.
Fred Schreuders (left) and Jay Molina (right) of Music Magic performing live at Jazz Minds Café.
They hit every song with enough energy to excite the crowds into rounds of shouts and howls. If there was a bigger dance floor, people would've stood up and, how do you say? Get their groove on.
And the percussion: flying all over the place, and
loud, too,
just like Darryl's shirt, bright gold. Darryl was another show of his own accord,
adlib-ing and scat-ing his way through songs, even singing Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" with the same conviction as the Wonder man himself. So good.
Songs included "People Make the World Go Round", "What's Goin' On", "Spain" by Chick Corea, and Music Magic originals "Ray Alan" and "Only Ours to Share", and more.
Fred Li (right) and Darryl Blouiin of Music Magic
My iPhone failed to make any decent audio recordings. Luckily, YouTuber
bassplayer60 just uploaded some videos of Music Magic! (*Note: Darryl must've changed shirts for the 10:30pm show, because he was glittering gold a few hours earlier).
Mahalo to Jay Molina and the crew for a truly
magical moment in Hawaii's music history! And thanks to
Fred Li and Joe Hee of No Hum Yet and Sound Systems Hawaii for organizing the Music Magic reunion shows!
Read more Music Magic
Doing Something Special: An Interview with Jay Molina
Mixed-Up Music Magic: The Many Styles of Hawaii’s Jazz-Fusion Group
