Kirk Thompson - Musical Genius

A few years back there was this group that totally blew the Hawaii music scene away. The group Kalapana, which is still very active today both recording and performing, started with four very unique & special individuals who came out with a sound that was cool to the max. One of the four original members of Kalapana was Kirk Thompson, presently the owner of Spectrum Recording & Sound Studios in Honolulu, Hawaii. After leaving Kalapana, Kirk put together perhaps one of the mega superbands Hawaii ever had the pleasure to experience, Lemuria. The band was a who's who's of music superstars on the Hawaii scene at the time. One singer who sang with Lemuria who comes to mind was Staci Johnson (I believe that was her name). While playing the Waikiki night club circuit in the 70s we had the pleasure of having Staci come up on stage with our band Greenwood. She sang a song with us, we had transposed the song down for our male vocalist to sing, and even though it was too low for her Staci belted the song out. Her voice can be heard on the Lemuria album and her voice is outstandingly cool.

I had the pleasure to meet Kirk recently thru my good friend Aaron Aranita. Kirk gave pointers on my CD project at his recording studio (a studio that is soooo cool to see, equipment, instruments, pictures & other good cool stuff). Aaron mentioned that Kirk plays a mean classical guitar and that his CD of original jazz instrumentals is close to being complete. Talking story with Kirk and Aaron we tossed out the possibility of doing a joint CD release party in the near future on the roof deck of the 1221 Kapiolani Boulevard building and even a combined free concert at my church New Hope Leeward on November 20, 2005. Still tossing the idea around but I think it would be pretty cool. More about that latter.

Stay tuned, will keep news of Kirk Thompson's CD project posted.

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