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A Review of Te Vaka's performance at Ronnie Scott's

Last night we had the pleasure of seeing Te Vaka perform at Ronnie Scott's, the world famous jazz club located in the heart of London's Soho. Whilst this might seem an unlikely place to encounter contemporary Pacific Island music, Ronnie Scott's has a history of showcasing the best in world music, and the performance last night continued this tradition.

During our last visit to Samoa we picked up the Te Vaka CD, from the small music store across the road from the Lotemau centre, and had been very pleasantly suprised by its fusion of traditional Pacific Island music with various global influences, so we jumped at the opportunity to see them perform live. We were not disapointed! The group, consisting mainly of members of the Foa'i family, perform with a vibrance and vitality that has to be seen to be believed. From the moment they walked onto the stage it was obvious that we were going to be spending the next hour and three quarters in the South Pacific. Most of the group wore lavalava, except the dancers who wore grass skirts and while the band consisted of acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass and drums plus assorted percussion there were also a number of pate on the stage which were used to great effect to produce the rolling polynesian rythm.

And from the moment they started performing it was apparent their live performance was going to be even better than that on the album. They played most of the tracks from the Te Vaka album as well as songs from their forthcoming album. The orchestration of the songs from the album had been changed to give some of them much more of a rock kick, but the biggest change was in the voices. Sulata Foa'i was far more prominent in the live performance and what a stroke of genius this was. She has an incredibly rich and powerful voice and the ability to hit and hold her notes. Her cousin, Opetaia Foa'i writes and sings most of the songs and plays acoustic guitar and lead pate. On the album it was not apparent what a skilled guitarist he is, but he had plenty of opportunity to provide an object lesson in the playing of the open tuned guitar that is more often associated with R & B slide guitarists. Perhaps the greatest suprise was Neil Forrest who plays electric guitar, pate, flute and sings. When he picks up his flute, close your eyes, and you could imagine that it was Ian Anderson himself, from Jethro Tull, up there on the stage.

The performance is not just limited to music, but like a fiafia has dance as well. There were three dancers on stage during a number of the songs, performing hula style, haka like and siva samoa type dances, and they were occaisionally joined by other members of the band. In fact being an NZ based group performing infront of an audience in London which has about 150,000 kiwis in it, it was not suprising that when the audience started shouting "haka, haka" the group put down their instruments and performed one, to the delight of all. Opetaia left Samoa for New Zealand when he was nine and so it is to be expected that samoan influences could be heard in many of the songs and at one point a dancer performed wearing, what appeared to be, the headdress of a taupou.

All of the songs were sung in Tokelauan with the exception of one which was sung in Samoan. The similarities between Samoan and Tokelauan were noticeable and although it was not possible to understand all of a song, you found yourself picking up on odd phrases. The subject matter of all the songs was polynesian and Opetaia gave a brief introduction to each explaining the meaning and how it came to be written.

The pleasure that the group get out of performing their music is manifest and contagious. By the end of the concert there were people up on their feet in front of the small stage and even on it with the group dancing to the tropical tempo. This event gives us some idea of the talent that is waiting to be uncovered in the island communities around the Pacific, and if you get the opportunity you should seize this chance to enjoy what will hopefully be the advanced guard of a pacific invasion.

Many thanks to Julie Foa'i and Jesse Reuben Wilson of ARC Music for supplying and granting permission for the use of the photographs.

Date Created: June 15th 1998
Date Edited: October 25th 1998