"Soiree Edith Piaf"
L ‘Escargot
(Rendez-Vous Recording)

L ‘Escargot — Mimi Hafele, Duane Padilla and Pierre Grill — celebrate the birth centennial of French vocalist Edith Piaf (1915-1963) with this economically packaged 12-song CD. Piaf was a French cabaret singer and is widely regarded as one of France’s greatest 20th-century vocalists. L ‘Escargot includes all of her best-known songs — "Non, je ne regrette rein," "Milord," "La Vie en rose," "Hymne a l’amour," "l’Accordeoniste" and "La Foule" among them.

Hafele is a French-born native speaker who evokes Piaf with her interpretation of these French classics. (Grill, a Hoku Award-winning record producer who plays piano, accordion and bass, is also a native speaker but doesn’t sing.) Padilla’s work on violin and acoustic guitar gives L ‘Escargot’s arrangements the "Gypsy jazz" ambiance ambianceAP popularized by Franco-Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhard Reinhardt in 1930s Paris around the time Piaf made her debut.

Visit pierregrillmusic.com.

"’Ukulele Friends"
Bryan Tolentino and Herb Ohta Jr.
(Neos Productions)

Herb Ohta Jr. has had a remarkable career as a solo artist and partnered successfully with other high-profile artists such as Daniel Ho and Keoki Kahumoku. Bryan Tolentino is best known for his skill at accompanying other artists. The two friends team up here on an assortment of Hawaiian, hapa haole and American pop standards — from "Manuela Boy" to "In a Little Hula Heaven" to a Kui Lee medley blending "I’ll Remember You" and "Days of My Youth."

The instrumental interplay between them is keen as Tolentino lays down a lot of interesting licks behind Ohta’s precise work "up front."

Jake Shimabukuro sits in with the duo on "Gm Fleas Revisited," a new version of a song Ohta previously recorded with Jon Yamasato. The threesome rip and rock in memorable style.

"Hotaru," composed by Kuwata Keisuke, guitarist and frontman of the Japanese rock band Southern All Stars, is a nod of aloha to their many fans in Japan.

Visit herbohtajr.com.