Teresa Bright, a multitalented Native Hawaiian entertainer known for her sweet and sultry vocal style and innovative blending of Hawaiian, Japanese and Okinawan music, died Sept. 1 after a period of declining health. She was 64.
Teresa Naniali‘i Bright grew up in Heeia on Oahu’s windward side and graduated from Castle High School with hopes of a career in music. She was performing as one-half of a duo when she got her big break: Her partner didn’t show up for a job and Bright’s brother-in-law Steve Maii came to her rescue. Maii, 10 years older, brought with him the experience gained playing with George Helm, Henry Kapono, Keola and Kapono Beamer, and Melveen Leed, among others.
“I remember when we first started playing we just gelled because we’re both family,” Maii said. “I distinctly remember her telling me that she didn’t want to be famous as far as being ‘the star,’ like Melveen Leed. And I never wanted to be famous, I was always happy to be in the background. I just wanted to play bass. But both of us evolved, with our music and our production, and she became really good at what she did.
“She was a great player and truly a great artist and I was very honored sharing music with her.”
Billed as Steve &Teresa, they were an instant hit with island audiences. They recorded and released three albums, “Catching A Wave,” “Ocean Blue” and “Intimately,” and enjoyed local radio play success with their album title song, “Catching A Wave,” along with “Rum and Coca-Cola Medley” and “Uwehe Ami &Slide,” which earned them each a Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Song of the Year as the co-composers.
Family ties kept the friendship intact when Bright decided to go solo. She partnered with music industry veteran Kata Maduli for her first solo album, “Self Portrait,” and won two more Hoku Awards for Album of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year.
Veteran percussionist Creed Fernandez remembered Bright bringing fragrant na lei puakenikeni for her musicians.
“(The) very first time I played with Teresa, Kata called me and (we) got together,” Fernandez said in a social media post. “The first gig was at The Crouching Lion. I was kinda nervous, and DJ (Pratt) was doing sound … so Teresa comes in with this cardboard box with wax paper covering these beautiful-smelling lei, … and every gig we played she would bring.”
As musical tastes changed and “Jawaiian” music came to dominate local radio station playlists in the 1990s, Bright focused on Japanese audiences. She recorded eight albums for Japanese record labels between 1996 and 2012 that were subsequently licensed for release in Hawaii. She also shared her musical talent and cultural knowledge as a producer for Japanese recording artists who wanted to draw on the unique blending of Hawaiian traditions, contemporary hapa haole and classic American pop they heard in her music.
Bright’s international interests extended to Okinawa. In 2007 she released “Hawaiinawa,” a collection of popular Okinawan songs translated into Hawaiian.
Bright received the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.
Survivors include her husband, Derrick “C.M.” Llanos, daughter Keaolani Llanos, brother Marcus Halualani, and sisters Keahi Kahiapo and Marlene Drew.
Funeral plans have not been announced.
