FRIDAY-DEC. 3

>> Missionary school’s effects on Hawaiian culture explored

From 1839 to 1850, missionaries Amos and Juliette Cooke ran a school for the children of Hawaiian royalty.

“Kamehameha III asked them to do it,” said Hawaii island playwright Eric Anderson, whose drama “Wild Birds,” which premiered this week at Kumu Kahua Theatre, is based on the Cookes’ experience. “It was an unprecedented experience. The king wanted them to learn the ways of the West. It was obvious that the West was making an incursion onto the islands, and he wanted the royalty to be prepared for them.”

The result turned out to be more than just “preparation,” Anderson said.

“The children, of which there were 16 at one point, learned not only the ways of the West, but were forced in many ways to forget their own ways and lose their culture,” Anderson said. They were discouraged from speaking anything but English, and they were not allowed to leave the school without permission, where they also faced attempts to convert them to Christianity, he said. “I took this to be representative of the Hawaiians’ experience in general.”

Anderson studied the journals and letters of the Cookes in researching the play, discovering that they too were disillusioned by the experience, especially when disease began to claim the lives of some of their students. “It was my conclusion that Juliette began to have second thoughts about what they were doing, almost from the beginning,” Anderson said. “Amos may have had second thoughts, but he just continued to bulldoze his way through and do what was assigned to him.”

SATURDAY

>> Buffett breezing in for show at the Shell

Parrotheads, get ready to relax! Jimmy Buffett returns to the Shell tomorrow for an evening of laid-back lyrics and soothing songs.

It’s an oxymoron to say so, but the consummate beach bum has been busy spreading his message about the glories of lazy living with his new musical “Escape to Margaritaville,” which premiered earlier this year in San Diego and will reach Broadway in February. It tells a familiar story: An easygoing bartender and singer named Tully, content in his unambitious lifestyle, has his world turned upside down when he meets an ambitious tourist.

“There’s a lot of it that I made up and a lot of it that I lived,” Buffett told the television station KPBS in San Diego.

The musical features Buffett’s familiar hits, including “Come Monday,” “Volcano” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise” as well as some new songs, and most likely he’ll play some of them here.

Buffett continues to hit the concert stage, recently performing in San Francisco, where he performed tributes to the late Tom Petty, Glenn Frey and Jerry Garcia. He’s also performing with Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney in Florida later this month in a benefit concert to raise funds for hurricane victims.

As of press time, only two seats at the Shell remained, but tickets for lawn seating were available.

SUNDAY

>> Performers blend traditional Indian and contemporary music

Bollywood films might be the most common way to hear Indian music these days, but it has its traditional roots as well in the raga, the trance-inducing hymnals derived from ancient Sanskrit texts.

Brooklyn Raga Massive, a group of musicians based in New York, blends this traditional sound with jazz, rock, world music genres and more. They perform on both traditional Indian instruments like sitar, tabla and the bansuri (Indian flute) and Western instruments like violin, string bass, electric guitar and drum set.

The group is known for holding long late-night jam sessions where musicians of many skill levels and interests are allowed to join in, which has led to a revival of interest in classical Indian music in the city. “The Massive’s free-floating operations are a vital part of a flowering of Indian music in New York,” wrote the New York Times.

They’ll perform their show “From Tradition to Innovation,” which includes classical raga and includes music of John Coltrane and George Harrison — who famously learned sitar from Ravi Shanker and played it on songs like “Norwegian Wood.” The evening includes minimalist composer Terry Riley’s masterpiece “In C,” which the group recently released on its first album.

TUESDAY- THURSDAY

>> Trombonist Marsalis coming to the Blue Note

Blue Note Hawaii has been bringing a variety of entertainment to the islands, from comedy to pop and island contemporary music. But at heart, Blue Note clubs are for jazz, so it’s nice to have trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis visiting next week.

Marsalis is, of course, a member of the famous family that has been synonymous with classic jazz for the last several decades, with brothers Wynton on trumpet and Branford on sax both attaining national and international fame as far back as the early 1980s.

Delfeayo Marsalis has carved out a career as an accomplished performer, composer and producer of his own accord. Back in the 1990s he was credited with bringing back recording jazz acoustically — using a microphone, rather than by having the instruments plugged directly into the recording console, as had become popular with the advent of rock music.

His solo career has demonstrated creative themes and organization, beginning in 1992 with the Bible-inspired “Pontius Pilate’s Decision” and continuing in 1997 with “Musashi,” which featured a rhythm section of Japanese instruments and songs named for historical Japanese figures. In 2014 he also recorded an album of jazz standards, “The Last Southern Gentleman,” performed with his father, Ellis.

His latest CD, a big-band album recorded just last year, has a political twist. It had its origins at a concert where he asked the audience for a theme or idea to improvise on. The answer, “Make America Great Again,” inspired a tune that starts out jolly and bouncy but then has darker, minor-key themes tossed in. It’s also the name of the album.