Honolulu drummer Noel Okimoto celebrates International Jazz Day on Hawai'i Public Radio

Noel Okimoto’s International Jazz Day spot on Hawai'i Public Radio landed as more than a tribute to a veteran drummer. It put Honolulu’s jazz ecosystem at the center of the story, with Okimoto talking through a career built on performing, teaching, curating rooms for music, and making sure younger players have a place to sit in.

That matters because Okimoto is not a visitor to the scene. He was born and raised in Honolulu, has played professionally since age ten, and has spent his life moving between the drum set, orchestral percussion, vibraphone, composition and clinic work. He earned a bachelor’s degree in percussion from the University of Hawaii, played with the Royal Hawaiian Band for more than 30 years, and recent material says he retired from the band after 31 years. A prior profile also said he was likely the youngest musician to join the musicians’ union in May 1970, when he was 11.

The local footprint around him is just as important as the résumé. Okimoto and his wife, Liane, started Ohana Jazz in October 2022 at Musicians’ Association of Hawaii Local 677, Studio 909, in Honolulu, and the monthly date regularly welcomes students to sit in. The core band includes Tommy James on piano, Allen Won on saxophones, Dean Taba on bass and Abe Lagrimas Jr. on vibraphone, which makes the series feel less like a showcase and more like a working neighborhood session that keeps the next generation in view. Okimoto’s earlier work has also been recognized locally: a 2019 Musicians’ Association of Hawai‘i profile said his playing on Megan Bledsoe Ward’s Pacific Harp Project won the 2016 Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, and that his 2004 Ohana debut won Jazz Album of the Year at both the Hawaii Music Awards and the Na Hoku Awards.

The timing sharpened the message. International Jazz Day was proclaimed by UNESCO in 2011 and first observed on April 30, 2012, with the goal of uniting communities, schools and other groups through jazz. The day is also recognized on the official calendars of the United Nations and UNESCO, and the 2026 global celebration is in Chicago, capped by an All-Star Global Concert at the Lyric Opera House on April 30. Okimoto’s Honolulu-centered observance showed what that idea looks like in practice: not prestige for its own sake, but steady playing, steady mentoring and a scene that keeps renewing itself from within.