by Jim Harrington
Being a living legend isn't always everything it's cracked up to be. At least not when the distinction comes from playing Hawaiian slack key guitar. Just ask Ledward Kaapana.
People refer to Kaapana as a slack key master. But despite the acclaim, he still has a tough time finding a place to play in his native Hawaii. Reggae bands and karaoke machines are what nightclubers are willing to pay for in today's Honolulu. To get by, Kaapana has been forced to get what he describes as "a real job"--doing daily automobile maintenance work.
"The music industry over here is kind of slowing down," Kaapana said during a recent phone interview from his home in the suburbs of Honolulu. "I guess there is not enough jobs. That's why I do a lot of tours."
Kaapana comes to the mainland as part of a slack key guitar package tour that slides into Stanford University on Saturday, April 19. Also on the bill are fellow acoustic guitar masters Keola Beamer, George Kahumoku Jr. and Ozzie Kotani. The concert serves as the finale for a two-day slack key guitar festival, which will feature a symposium, workshops, a film and an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The concert will feature the guitar masters individually and as a group in which the guitarists combine their musical interpretations.
"We all have a different style of playing the same song," Kaapana commented.
Kaapana knows what he wants to happen at the show. He wants the audience to get "chicken skin."
"If I'm playing slack key and people are sitting down being quiet and then they get goose bumps--we call it 'chicken skin,'" Kaapana said.
Kaapana was born in 1948 on the Big Island of Hawaii in the isolated hamlet of Kalapana. There were no tourists, no television and no movies. This is the setting where Kaapana explored the guitar.
"We had no electricity. It was just the old style," Kaapana recalled. "We use to go fishing and hunting and, I guess, music was the next thing we did."
Kaapana was one of nine brothers and sisters and, with oodles of cousins, a family luau would turn into a backyard concert. Kaapana learned slack key in the traditional Hawaiian manner: nana ka maka (observe with the eye); ho'olohe ka pepeiao (listen carefully); ho'opili (imitate someone who has mastered what you wish to learn); and pa'a ka waha (don't interrupt your teachers, concentrate on what they're showing you).
In the Kaapana clan, Uncle Fred was the teacher, and it is his smooth, swift style of playing that can heard now when Ledward Kaapana plays guitar.
Other traces of Uncle Fred can be seen in Kaapana's style. Like his late uncle, Kaapana is a showman who sometimes plays the frets with his forearm and occasionally covers one hand with a paper bag. But Kaapana has taken Uncle Fred's music and transformed it into his own, adding his improvisational style, an enthusiastic stage presence and his falsetto voice. His music has been featured on more than 60 records.
Although Kaapana considers himself a traditionalist and is a fan of slack key legends such as Gabby Pahinui and Sonny Chillingworth, he also grew up listening to performers such as the surf-rocking Ventures, country guitarists Chet Atkins and Roy Clark, and jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. When Kaapana plays, he says, he sometimes surprises even himself with the music he manages to get out of the guitar.
"I always say when I grab my guitar we are like one," he said. "The music just flows."
On a related note, another slack key guitar show featuring an equally impressive lineup--including Ray Kane and James "Bla" Pahinui--takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the Palo Alto Unitarian Church. For information on this show, call 585-8234.
What: Hawaiian slack key guitar concert featuring Ledward Kaapana and others
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 19
Where: Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University
How much: $22 and $25 (students $3 off)
Information: 725-ARTS (For information about the other festival events, call 723-2551)
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