 Born
on the Island of Maui, guitarist JEFF PETERSON grew up on the
slopes of Haleakala where he was introduced to the rich heritage of
Hawaiian music by his father, a paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy, on the
Haleakala Ranch. The music that he heard from his father and other
paniolos as well as the slack key on classic recordings by the Gabby
Pahinui Band, Leonard Kwan, and Sonny Chillingworth made a deep and
lasting impression on him that he continues to draw inspiration from
today. As he began studying the guitar on his own, his interests
broadened and he delved into a wide variety of musical genres that the
guitar plays a part in. To explore these interests further, he went on
to study jazz and classical guitar at the University of Southern
California and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has studied
privately with a wide variety of artists including celebrated
classical guitarists David Russell and Benjamin Verdery, slack key
guitarist Ozzie Kotani, as well as a number of jazz guitarists
including Joe Diorio, Larry Koonse, and Frank Vignola. He has
participated in the island-wide Annual Slack Key Guitar Festivals with
many other slack key artists including Raymond Kane, Keola Beamer,
Ledward Kaapana, and Cyril Pahinui.As a performer, Jeff has had the
honor to work with a wide range of artists and groups including Eric
Clapton, slack key guitarist Ledward Kaapana, James Galway, Michael
Feinstein, the Honolulu Symphony, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Kealii
Richeil, jazz bassist Rufus Reid, shakuhachi master Riley Lee, soprano
Dana Hanchard, and with many other artists in the fields of Hawaiian,
classical, and jazz music. He has three recordings on Hula Records
International with Riley Lee: Maui Morning, Bamboo
Slack Key, and Haiku. He also released three
solo guitar recording featuring his slack key artistry, Kahealani
Slack Key Jazz, and The Artistry of Jeff
Peterson. Wayne Harada from the Honolulu Advertiser reacted
to hearing the CDs by writing: Add the Peterson name to the top 10
list of slack key giants, His manner is impeccable, his style
exquisite: the CD is perfection, Brilliant . . . Peterson
raises the bar a few notches in both slack key and jazz with this
bright and exceptional release
He has traveled to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and
across the U.S. performing at a variety of venues from Symphony
Space in New York City to the National Folk Festival in Canberra,
Australia. He was featured at the First World Guitar Congress
in Maryland where he performed Hawaiian slack key guitar as well as
classical music in master classes by classical guitarists David
Russell and Dusan Bogdanovic. He has performed
for former president Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton on the
island of Kauai on two separate occasions. He performs regularly at
Michels Restaurant in the Colony Surf Hotel in Waikiki in addition to
a variety of other venues throughout Hawaii and abroad in both solo
and group settings. In addition to performing, he taught the guitar at
the University of Hawaii for several years running the guitar program.
Jeff achieved a milestone in Hawaiian music at the
47th Annual Grammy Awards on February 13th, 2005, when a recording
on Palm Records featuring Jeff and other island artists, Slack
Key Guitar Volume 2, won the first ever Grammy Award for best
Hawaiian recording.
His current CD Pure Slack
Key (Peterson Productions), has received rave reviews. John
Berger from the Honolulu Star Bulletin wrote: Slack key is more
about instrumental technique than composition, and Peterson uses his
pieces to bridge his Hawaiian slack-key roots and his formal
academic training as a classical acoustic guitarist.
For more information on Jeff, visit
www.jeffpetersonguitar.com
Jeff last performed in The Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key
Guitar Concert Series at the Napili Kai Beach Resort, Maui on Wednesday,
March 12, 2008.
(Jeff previously appeared in this series at the Napili Kai Beach
Resort last year on November 21, 2007 and before that at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, on May 2, 2007 and December 6, 2006.)
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