 Slack key is inextricably linked to cow culture.
Captain George Vancouver brought a mini-herd of bovines as a gift for
the Hawaiian king, Kamehameha the Great, in 1792. Since the king made
it taboo to harm the ungulates, they quickly multiplied, and soon
cowboys followed to keep them in line. Mexican cowboys brought Spanish
guitars and left their instruments behind when they departed. As
Leilani Rivera Bond tells it, they didn’t teach anybody how to tune
them properly, so Hawaiians came up with their own tunings, each
jealously guarded by the family who invented it.
On my next green island, Maui, I meet one of Hawaii’s greatest living
slack key players, George Kahumoku, who expands upon this
story. Slack key was once a very intimate tradition, he explains. You
would play for your loved ones but would turn your back to a stranger
so he could not steal your technique. And when you put your guitar
down, you would loosen the strings so he could not steal your tuning.
"I am not one person," he tells me. "When I play, I am my whole
family." George then gives me an astonishing private concert, in which
he switches back and forth between his family’s musical styles. "This
is how my uncle plays... and this is how my grandmother played... and
this is how my great-grandfather played..."
George’s performance, in the theatre at the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua,
has been arranged for me by Clifford Naeole, the hotel’s cultural
advisor. How many high-ranking employees in luxury hotels make a habit
of showing subversive movies to their guests? Clifford sits me down to
watch And Then There Were None, a documentary whose title
refers to the chilling demographic fact that by the year 2040, there
will almost certainly be no pure Hawaiians left. As Clifford says
nonchalantly, "My people are going to flatline."
He and Paul Konwiser, an equally zealous cultural warrior, stage the
Masters of Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar Concert Series every
Wednesday in the Ritz theatre. It’s packed this afternoon with great
musicians, and Clifford introduces me to another Hawaiian legend:
Richard Ho’opi’i, an older ukulele player who sings in a haunting
falsetto. He gives me a brief private performance, and when we chat
afterwards, I mention Jake Shimabukuro. He smiles with amusement and
says, "I am very traditional."
Thanks to Clifford and friends, ukulele and slack key are alive and
singing on the islands.
complete article...
http://www.enroutemag.com/e/archives/september04/archives02.html
Copyright © 2004 enRoute is published monthly by Spafax Canada Inc.
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