Ka Leo O Loko (CD)

For over thirty years, Keola Beamer's artistry has helped breathe new life into slack key guitar music while remaining true to the soul of its deeply Hawaiian roots. In many ways, slack key is an individualistic style of music, handed down through imitation but honed through long hours in which a player is encouraged to express personal feelings, develop trademark techniques and improvise as needed to bring a song to life in the here and now. A mature slack key style is as instantly recognizable as the voice of a family member or close friend. Developing that style often starts with watching, listening and imitating. "I think we all begin by emulating the people we admire," Keola says. "In my case, it was the family and older players like Aunty Alice Namakelua."

Time spent observing and playing leads to the confidence needed to begin the challenging but satisfying process of finding a personal style. "You work and work practicing the music," says Keola. "You live with it and it lives with you, and then one day something magical happens: your music suddenly sounds like you." For Keola, this voyage of discovery combines technical mastery and an organic, non-competitive honesty. "I believe that style is always there in the human heart," he says. "Everybody has their own and has to find it for themselves before they can share it with others. For me it happened in my late teens. That's when I first felt that what I was playing was coming from inside."

Born February 18, 1951, in Honolulu, Keola grew up in one of the most famous families in Hawaiian music. The Beamers can trace their involvement in Hawaiian music, dance and chant at least as far back as the 15th Century; to illustrious figures such as Ahiakumai Ki‘eki‘e, queen of the island of Hawai‘i, and Ho‘olulu, one of the kapu (scared) twins of Kameiamoku, wife of Kamehameha Nui. In traditional Hawaiian society, the sounded word possesses mana (spiritual power) and music plays a significant role in all aspects of life. Ali‘i (royalty) have always actively supported music and dance as means of accomplishing specific goals. Music maintains spiritual, as well as political, stability and disseminates information. "I think that's why my family is so serious about music," Keola says. "We have been, are and always will be. We came from a history of oral tradition in which music played a big part. Our genealogies, land boundaries and navigational information were all in chants."

Throughout the generations, the Beamers have maintained a high level of accomplishment in the performing arts. In the last several generations, important public figures include Keola's great-grandmother, noted songwriter and hula teacher Helen Desha Beamer; his grandfather, composer Pono Beamer; his grandmother, hula teacher Louise Beamer; his cousin, falsetto great Mahi Beamer; his brother, guitarist and composer Kapono Beamer; and, of course, his mother, one of the leading figures in the Hawaiiana movement, chanter and teacher Nona Beamer.

Not surprisingly, Keola plunged into music early. "I got serious around age nine," he says. His main instruments were guitar and piano, though he also mastered ‘ohe hano ihu (traditional bamboo nose flute). Glee club and hula came in with his studies at Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu, which began in kindergarten and first grade, then resumed from sixth grade through graduation in 1969. At that time, thanks to the efforts of Keola's mother and others, Kamehameha was finally implementing Hawaiian culture into the curriculum. "For a long time there was nothing," he says. "But by the time our generation arrived, Mom's songs were getting into the system, and more of the teachers were encouraging us to learn the culture." Opportunities to gain knowledge and experience arose from playing at family gatherings, jamming with friends and providing the music at the Beamer family hula studio.

In 1973, Keola recorded the beautiful and very influential slack key guitar album Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style (Music of Polynesia 22000). In many ways, this release, along with the early Sunday Manoa albums with slack key guitarist Peter Moon and Hui ‘Ohana with slack key guitarist Led Kaapana, the two other most influential slack key guitarists of that generation, represented the advance guard of a movement of Hawai‘i's rock-era guitarists to investigate the work of older, more traditional masters, like Gabby "Pops" Pahinui, Atta Isaacs, Leonard Kwan, Sonny Chillingworth, Ray Kane, Fred Punahoa and others. The youth reinvigorated the form with their own ideas, just as every generation had done before. From the beginning, Keola, while respectful of the kupuna (elders), has sought to expand the music. "I don't feel that culture's just some natural phenomenon," he says. "We all have a responsibility to help guide it in a good way that keeps things pono (moral or virtuous)." Already, at a young age, Keola felt part of his responsibility included teaching.

"In my early twenties, I was making guitars with George Gilmore and Donald Marienthal," he says. "We had the wild idea we could make nice guitars out of koa and mango wood so we took out a loan from the Small Business Administration and started the Guitar and Lute Workshop on Waimanu Street in Honolulu. People started coming in to ask about slack key. There were very few teachers back then, so I agreed to try it." Keola also published an instruction manual entitled Hawaiian Slack Key. Teaching became his main job for several years until he turned to full time performing and composing.

In the mid-1970s, Keola and his brother, Kapono, formed the Beamer Brothers, mixing Hawaiian and pop to create many Island standards, including Keola's best known composition, Honolulu City Lights. Throughout the 1980s, Keola turned increasingly to a solo career, which by the 1990s included recording for Dancing Cat.

Ka Leo O Loko is Keola's fifth Dancing Cat album. "It's totally guitar focused," he says. "No singing, no other instruments. It all originates from a guitarist's point of view." Keola says that much of the inspiration comes from his recent return to teaching.This album features more of his solo guitar (eight songs) and more original compositions by Keola (nine) than any other he has done. For the past several years, he has participated in the master-apprentice program at the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. "It's allowed me to work very closely with one student, Nobuyuki Yoshida. This builds very solid bonds and allows more of the context behind the music to unfold. In slack key you have to learn more than notes, it's based on the whole relationship to Hawaiian culture."

Keola and fellow guitarist Mark Nelson have also established the Aloha Music Camp, at Kalani Honua near the volcano on the island of Hawai‘i, to hold intensive workshops several times a year. In 2001, Keola invited Ozzie Kotani as a guest instructor. Keola and his lovely wife and performing partner, Moanalani, maintain a busy schedule of touring and teaching throughout Hawai‘i, North America, Japan and Europe. "It's really been a struggle all these years to get slack key recognized," he says. "But to meet people from all over the world with such beautiful intentions and see them honoring the culture is so fulfilling and inspiring. It keeps me going."

Na Mele

Tuning and background information for each song can be found in the liner notes. Audio samples can be downloaded from Keola's .Mac site.

• Pailolo [2:27]
• Kapalua Bay [3:01]
• Kaulana Na Pua [3:15]
• Kolowaka [3:15]
• Li‘i's Song [3:35]
• Mino‘aka [2:47]
• Moana's Laundry Basket [3:25]
• Na Hala O Naue [3:21]
• Wai Ulu [3:19]
• Pauahi ‘O Kalani [3:26]
• Kawohikukapulani [2:50]
• The Myna Bird's Dobro [3:32]
• Papa's ‘Okolehao [2:24]
• Ka Makani ‘Ula‘ula [2:25]
• Pua Lililehua [2:58]