Kaleponi

It’s been a couple of weeks now and I can’t stop thinking about the weekend I spent at the Spirit Hawaii Cultural Retreat in Lafayette, CA. Here’s an article at SFGate telling the story of the event. The two days were filled with chant, hula, music, history, cultural insights, food, and friendship, another example of the rich current of Hawai`i oriented events flowing around us here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As much as I enjoyed the whole experience, I was most enthralled and inspired by the remarkable Elmer “Sonny” Lim, Jr. Lynn and I met Sonny and his family a number of years ago when we visited Hawai`i Island. It’s a meeting we often think about and talk about, we felt so warmly welcomed by this charming and talented family. Since then I’ve looked forward to my next meeting with Sonny, but somehow the opportunity has never presented itself until now.

I was the only guitarist at the Spirit Hawai`i retreat, all the other musicians were uke players, so I might have felt left out. But instead Sonny found the time and space to give me some one-on-one instruction, a bit of talk story about his musical history, and a bit of just plain jamming. All three were deeply inspiring – he told about learning from Uncle Fred Punahoa, the slack key innovator and virtuoso who also taught Ledward Kaapana. Sonny also stressed the value of music theory and ear training, not something we normally associate with folk styles like slack key.

Sonny mentioned several times that he’s working on a new CD, something to anticipate. In the meantime his solo acoustic instrumental CD, The Artistry of Sonny Lim is a fine introduction to his slack key style. He told me that he never sang in his early years, surrounded as he was by the talented singers in his family, but these days his singing is as strong and compelling as his guitar playing.

Here’s a terrific clip from Big Island Television showing Sonny doing several numbers:

And a vocal piece that will be on his new CD, Heiau, recorded at the Maui Slack Key Masters show:

Sonny told me that he no longer plays the hotel circuit on Hawai`i Island, these days he’s too busy traveling and gigging around the world. So I don’t know when or where we’ll meet again, it will be catch as catch can. But I’m looking forward to that next meeting, and in the meantime I’m basking in the inspiring recordings and videos of Mr. Sonny Lim.