Impossible Slack Key – Ledward Kaapana at Kona Brewing

Welcome to Kaleponi Records, my musical home on the web. My name is Fran Guidry, and I play kika ki hoʻalu or Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Kaleponi is the Hawaiian word for California, where I live. Ki hoʻalu, or slack key, has a direct link to California history. The guitar was carried to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi by vaqueros from California. You can read more about the history of slack key guitar on the Dancing Cat Records web site.

Slack key guitar is named for the retuning that characterizes the style. Most of these new tunings feature loosened, or slackened, strings which give a deep rich sound.

My personal slack key history goes back to 1999 and my first visit to Hawaiʻi. When we turned on the TV in our Waikiki hotel room I was captivated by the playing of Keola Beamer. I knew in an instant that I had to learn to play this beautiful music. Over the years I've learned from great players and teachers like Ozzie Kotani, Keola himself, Patrick Landeza, Kevin Brown, Cyril Pahinui, Kawika Kahiapo, Raymond Kane, Dennis Kamakahi, and Ledward Kaapana.

Impossible Slack Key – Ledward Kaapana at Kona Brewing

Monday, May 12th, 2014

Ledward plays a regular gig at the Kona Brewing Company restaurant in Hawai`i Kai. When he’s on the island he’s almost certain to perform at KBC on Sunday from at least 6 PM to at least 8 PM and usually a little extra on both ends. Fans come from all over the state of Hawai`i, the mainland, the whole world to see this master of hawaiian slack key and `ukulele perform. I recorded the show a few weeks ago and caught Led performing magic on the slack key guitar and the `ukulele.

Naturally there’s plenty of great Hawaiian singing along with the instrumental virtuosity, and many times Ledward is accompanied by his sister, Lei Aiken, on vocals and `ukulele. The two of them give us a glimpse into the legendary Kalapana party days when the Kaapana and Konanui clans would celebrate the weekend with music, dance, story, food, and companionship.

It’s really tough to get good video quality at Kona Brewing, due to the position directly in front of a window and the lack of interior light, but I’ve set up a number of times to capture some of the magic generated there. In this first clip Ledward spontaneously decides to play some impossible slack key. He’s tuned to taropatch G tuning, an open G chord. Lei sings He Aloha No O Honolulu in F, a whole step lower. If you know anything about guitar you’ll recognize that the key of F is the hardest key to play on a guitar tuned to open G. Ledward goes for it anyway, modulating between F for the vocals and G for the pa`ani or lead breaks. This surprising new arrangement causes bass player Jesse Gregorio Sr. to bust up the first time the key changes.

I lost the light pretty early and was disappointed at the video quality of this next clip, but I was sure there are lots of `ukulele players out there who’d love to see Ledward work his magic on his lovely Chuck Moore tenor. Here’s his legendary arrangement of Glass Ball Slack Key also know as Chicken in the Straw (or Turkey in the Straw to us mainland country folk).

Ledward’s gig at Kona Brewing is one of those that people will talk about for years, as they do now about the “good old days” at Chuck’s Cellar and other long gone venues. So if you want to collect some memories and you’re on O`ahu on a Sunday evening, come on out to Hawai`i Kai and join the friends and fans of Mr. Ledward Kaapana.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2014 at 1:57 am and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.