OCEANIC CABLE -Leisure Around Town -Ke Mele Hawai`i:
Jam Sessions, A Hawaiian Music Tradition
(partial excerpt...
Full Article: AroundHawaii.com)
By Keith and Carmen Haugen
Those of us who are "older," fondly remember the old "jam sessions"
popular with Hawaiian musicians, amateur and professional alike...
Every Sunday, this sort of thing is happening at Honey's in the
Ko`olau Golf Course Clubhouse in Kane`ohe.
On a recent Sunday...the first "new" guest artist was called to the
stage. She is 16-year-old `ukulele wizard and slack-key guitarist from
Hilo, in town for the awards ceremony for the Hawai`i Academy of
Recording Arts, where she has been nominated for two major awards -
Most Promising Artist and Instrumental Album of the Year - for her
debut CD, "Brittni X 3," on which she plays all three instruments --
`ukulele, slack-key guitar, and electric bass. It was her first time
at Honey's. Earlier in the day, she performed at PearlRidge Shopping
Center.
Brittni's debut at Honey's was an electric 10-15 minutes as fans
cheered, clapped, called "hana hou," hoping to hear more and more from
this gifted young artist. And half of the fun was watching the
expressions on the faces of Eddie Kamae, still in the audience, and
Mike and the band. They smiled, laughed, smiled, grinned, and played
on. Their admiration was written all over their faces. Brittni wowed
everyone, demonstrating both her amazing manual dexterity and a gift
that would make this shy, humble teen the envy of almost everyone who
ever played either instrument. They loved her. Eddie and the other
musicians all expressed genuine pleasure later that the future of
Hawaiian music is indeed bright, with up and coming players like
Brittni.
Probably the funniest line of the evening was when emcee Ocean Kaowili,
jokingly said Brittni had asked him: "Led who?" Led Ka`apana, regarded
as one of the greatest guitarists in the world, was in the room, and
during one of Brittni's slack-key guitar solos, Led sat smiling,
waving a white flag.
Brittni posed for pictures with Eddie, Mike and the band, and long
after the music ended, everyone was still talking about Brittni. "Can
you imagine, Eddie, Bryan and Brittni all together on the same stage?"
asked one `ukulele fan. Owana, who like Paul, studied steel guitar
under the late great Jerry Byrd, offered to give Brittni a steel
guitar lesson while she is in town. She accepted. And another fan
offered her the loan of a 1920s Rickenbacker bakelite steel guitar, a
collector's item, to learn on.
Copyright © 2005 Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Keith and Carmen
Haugen,
AroundHawaii.com. All rights reserved.
Keith & Carmen U`ilani Haugen have devoted most of their adult life to
researching, composing, performing and promoting the more traditional
music of Hawai`i and are one of the longest running acts in Waikiki.
The views and information contained are not provided or endorsed by
Oceanic, Time Warner Cable of Hawaii or any affiliate of this Internet
service. The content provided is for general information and
entertainment purposes only.
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