Slack Key fest returns to Redondo
On Lapule, Lanuali 23, a kanikapila will be celebrated at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. It’s the Fourth Annual Southern California Slack Key Festival, complete with the Island Marketplace, offered with much pumehana, plus pulled pua’a, poi (Hawaiian for marginally edible purple wallpaper paste), hala kahiki and ki ho’alu music first introduced by the paniolo. New this year: Saimin, a noodle soup dish developed during Hawaii’s plantation era. It’s soft wheat egg noodles served hot and garnished with green onions, Kamaboko, Char siu, sliced Spam, linguiça, and nori, among other additions.
Translation: The 2011 Southern California Hawaiian Slack Key Festival is affectionately presented on Sunday, Jan. 23 at the RB Performing Arts Center. There will be food and music. Figure the rest out when you get there. There is plenty of free parking, but I don’t know the Hawaiian word for “car.” I suggest that “Ford” would probably do.
The music starts at 2 p.m. (the Marketplace opens at 11 a.m.). Among the featured artists onstage is Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer – Keola Beamer. He will perform songs from his more than a dozen albums for which he has won numerous Hoku Awards, the Hawaii equivalent of the Grammies. In addition, Beamer will accompany a beautiful young singer, Raiatea Helm, who demonstrates an affection for traditional Hawaiian music, though she has broadened her repertoire of late to include American standards and jazz works.
Beamer grew up with rock & roll, but family tradition brought him naturally to slack key. (Slack key refers to alternative tuning of the guitar where open strings produce a major chord. There are as many slack key tunings throughout Hawaiian musical families as there are Hawaiians.) Beamer is also unique in his performance as he was among the first artists to incorporate the ancient art of chanting in his songs, a skill he learned from his mother. Winona Beamer is a noted composer and author who has spent years researching and teaching Hawaiiana.
A native of the Big Island of Hawaii, Beamer traces his roots back to the 15th century and Queen Ahiakumai Ki’eki’e (there’s a mall named after her) and Ho’olulu, a child of the favored wife of Kamehameha I (every major thoroughfare in the islands is named after him and likenesses of the King outnumber McDonald’s franchises on Oahu). In simple terms, the Beamer ancestors didn’t have to wait for a table at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. They probably didn’t have to pay, either.
When Hawaiian musicians speak of Keola Beamer, their eyes glaze. “He set everybody to doing slack key,” said Gordon Freitas, a contemporary of Beamer who studies the master’s work. “His songs are simple and folksy – real old-style. They’re very slow and very simple, and everybody has to love his laid back style on stage. He got me, and a lot of others, interested in slack key.”
Beamer has written instructional books on playing the guitar, specifically slack key. When not writing, recording or performing, he enjoys writing haikus.
Jelly for mortar
seven hundred tins and more
I build a Spam house
For you haole out there, Spam is a staple of Hawaiian cuisine. Many of Beamer’s haikus relate to Spam. If you’re munching on a roll purchased this weekend at the Island Marketplace, the mysterious salty red meat in the middle with the questionable texture is probably Spam. The Hawaiian Islands keep Hormel in business. If one visits the company’s manufacturing plant in Austin, Minn., do not, however, expect a tour of the Spam production facility. They walk in one door as pigs, they exit another door in tins destined for a Denny’s on Maui.
Once again, Mitch Chang and his Kala Koa Entertainment group are producing the Redondo event. Chang, originally from Oahu and now residing in Redondo Beach, is recognized as a fine classical, Flamenco and slack key guitarist, having studied the instrument at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He said that one of his joys in organizing the Slack Key Festival is his ability to invite his friends and mentors to perform on the Redondo stage. If provided enough encouragement by his contemporaries, Chang admitted that his guitar would be in the trunk of his car if he were to be asked “to play a couple tunes.”
As per Beamer taking center stage, Chang said, “I’m thrilled we got him to come. He was one of the first musicians I ever listened to as a kid… He was groundbreaking (on slack key). He’s always been someone we wanted; but, at first, he told me ‘no.’ I went with Jim ‘Kemo’ West (a regular at the Redondo fest) to one of Keola’s performances and afterwards talked to him. He told me he really didn’t want to do festivals anymore. He thanked me for asking, but said it was not the time.”
That was regarding the 2010 festival. Undaunted, Chang e-mailed Beamer again for this year’s event and asked him to reconsider. He agreed, saying “I’ve heard a lot about it, and I have a new CD with Raiatea and we’d like to be a part of it.”
Chang is fast becoming the guitarists’ best friend in the Southland. In recent month’s he’s produced concerts – by guitarists of all styles – at local night spots, most recently an appearance by Led Kaapana at Sangria in Hermosa Beach. He also said there’s to be a Flamenco festival in Redondo in the coming months.
Included in this year’s Redondo fest will be Cyril Pahinui (son of Gabby Pahinui), who performs with Grammy winner Jeff Peterson; Guitar magazine Guitar Superstar finalist Makana; three-time Grammy winner George Kahumoku Jr., performing with steel guitar master Bob Brozman; and slack key guitarist and falsetto singer Gary Haleamau.
The Sunday event is o’hana friendly. Beware, however: Keep your loved ones close at hand because, in an atmosphere such as this, a hula could break out at any time!
2011 Southern California Slack Key Festival, Sunday, Jan. 23. Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo. Music, 2 to 5 p.m.; Marketplace opens at 11 a.m. Tickets, $35-$125, can be purchased by visiting www.slackkeyfest.com or will be available at the door. ER