EKK – An Evening of Song after Song
Flashback on the Man of the Hour:
Ken Makuakane was caught off guard when he was asked to play on the Kamoa ‘ukulele and teach the audience to sing Hau’oli La Hanau, the birthday song in Hawaiian, and one of the hotel staff walked up to him with a Red Velvet Cupcake with hot fudge center topped with thick creamy icing and a single birthday candle.
“What do I do now?” asked the for-once-speechless Kenneth.
“Up to you, you the artist,” I replied.
“But you the pushy boss!” was his typically sassy remark.
At this point, Garden Island Arts Council President Katherine Brocklehurst came up and shared with the audience some of Kenneth’s many accolades and acknowledged that on February 7 he will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Artists (HARA) for his many contributions to the world of music in Hawai’i. She summed it up for all of us who hang around Ken and watch him whip out songs so effortlessly. “When you are around someone that is so good at what they do, they make it look so easy.” This multi-instrumental player and gifted songwriter and music producer for Na Leo, Amy Hanaiali’i, Loyal Garner, Raiatea Helm, O’Brian Eselu, Pandanus Club, among many others, has had over 150 nominations and has won 12 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards to date…and still going.
When his older son was 16 years old, Kenneth wanted his son to experience the Hawaiian Islands Tour on the Cruise Ship. It was then that he met two EKK Snowbirds in Tom Kats Grill in Koloa. Coincidentally he was invited that year to present at EKK. That serendipitous meeting with Marty and Phyllis Albert was the beginning of his love affair with Kaua’i. On April 9, 2007, when EKK was being held at the Island School cafeteria, Ken did his first solo stint but it turned out not to be solo as he brought up on stage Marty Albert to play his ‘ukulele and sing a song that he had been practicing religiously for his daughter’s wedding on the East Coast. Kekai Chock and the late Rocky Pau also shared the stage with him. Kekai, easily is one of the few guys I know who can listen in on a new song once and then join in with unbelievable riffs and pa’ina. Kekai totally blew Kenneth away with his impressive musicality.
Kenneth wrote to me: “thanks carol. Last night was fun and SOOOOO successful this has become.wowowowow on you girl! Who is this phenomena kekai chock?? He’s soooo highly skilled he’d be an act by himself,no? does he live here? Thanks for all you do.”
In 2011 when Kenneth came again with O’Brian Eselu’s encore EKK performance, O’Brian asked if I could have Kekai Chock join him on stage because he knew him from an earlier life. Interesting that Kenneth has been O’Brian’s musical muse for over 30 years and did not meet Kekai until 2007 at EKK.
Ken came to EKK the second time in 2009 when O’Brian Eselu made his EKK debut at the Island School cafeteria. O’Brian wanted Kenneth, his long time friend and musical arranger, to be there with him. Taking the back seat to assist O’Brian as the star in the performance was easy for Kenneth as, for many years, he was the silent partner behind many of Hawaii’s top performers.
I wrote this in 2007 when he first came to EKK for his solo show:
“For nearly thirty years Kenneth has been producing CD’s for many musicians who have built fine reputations for themselves. One day he sat himself down, thought about it, and realized that being a record producer felt like watching everyone else fly off into the sky and he’s left behind on the ground smelling the jet exhaust. Even with 11 Na Hoku Awards tucked in his belt and even with being inducted into the prestigious Kamehameha Schools Alumni Gallery Hall of Fame, Kenneth wanted to fly, so he recently produced his own solo CD entitled ‘Makuakane’.”
Once upon a time, Kaua’i was not Kenneth’s favorite island, or so he revealed to the EKK audience. Since his first EKK gig in 2007, he has returned in 2009, 2011 and this year. He also shared his musical expertise at the Koke’e Haku Mele Camps in 2009, 2010 and 2011, teaching songwriters how to collaborate and write their leo. He blew us away when he strolled with his guitar among the hard-working groups writing their lyrics, and when they got up to share their lyrics, he strummed and sang each original leo that went with each song. Over the years we have learned to tap into his “musical genius” by inviting him to the Haku Mele Camp where his musical acumen was very much appreciated. Through his active role in the Kaua’i Music Festivals, Kenneth has been spending more quality time on Kaua’i, sharing his expertise on the technical aspects of recording music and getting a grip on the business aspects of the music industry.
Don’t let his deadpan expression fool you. Composer of thousands of songs, producer of over a hundred albums, winner of twelve Na Hoku Hanohano awards, Kenneth’s brilliant command of Hawaiian music and generous spirit of sharing and teaching others has endeared him to many, from the young aspiring songwriters to highly accomplished performers. He figured out early on that there are only 104 weekend days in a year to perform so he had to do some other work to survive. He made good use of the other 261 days of the year publishing hundreds of songs over a 30-year period.
Musical Genius in Action:
We had a chance to see this musical genius in action as he introduced to the ‘ukulele circle a new way to compose their own rock and blues music. Sixty-plus players were totally engaged in this first-hour activity.
Kenneth opened the program with a solo set: He wrote a song for Kaua’i in which he managed to squeeze in every little plantation town on island. People living on Kaua’i like to pinpoint where they live by specifying the exact section of the town. Understandable since, for the longest time, very few Kaua’i residents used street addresses; instead they gave directions to their homes by describing the right turns, the left turns, the mango tree, the coconut grove, the bridges over the river, the number of telephone poles or mailboxes, etc as the way to find their home. A person in Kapa’a will specify if they live in Wailua Houselots, Wailua Homesteads, Kapahi, Keapana, Waipouli or downtown Kapa’a. With the advent of GPS on everyone’s cell phone, learning one’s own street address has become a necessity. Kenneth’s song written for King Kaumu’alii, Na Pua O Kaumuali’i, reflects the way that folks on Kaua’i really identify with the town they call home.
Ken was asked to play music for a halau from Maui who entered a competition just so the girls could get the experience, something that less skilled hula dancers rarely have a chance to do. They came to practice on Kaua’i, but it disturbed him that most of the girls kept making mistakes. To his chagrin, the kumu admitted that the dancers were new and the least skilled dancers in the halau; he was miffed because he worked so hard on his songs. “You brought the A-Team to play for the F-Troop?” He admonished the kumu for giving him rank beginners for his song. The girls worked very hard, and their performance at the competition was nothing short of magnificent, winning them the top award in the competition. Ken admitted that rubber slippers are hard to chew. Crying for joy at their accomplishment while feeling so shabby about his earlier attitude, Ken was inspired to write a song for these halau members; Dance Another Hula for Me was an uplifting song celebrating the efforts of the halau members and holding an important lesson for Kenneth.
EKK 2015 is dedicated to the late Uncle Dennis Kamakahi, a long time and close friend of Kenneth’s. He tried to put all of Dennis’s songs into one; that is a tall order even for someone as gifted as Kenneth. His first attempt to sing Ke Kumu Mele was aborted as he became overcome with emotion; he sang a different song and then came back to share what he called a song for a composer’s composer. It was beautiful.
When his Dad tried to teach him that the man is the “boss in the house”, Kenneth found out otherwise, so he went to his Dad to let him know that the theory did not work for him, upon which his Dad told him the last words are always “Yes Dear!” Out of this life lesson came the song Hush My Darling.
“People can be crazy, idiotic and that’s me.” Loves his day job but doesn’t love it so much that he does not have time for his passion. During the month of December, he recorded six albums including a whole bunch of songs that maybe you don’t want to hear. He sang a couple of the songs to show us what he composes just for the fun of it.
In 1976 the Hokulea sailing canoe set sail on its maiden voyage using the stars, waves and wind as navigational tools; Kenneth wrote Ka Napoleona O Ka Pakipika (Napoleon of the Pacific) to commemorate that important event.
When putting together a new album, he wanted to write a song about water. He looks on water as the bridge that connects us to each other – by touching the ocean, persons on different shores are connected to each other. Thus the song Ho’okahi No Wai came to be.
When he was young, dumb and living in Kane’ohe, his rusty old van with the bald tires went out of control on the rain-drenched highway as he exited the Pali Tunnel; he wrote a song for that dangerous but thrilling experience of sliding out of control down the Pali Highway; he described his van like a hula dancer that swayed to the left and to the right. Sway it Hula Girl was the result of that lucky-to-be alive adventure!
Kenneth is tenacious and bounces back easily. He has a way of turning lemons into lemonade, which is part of why he has so many accomplishments to his name. He went to a hula competition in Las Vegas and was asked by a hula parent to write a song for her daughter. He forgot about it, so when the parent called him to the ballroom to practice the song before the competition; he completely stressed out and tried to stall but managed to scribble some words onto a piece of paper in ten minutes and rushed down to the ballroom to play for the dancer. The result was a beautiful song called I Miss You My Hawaii, which won a Na Hoku Hanohano award in 2000 and was recorded by Na Leo.
After the intermission, six lucky folks who filled in attendance forms, won CD’s by Raiatea Helm, Jeff Peterson, Gordon Mark, Hi’ikua, Bryan Tolentino, George Kahumoku Jr. What a perk for spending two minutes filling out a form. This happens every week.
The second half of the program was full on music and hula as the two other members of the Pandanus Club — Rodney Lopez Jr. and Alden Kaiaokamalie – joined Kenneth on stage. Thrilling the audience with powerful male hula action were two members of the late O’Brian Eselu’s halau, Ke Kai o Kahiki.
In 2011 this is what I wrote when these same young men first appeared on the EKK stage: “O’Brian introduced his two male hula dancers for the kahiko hula. In his candid style, O’Brian tells the audience that Carol’s group (EKK) could afford only two dancers. Any more and the stage would have been too small . . . the two twenty-one year old dancers more than filled the bill. Such shy and respectful young men in their Clark Kent disguises, I could barely get their names from them as they were helping me bring all my EKK ‘ukana from my studio to the hotel. But when they exploded into action on stage, one gets an indelible visual image of the words Hawaiian Superman. Dressed only in their poofy kahiko outfits, lei alilea and body tattoos on their muscular physique, Keali’i and Sonny of Ke Kai o Kahiki needed no words . . . action speaks louder than words.”
And this is how they began the second set with these same two young men, a few years older but just as awesome for the eyes, burst out on the stage, muscles rippling as their precision moves to the chant sent waves of chicken skin over the audience. Kenneth said, “Everyone brings their cute hula girls but . . . nah . . . we want to cater to the women. Huge female screams went up around the room.
For the later songs, the quick-change artists shifted gears to the ‘auana mode wearing casual aloha shirts and white pants; they looked just as good with their shirts on and so easy on the eyes –- clean cut , masculine, fast moving energetic hula movements. Such a treat to be able to watch two of the most outstanding male hula dancers in the state on the EKK stage. They love Kaua’i and would return any time.
The Pandanus Club Emerges:
When Kenneth moved from Maui to O’ahu, he spent three months playing gigs in small dives. One evening a group of them got together and recorded an album with $1200 they scraped together. A record producer took the recording and made 10,000 copies, and 7,000 cassettes were sold in two weeks. A total of 60,000 cassettes were sold. Thus the Pandanus Club was on the charts and E Wai’anae, with lyrics by Randy Ngum and music by Kenneth, became their first hit. Kenneth said this was a major lesson for him about marketing.
The verses in that song held a lesson in Hawaiian salutation which Kenneth shared with us. ‘Ano‘ai is a polite salutation for someone new or a stranger; Welina is used to greet a friend; Aloha e is reserved for one who has become a part of your ‘ohana or is close to you. Learning the meaning of the words from the composer himself is a good thing.
E Wai’anae is a fast dance that speaks of the place where the halau gather every Saturday to learn the hula. The audience went wild with hana hou screams so the dancers stayed on stage and danced to a hula about paddling a canoe . . . they made paddling look sensuous.
Experiences of people he knows are often captured in his songs. Pili Mau Me ‘Oe, came about when his cousin, wanting a song for his wife, gave him some English words written on a napkin about the scent of the pikake lei on his first date with his wife. The part that is not in the songs is that the bees got attracted to the scent of his pikake lei and gave him over 50 stings on his face. Manu Boyd translated the English words into poetic Hawaiian lyrics. Kenneth, seeing that it needed a chorus, added a chorus in English. When his cousin saw the words to the chorus he got pissed to see the English words tacked on to the beautiful haku mele. Kenneth told him “but we recorded it already!” His cousin was non-communicative for months. The song became a hit for 8 months; when his cousin next saw him he was elated over the success of “our song.”
The evening continued with the reunited Pandanus Club sharing their special harmonies, singing in parts, to traditional Hawaiian music.
Kenneth met Alden when the senior class performed Kenneth’s song for the Kamehameha School Song Contest. They became friends, formed the Pandanus Club, and today Alden is a singer/songwriter and producer. Alden’s song Ku’u Pua Gardenia became a hit song on the radio. He hails from Maui. The first time he heard Maui On My Mind, it brought back good memories of family and became his favorite song of all time. Alden was the lead vocalist on Ku’u Lei o Nahenahe. With words like “Hold me darling never let me go,” it’s a great lead into upcoming Valentine’s Day.
Rodney Lopez, besides being very funny with his colorful jokes, is a definite asset to the group with his robust falsetto and passionate style of singing. Huge applause every time. Pulelehua about a cocoon transforming into a butterfly is Rodney’s favorite song. He sang it like he owns the song. He sings every song with that same powerful delivery. Mokihana Lullabye, composed by the late Loyal Garner, was beautifully rendered in harmony. Honokahua Nani E, resonating with emotion, was their final number.
A gentleman from Portland, Maine was the lucky person whose name was drawn out from the ‘ukulele bottle. Boy! Was he ever happy . . . he was about to give a long acceptance speech but everyone joined hands in singing Hawai’i Aloha. Everyone walked out of the ballroom elated – sharing music, dance and a magical experience full of aloha does it every time.
If you have a disability and need assistance please email Carol Yotsuda at giac05@icloud.com for Monday events.
(s) Carol Kouchi Yotsuda, www.gardenislandarts.org — “Celebrating 38 years of bringing ARTS to the people and people to the ARTS”
E Kanikapila Kakou 2015 Hawaiian Music Program is funded in part by the Hawai’i Tourism Authority, the County of Kaua’i Office of Economic Development, and the Garden Island Arts Council supporters with support from the Kaua’i Beach Resort.
Garden Island Arts Council programs are supported in part by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Hawai’i State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.
