A Splendid Ho'olau'lea

[Kay Das]

Just returned from Waikiki. Amidst the doom and gloom of reduced interest in steel guitar in Hawai'i... not many new players.... hotels cutting back....bad economy...you've heard all this before...

But, hark! The Ho'olau'lea at the Ala Wai Golf Club on Sunday, May 3rd.... was the best steel guitar event your friendly reporter has been to in a long while. It opened with Steve Cheney's lilting steel guitar, beautiful tones, lovely melodies, great touch...loved his version of "Moana Chimes"....tones perfectly matched to the acoustics of the hall (not all that followed adjusted their amp equalizations, there was a definite resonance in the hall at the low frequencies around 200 Hz).... then Paul Kim's wonderful voice and steel guitar playing...

Greg Sardinha's innovative new tones for steel guitar followed.....Greg's rendition of 'Something", most especially the George Harrison solo was...something... Lovely exotic sounds from the trio....a pulsating version of "Pipeline/Walk Dont Run"....then left handed Ron Kanahele brought the house down with his version of "Moana Chimes" and his insight into steel guitar playing...a joy to watch and to hear him......young newcomer Yumiko from Japan with nice technique and good picking speed....

And then the usual suspects...always a joy to hear and always highly entertaining...Alan Akaka, Jeff Au Hoy, Bobby I, and I am sure I am forgetting some others.....put it down to jet lag... Paul Kim's great sense of humor, compering the show often had us in splits of laughter...then not to forget all the hard work by Kamaka Tom and company...

Who was it that said steel guitar was dying? Well, certainly not at this Ho'olau'lea!! And there were not the usual six performances of "Blue Hawaiian Moonlight' either...

Pictures to follow..surely others will post too. For me, this was the Mother of all Steel Guitar Ho'olau'leas for sheer variety of performance, contrasting tonal colors and approaches.


Kay

[Ron Whitfield]

Yes indeed, this one was the best in a long long time.
Minus Casey Olsen, the best Hawaii has to offer were all there Sunday.

Lion Kobayashi's student(s), as always, are ones to be future stars of the instrument. 22 year old Yumiko and her 12 year old sister will be/are excellant ambassadors of steel for the kids to appreciate, and we can all look forward to many decades of top quality music from them. That is, if us guy's can take our eyes and minds off of Yumiko's natural beauty!

What a shame only about 125 people, at best, were in attendence to enjoy the show, and many of them left at intermission, leaving mostly the steel guitar diehards. Steel appreciation definitely needs a big shot in the arm.

Kudos to Paul or Kamaka for extending a previously unannounced welcome to Ron and Jeff towards the end of the program. It was great to finally have them performing on the Ala Wai stage.
I was stoked that Greg asked us which tune he should wrap up with, his surf medley or Adventures In Paradise, both being a favorite of mine, but only having time for one, and the great medley got the nod thanx to someone's... loud vote, even tho probably not the crowd's choice.

Another fine moment came when Alan called Gary Aiko (Genoa Keawe's oldest son, and Hawaii's top male vocalist for many years) to the stage to sing a rousing Hawaiian Cowboy and then hana hou'd with Cole's Unforgettable. Superb.

Speaking of 'programs', it was unfortunate that there were none allowed for the crowd to acclimate themselves with the players and sponsers this year, a first...

Saw you there Kay, sorry I didn't say hi.

[Martin Curnan]

This was my first HSGA convention. What a wonderfull experience. I met a lot of warm wonderfull people whom with out hesitation were willing to share their knowledge of the steel. Don Kona Woods, Jack Aldrich, Kay Das, Don Keene, Buck Giles, Ron Carter,Ivan Reddington,Moto Suzuki, Warren Slavin,Greg Sardinha, Steve Cheney Derrick Mau, Bobby Ingano and Ron Kanahele to mention a few...mahalo

The performances at Ala Wai was unreal as Hawaii's best steel players performed. You know they hit the spot when you get "chicken skin" I am glad the performances were taped on video to be broadcast at a later time on the 'OHELO' channel here in Hawaii. Also a big mahalo to Art and Lorene Ruymar founders of the HSGA and last but not least Kamaka Tom for facilitating the entire week.

[Charles Buttner Jr]

This was my first time attending the convention in Hawaii. I enjoyed the convention with one exception- there was nothing on the internet about the 3 days activities following the convention until after I made my plane reservations. I was told I missed the best part - on Sunday!

I agree that Lion Kobayashi's group was great. The Japanese are excellent performers.

Charlie

[Ron Whitfield]

there was nothing on the internet about the 3 days activities following the convention until after I made my plane reservations. I was told I missed the best part - on Sunday!

...but I tried to get the word out at www.hwnsge.5u.com (announcements have since been removed)
I'm sure you weren't alone in missing some or all of these events as there was little to NO promotion or advertisements or notice in any medium anywhere.

[Kay Das]

pics....(more to come)..

add music to taste....

http://web.me.com/kaydas/kaydas/hawaii2009.html

kay

[Gerald Ross]

Starting another fight Ron?

[Ron Simpson]

The reason for little to no promotion this year is due to the new ordinances currently in effect.

[Ron Whitfield]

...in your little world of circle the wagons and fire at the imagined, maybe so. Whatever pops your cork..., enjoy.

Ron, can you expound on your statement, please?
What was different this year from the past many years of little to no promotion?

[Martin Curnan]

I think the restrictions on he use of the Ala Wai Golf Course facility is what was talked about.Not being able to charge a fee, no food or drink ect. The metal chairs did not help. The people involved in the event for the week did a fantastic job with what they had available. I think the bottom line is finding the funding. Maybe have to look for grant funding as the Slack Key concerts have done for over twenty years. I agree with Ron that there was no promotion of the week event anywhere. I hope that I can be of some asistance in the future.

[Ron Whitfield]

From what I understand, from multiple sources, with the tidy sum sitting in the HSGA kitty, 'funding' the few basic things to make these events much more known, enticing, and even more memorable, is far from a true concern.

[Gerald Ross]

Join the HSGA Ron.

Make your thoughts known. Volunteer.

Why won't you you join Ron?

You wouldn't join a club that would have someone like you as a member? (Groucho Marx).

[Ron Simpson]

I was "talking story" with Kamaka Tom, and he mentioned promoting the HSGA at a public facility was a no no at this time. We used to have a bowl set out for donations at the golf course which went to the musicians, but we couldn't do that this year. The park site is certainly a public facility, and I assume the golf course is also. That leaves only the hotel concerts which could have been promoted. I should point out that I'm not an lawyer though either.

[Ron Whitfield]

I'll give you credit for reading my mind, Gerald, ala Groucho!

For the two decades I lived in the countryside, from just before the first JB Ho'olaule'a, I always meant to be a member, never getting around to it. But once Jerry turned it over, I gave up that thot as it went in differring directions from mine and friend's thinkings, and I have since poisoned the waters with voicing my opinions here that has made too many simply hate my guts.

I know some will never believe me, but I support you guy's, and anyone that is trying to preserve/promote the steel, we're rare and need the force of numbers to succeed.
The friends I do have in the HSGA have always been encouraging towards my being a member, but under the circumstances I've felt I could better serve our mutual goals from the sidelines.

That said, I appreciate your welcoming words, and may someday, for better or worse, surprise ya'll with a submitted membership form.
If the two of us can do the impossible and bury the hatchet, then maybe the sun will rise in the West, and we can someday resurrect the steel from it's grave...

BTW, I heard some astonishingly great news this week, if true, that Lorene Ruymar has made a small inroad with our Governor, and may get some State interest of promoting/teaching steel in our local schools. Now that's progress, if it actually happens and goes somewhere!
What's the skinny, is this a solo effort or in conjunction with the HSGA? I havn't asked Lorene about any of it yet and they are going to Maui soon, then home.

[Bill Creller]

If that convention isn't advertised, at least in some form or media, no surprise that people don't know about it, or show up.
The venue at the shopping mall used to be OK because the public was always already there.

Getting a couple prominent players at the last minute sounds a bit normal.

[Paul DiMaggio]

Kay,all I get from that URL is a black screen,titles on top,"made by Apple" on the bottom,nothing in between.Am I doing something wrong?

[Kay Das]

guys, guys, guys,

this thread had all the good intentions of being a report on the ho'olau'lea, and not about its history, politics, economics, marketing, scheduling....

....why not start another thread?

kay

[Kay Das]

paul,

i checked again and i get the pics okay. i use a mac. i do not know if there are problems with PC access. would anyone who is using a PC please let us know if they can access the pics, please?

kay

[Ron Whitfield]

guys, guys, guys,

this thread had all the good intentions of being a report on the ho'olau'lea, and not about its history, politics, economics, marketing, scheduling....

....why not start another thread?

kay

We can all keep your thread happening as planned, even if it encompasses a few other worthwhile topics.
No blood, no foul!

[Kay Das]

paul,

i got the same problem on one particular PC, but the "slideshow" worked. let me know.

kay

[Paul DiMaggio]

Kay;I think the problem might be that I don't have QuickTime on my computer.

[basilh]

[Don Kona Woods]

Kay,

The pictures came through for me the first time I logged on to your thread. I have Vista Windows OS. I checked again and I still get the pictures.

Picking up from what Ron said,

I was "talking story" with Kamaka Tom, and he mentioned promoting the HSGA at a public facility was a no no at this time. We used to have a bowl set out for donations at the golf course which went to the musicians, but we couldn't do that this year.

Ron did he tell you what the no no was about?

Even though a public facility is used, an event can be announced in the newspapers through a public service announcement, it just can't promoted as an advertisement to charge an admission.

In the past the calabash bowl was used for persons to donate to a charitable cause which was in this case, the Lunalilo Home for the elderly. If the donation would have gone to the musicians it would in effect have been like an admission fee.

The events of the HSGA need to be openly promoted to give visibility to the purposes for which the HSGA was founded.

Aloha,
Don

[Ron Whitfield]

There are a number of free and very cheap media opportunities to get the word out en-mass, so it's always struck me as odd that they aren't used.

[Derrick Mau]

I'm using Windows XP and can view with no problem.
Kay's photo's are taken in the gif. format, so make sure that what ever program you're using for viewing is set up to read gif. files. There should be a setting somewhere in Quick Time, Real Player, or Windows Player with a list of formats such as tiff, bmp, jpeg, and gif. Make sure the gif. box is check marked.

The steel conventions in previous years had a news ad for the events in the Queen Kapiolani ballroom and Ala Wai but they were very small. This year, I didn't see any, resulting in only half the crowd we normally had. Kapiolani Park had a good showing however.

The biggest promotion we did was a local morning TV slot about 4 years ago. It was fun, but hard to play music when you're recording at 3:30 in the morning.