Genre:
Hawaiian
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Tuesday, September 21 7:30 PM
(All ages)
This is the first time these two giants of Hawaiian Music will be performing together! Look for fireworks!
Led Kaapana:
Ledward Kaapana is a Hawaiian musician, best known for playing in the slack key guitar style. He also plays steel guitar, ukulele, autoharp and bass guitar, and is a renowned falsetto singer.Led grew up in a musical family living in a small black sand bay village of Kalapana where he states there were little distractions. "We didn't have electricity, not television, not even much radio, so we entertained ourselves. You could go to any house and everybody was playing music." At fourteen, he began performing professionally with his mother, Tina, and his uncle, the rarely-recorded slack-key master Fred Punahoa.His professional breakthrough came a few years later, when he was a part of Hui 'Ohana, with his twin brother, Nedward Kaapana, and his cousin Dennis Pavao. Hui 'Ohana released fourteen albums, each of which was a commercial success. Kaapana left the group eventually, then released six albums as the leader of another trio, I Kona, and performed with the Pahinui Brothers, Aunty Genoa Keawe, David Chun, Barney Isaacs and Uncle Joe Keawe.
His first solo album, Simply Slack Key, was released in 1988 on Paradise Records; the album won the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for "Instrumental Album of the Year" in 1989. He released Led Live in 1994 on Dancing Cat Records. He has performed and recorded with acoustic lap-steel player Bob Brozman, and released several more albums on the Dancing Cat label from the late 1990s onward.
http://www.ledkaapana.com/
Willie K:
Raised on Maui, Willie Kahaiali’i (a.k.a.Willie K.) has been playing music and entertaining audiences since the age of 10. His father Manu Kahaiali’i, one of Hawaii’s most respected musicians, recruited Willie and his brothers to perform in his band. From the very beginning, Willie was influenced by and exposed to a myriad of musical genres; from the Hawaiian, Jazz, and early R&B he heard at his father’s side, to the sounds emanating from the radio and TV from musical giants such as B.B. King, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Willie Nelson. It is no wonder why Willie has evolved into such an eclectic and charismatic singer/songwriter/entertainer. By his high school graduation, Willie was playing in as many as 8 bands from country and western, salsa, rhythm and blues, rock, and of course Hawaiian. A few years later he moved to San Francisco determined to make it in the music scene there.
Now, in 2008, Willie has chosen to concentrate on his solo career again. But as in the past, Willie K has collaborated in another venture, this time with Maui’s own Joe Cano and Avi Ronen, the newly acclaimed acoustic Jazz trio “Lima Wela.” Already receiving immense attention from the public, they have created music that has reached high standards amongst listening fans, saying, “It’s like building a bridge between three worlds and crossing over, and communicating with music.” This new sound is sure to become a household name before 2010.
“There is so much more music to be made here in Hawaii,” says the artist, “and I’m sure to make it happen if at all possible.” Along with his new partners in Maui Tribe Productions, Willie is moving forward to newer heights and challenges that come his way. “There are no limits any more” says Willie. New projects are on the way for all listening fans of this one of a kind Entertainer!
http://www.williek.com/aloha/