A Couple of Duets with Ledward Kaapana

Welcome to Kaleponi Records, my musical home on the web. My name is Fran Guidry, and I play kika ki hoʻalu or Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Kaleponi is the Hawaiian word for California, where I live. Ki hoʻalu, or slack key, has a direct link to California history. The guitar was carried to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi by vaqueros from California. You can read more about the history of slack key guitar on the Dancing Cat Records web site.

Slack key guitar is named for the retuning that characterizes the style. Most of these new tunings feature loosened, or slackened, strings which give a deep rich sound.

My personal slack key history goes back to 1999 and my first visit to Hawaiʻi. When we turned on the TV in our Waikiki hotel room I was captivated by the playing of Keola Beamer. I knew in an instant that I had to learn to play this beautiful music. Over the years I've learned from great players and teachers like Ozzie Kotani, Keola himself, Patrick Landeza, Kevin Brown, Cyril Pahinui, Kawika Kahiapo, Raymond Kane, Dennis Kamakahi, and Ledward Kaapana.

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014

One of the best things about being home in Walnut Creek is having our friends visit. Whether it’s hula practice or a kanikapila, maybe putting on a dinner or having some kind of party. And of course some of our favorite friends visit us from Hawai`i. It’s an honor to host Ledward Kaapana and Sharon when they’re visiting Northern California.

Ledward is touring with George Kahumoku and Richard Ho`opi`i and some of their gigs bring them close to our neighborhood. And on some of those occasions we got a visit from Led and Sharon. And of course on those visits Led and I wind up playing slack key together. Led enjoys sampling my guitar collection and I get a real charge out of hearing my instruments played by the master.

I set up the cameras and shot a bit of video during a couple of recent visits. The first is almost cheating, Led and I have actually practiced this tune together. Well, actually it’s been more like Ledward showing me how he navigates through the tune and me trying to keep up, but this one is a bit more polished than some of our duets because we know in advance where we are going to wind up. It’s a sweet number called Waimea Lullaby, composed by Patrick Downes and recorded by Frank Delima, winner of the Na Hoku Hanohano Song of the Year in 1980. Ledward included his version on the 2005 “yellow CD,” a now out of print classic called Ki Ho`alu – Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar. Whenever Led played this tune I fell all over myself trying to follow until he had mercy on me and showed me the chord changes and melody as he had arranged them. We wound up playing this together on our recent tour.

This next tune is one that I’ve been working on for a couple of years, Aloha Kaua`i by Auntie Maiki Aiu (Lake). I learned my version from Mike Kaawa’s recording and it has become one of my favorites. Naturally it’s even better with Led Kaapana adding his stuff:

I can’t get enough of the jazzy chord sound Led brings to this piece. In several places he’s getting a steel guitar vibe by shaking the strings, other places he sounds like a swing guitarist tickling the changes.

Hope you enjoy these duets!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.