Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Here's Hawai'i | September/October 2003

Here's Hawai'i

Ancestral Gifts

Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole honors his ancestors with a new CD that shows the versatility of Hawaiian music

Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole was 14 years old when he sang back-up for his mother, Kekuhi Kanahele, at Carnegie Hall. Immersed in hula, but "not interested in singing," he was, to use his words, a bit unruly and rebellious. In 2001, on a lark, he surprised everyone by taking his chant-trained voice to the stage, entering the Kindy Sproat falsetto competition in Waikoloa. He was 18.

"I planned on singing, then getting off the stage and swimming in the pool," he recalls, sitting on the 'ohi'a floors of the halau (school) in Hilo where the renowned Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation holds its classes. "It was hot. I got off the stage, changed my clothes and was getting something to eat when someone said, 'You have to go on stage.'"

The rest of the conversation was like this:
Kaumakaiwa: "Why? I finished singing."
Friend: "No, I think they called your name."
Kaumakaiwa: "No, they didn't."
Friend: "No, I think you won."
Kaumakaiwa: "Not. That's silly."

Shocked, the young vocalist walked to the stage. He told the judges that surely they had made a mistake and there was still time to reverse the decision. They didn't, and the event changed his life. Last May, the gifted 20-year-old released his first album, entirely in Hawaiian, called Ha'i Kupuna, in honor of his ancestors, who include his great-grandmother, Edith Kanaka'ole, the late hula master of Hilo's Halau o Kekuhi. Except for a chant and a song by her, and a centuries-old chant that was performed for Kamehameha III (reserved for only the most skilled hula practitioners), Kaumakaiwa wrote all the compositions on the CD.

Even given his daunting cultural heritage, the album is very much a personal project. Accompanied by friends and family, with a striking album cover designed by his cousin, Kuha'o Zane, he merges his rigorous hula disciplines with his eclectic interests. He has studied ballet, jazz, modern dance, samba and opera, in which he trained as a countertenor. His mother is a Hoku award-winning vocalist, and his grandmother, Pualani Kanahele, and aunty, Nalani Kanaka'ole, are the hula masters and nationally acclaimed performing artists at the helm of Halau o Kekuhi. The rhythms of traditional hula implements, such as ipu (gourd), pahu (drum) and 'ili 'ili (small stones), add texure and richness to the vocals and guitar, and to the poetry of his lyrics. As his mother says: "He definitely has a style for his time."

"Some people have come to me inspired, saying, 'This is where we can take Hawaiian music, keeping within the confines of tradition, yet giving it a much more worldly sound,'" Kaumakaiwa says. "I keep my music strongly rooted in Hawaiian chantlike vocals, yet try to show how versatile it can be. It pains me when my generation says, oh, Hawaiian music is for old people, or Hawaiian music is a thing of the past. I say, no, we have our own Hawaiian music.

"My greatest teacher would have to be my grandma Pua," he continues. "I'm still learning, and sometimes I get a little ahead of myself. My grandmother encourages that. She says, never, ever doubt yourself, and never doubt your Hawaiianness. The conviction that you have in your na'au (gut)-it's not just a hunch, not just a feeling, it's instinct, it's ancestral memory." When the soul of the past presents itself, says Kaumakaiwa, "I find I'm a vessel for so many things."

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