Kamahana

This is part two concluding the Hawaiian Spotlight: Aloha Pumehana Serenaders and featuring the Lei Hulu Trio starring Kimo Alama Keaulana on ukulele and his older compatriots, all in their 60s: his cousin Joe Keaulana, Jr. on acoustic bass, Aunty Pahukoa Morse on rhythm guitar, Clayton Lanihuli Lee on piano and Akira "Kilakila" Ozawa on steel guitar...
Starting with his childhood, the 46-year-old Kimo Alama Keaulana said the music was a natural part of his development. "I grew up in a different time," he said, "without so many distractions that kids have nowadays. I think it was easier then to pick up an ukulele (his band instrument) because I was living in an environment that fosters learning every single day, whether it was chants, strumming the ukulele or drumming.
"Both sides of my family go back several generations of composers, teachers, musicians and dancers. I've been told I'm one of the last people to have been formally taught Hawaiian music."
The bulk of what he was taught, plus much of Lei Hulu's repertoire, came from his teacher, Adeline Nani Maunupau Lee. Lei Hulu, originally a trio, was born on the occasion of Aunty Adeline's last birthday in June 1992. Now grown to, at times, five members, Lei Hulu has also performed at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Queen Emma's Summer Palace for the Daughters of Hawai'i civic group, and at the Bishop Museum, where Keaulana's mele collection is housed in its archives. The collection contains nearly a thousand Hawaiian language songs with translations, explanations and cross references.
While the group has performed infrequently this year, Lei Hulu played before one of their largest audiences at the UH's Center for Hawaiian Studies in March. Among the appreciative 350 or so who attended, Keaulana said, "there was a mix of young people, who didn't realize that these kinds of songs existed, to the older ones in their 70s to 90s who were very happy to hear that these songs haven't all gone away."
His wooden box of songs first belonged to Aunty Alice Namakelua, who was a co-worker of Aunty Adeline's. "From both of them, I learned so much about Hawaiian music," Keaulana said. "The instrumentation of Lei Hulu is all acoustic, with the exception of the steel guitar, which originated with the spread of electrical power in the 1930s.
"There are certain rhythm patterns that hold the origins of Hawaiian music, in ancient chant and dance forms. How 'modern' Hawaiian music is defined was through the introduction of the church hymn (himene), where a wider range of musical notes became included, and technically, it's not in the chant form." (source: "Rare treasures found in mele," Friday, July 27, 2001, Star Bulletin)