Keola Beamer
Encyclopedia
Keola Beamer is a Hawaii
an slack-key guitar
player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights
" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music.
and Ahiakumai, 15th century rulers of Hawaii. His great grandmother was Helen Desha Beamer, an influential songwriter and hula dancer, and his mother, Winona Beamer ("Auntie Nona") has been one of the most important figures in the revival of Hawaiian culture since the 1940s: composer, dancer, educator, and coiner of the term "Hawaiiana
," which describes the cultural-studies area she pioneered at the Kamehameha Schools
.
's Dancing Cat
recording project for five releases between 1994 and 2002, emphasizing slack key guitar and Hawaiian lyrics, but by no means abandoning "contemporary" influences.
Beamer has also been influential as a teacher. He started offering lessons in the early 1970s, at a time when most players would only reveal their musical secrets to family members. In 1973 he published First Method for the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar (which was in fact the first instruction book for the form), and in the 1990s he produced several more instruction books and videos and started offering lessons on-line via his website. Since 2001, he has run a series of "cultural immersion" workshops dedicated not only to slack key but other aspects of Hawaiiana. Meanwhile, he has continued to tour and to release CDs on his own 'Ohe Records label. He lives in Lahaina, Hawaii.
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
an slack-key guitar
Slack-key guitar
Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. Its name refers to its characteristic open tunings: the English term is a translation of the Hawaiian kī hōalu, which means "loosen the [tuning] key"...
player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights
Honolulu City Lights
"Honolulu City Lights" is a song composed by Hawaiian singer/songwriter Keola Beamer in the 1970s which opens an album by the same name...
" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music.
Family
Beamer comes from a line of musicians five generations back, and can also trace his roots to the House of KamehamehaHouse of Kamehameha
The House of Kamehameha , or the Kamehameha Dynasty, was the reigning family of the Kingdom of Hawaii between the unification of the islands by Kamehameha I in 1810 and the death of Kamehameha V in 1872...
and Ahiakumai, 15th century rulers of Hawaii. His great grandmother was Helen Desha Beamer, an influential songwriter and hula dancer, and his mother, Winona Beamer ("Auntie Nona") has been one of the most important figures in the revival of Hawaiian culture since the 1940s: composer, dancer, educator, and coiner of the term "Hawaiiana
Hawaiiana
Hawaiiana is a popular term of academia used in reference to history and various aspects of the culture of Hawai'i, currently a region and state of the United States. The term is used especially in reflection of the periods of antiquity and the Kingdom of Hawai'i era. Hawaiiana has become...
," which describes the cultural-studies area she pioneered at the Kamehameha Schools
Kamehameha Schools
Kamehameha Schools , formerly called Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate , is a private co-educational college-preparatory institution that specializes in Native Hawaiian language and cultural education. It is located in Hawaii and operates three campuses: Kapālama , Pukalani , and Keaau...
.
Career
Beamer's debut recording was 1972's solo effort, Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style. The following year, he and his younger brother Kapono started performing as a duo, mixing traditional materials and styles with mainland pop influences. In the seven albums they produced over the next decade, they played an important part in establishing the style that came to be called "Hawaiian contemporary," rooted in Hawaiian language and tradition but open to influences from elsewhere: rock, pop, Latin, folk-revival singer-songwriter, Hollywood soundtrack, and so on. The title song of the brothers' 1978 LP Honolulu City Lights was an enormously popular single in the Hawaiian local market, and in 2004 Honolulu Magazine placed the album first on a list of the fifty most important Hawaiian albums. In the 1980s, the brothers went their separate ways professionally, each producing award-winning records. After several pop-oriented albums, Keola connected with George WinstonGeorge Winston
George Winston is an American pianist who was born in Michigan, and grew up mainly in Miles City, Montana as well as Mississippi and Florida. He attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida and lives in Santa Cruz, California.-Background:...
's Dancing Cat
Dancing Cat Records
Dancing Cat Records was a record label founded in 1983 by pianist George Winston to publish both his music and music in the Hawaiian slack-key guitar style. Its mission later expanded to cover other Hawaiian musicians. The label has a distribution deal, but is not owned by Windham Hill Records or...
recording project for five releases between 1994 and 2002, emphasizing slack key guitar and Hawaiian lyrics, but by no means abandoning "contemporary" influences.
Beamer has also been influential as a teacher. He started offering lessons in the early 1970s, at a time when most players would only reveal their musical secrets to family members. In 1973 he published First Method for the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar (which was in fact the first instruction book for the form), and in the 1990s he produced several more instruction books and videos and started offering lessons on-line via his website. Since 2001, he has run a series of "cultural immersion" workshops dedicated not only to slack key but other aspects of Hawaiiana. Meanwhile, he has continued to tour and to release CDs on his own 'Ohe Records label. He lives in Lahaina, Hawaii.