NahenaheNet Essays
Aloha mai kakou....alt.music.hawaiian is a wonderful place where many of us Hawaiian music fans gather. We share news of the latest releases in Hawaiian music, who's playing where and who to look out for in the future. It's a great place to kill time and enjoy friends. Occassionally we getting into we get into little skirmishes, but all in all everybody has a great time in sharing our common passion.
An old flame-fest seems to have reared its ugly head again in a.m.h. between two individuals, who seem to be on the opposite side of an issue: is Willie K. a great guitarist? It is interesting because it poses a neat topic for discussion, it is disturbing because the discussion often turns from the topic into a debate of each participants qualification to define greatness. Actually the discussion makes me think of my favorite, all-time bumper sticker:
People who think they know it all are a pain in the ass for those of us who really do.
I don't claim to know it all, but believe I have enough experience in the music industry to lend my two cents to the debate.
How do you measure greatness in a musician? Is it a level of technical expertise or dexterity? Does the fastest guitarist get the title? Of course not. Some people think that some rock and jazz musicians are simply obsessed with speed, but there are pieces of classical music that require a dexterity unknown to any heavy metal guitarist I can think of (with apologies to Eddie Van Halen).
OK, so we've elminated chops. Whats next? Innovation? One of the most difficult hurdles that musicians aspiring to greatness must overcome is to define their own voice. But are there truly unique voices in music these days, in any genre? Very few that I can think of. Musicians stand on the shoulders of those that came before. Is Eric Clapton a great guitarist? Some people in the 60s thought he was God, apparently, they wrote it on walls all over England and even here in the US. Clapton's playing is an amalgamation of the licks and styles of dozens of blues guitarists he listened to over the years, from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters, B.B., Freddie and Albert King, and others. Clapton is not an innovator, so can he be great, much less God?
Was Gabby Pahinui great? Well, his voice sounded like he gargled with sandpaper, his guitar wasn't always in tune, and his pronunciation of Hawaiian lyrics (one of my pet peeves) was questionable to say the least. But if you ask any hard core Hawaiian music fan to list the greatest musicians and singers in the history of Hawaiian music, Gabby's name is at the top of the list. Challenge them on it and you'll probably find yourself wearing the wrong end of an empty beer bottle.
Greatness a spirit, an essense that transcends what is playing or sung. When you meet a truly great musician, you feel something, even if they are not playing anything and you don't even know they are a musician. There is an aura that betrays their talent, they couldn't hide it if they tried. If we could define it we could probably also bottle it and make millions.
One day a few years ago, while I was attending a music school in LA, I went to school early, and entered one of the many practice rooms there to warm up and run through some music before heading off to class. I entered the room, closed the door, and felt a chill. There was something powerful in that room. I turned around, and sitting in a chair at the far end of the room, was jazz guitar legend Joe Pass. He was doing a clinic a little later in the day, and had sought refuge in that same room I did. I froze, but Joe smiled when he saw that I was wearing an archtop guitar, and not a Stratocaster like 90% of the other students at the school. He invited me to sit and play with him, and I felt like I was having an audience with the Lord Almighty. I will take that feeling with me to my grave.
What is my point? The point is I get that same feeling, those same willies (pun intended) when I hear Willie K. play and sing. You can argue about his chops, or music selection, or anything else, but the man's talent is undeniable. He exudes music more than anyone I have encountered who is involved in Hawaiian music. To see Willie at his best is to experience something incredibly special that comes along once in a generation. I know Willie personally, have seen him perform live many times, and engineered a recording session that he played on in the mid-80s, where he was helping a friend record an original heavy metal tune (this was years before his debut album). Yes, Willie screams at metal, too, but of course few of you have probably seen that side of him. And, while I was programming a drum loop for the song, Willie stepped up to the mic and started singing a classic Temptations song a capella in a way that would make you think he was raised on the streets of Detroit. I had to stop, listen, and wait until he finished before continuing my work. Amazing.
Perhaps Willie's curse is that he does too damn many things too well, and those of us who wish we could play one style of music as well as he plays them all are perhaps a little bit jealous. I personally believe that if he so chose, he could record an album that would rank among the finest in the history of Hawaiian music. He could also record a rock album that would rank with the finest of that genre. But Willie chooses to be Willie, which means to just play the music that comes straight from his heart, regardless of stylistic boundaries. There lies his greatness. It's all music, no matter what you call it, and Willie intuitively knows that.
I will not bore you with a list of people I have worked with or seen that qualifies me to rate any musician as "great". I'll just say that I've sat close enough to Willie while he's playing to see the dirt under his fingernails, and can say the same for a few of the finest guitarists of the past 20 or so years. Willie does indeed deserve to be counted among them.
'O au me ka 'oia'i'o,
Keola
Feedback to keola@maui.com.