Fans of George Winston's piano music can lay aside their expectations and prepare to listen to him and his Martin D-35 guitar tonight in one of his annual summer concerts.
Adding Montana touch
to Hawaiian soundBy Gary C. W. Chun
gchun@starbulltin.comIt's not that's he's abandoned the keyboard totally. It just means he wants to express himself on an instrument that reflects his deep abiding love for Hawaiian slack-key.
And don't expect him to play strictly in the ki ho'alu style. Winston is still a Montana man at heart, and his music still hearkens back to his rural roots, a music of Americana a little more starkly expressed. Slack-key music just adds a little more color to his sonic palette. It's a traditional music that he's adapted to his repertoire.
Speaking by phone from the Big Island on Tuesday, Winston said, "I found Hawaiian slack-key music and have lived with it for 25 years. During that time, I've learned the language by putting in the time and discipline.
"But because I'm from Montana, I still go back to things American, like some of what I do on guitar are adaptations of old-time fiddle tunes, or musical impressions of Montana in a minor key. There's also a lit of bit of Irish that supplements my guitar playing.
"The guitar is what I do after the piano," he said. "I think of the piano as a disciplined instrument, clunky, difficult to move from concert venue to concert venue. It's like the big 'dog' to the 'cat' of a guitar, a yin and yang sort of thing. I admit I'm wired differently than other musicians."
As opposed to his piano concerts, his concerts with guitar are spontaneous. "There's no set list and I basically wing it," he said.
He fancies himself more as a musical interpreter, drawing on influences as varied as Dennis Kamakahi, Duke Ellington, The Doors and Queen Liliu'okalani.
"Local musicians here have an advantage because they've had to interact with people who came here for various reasons from other countries with their own musical cultures," he said. "While Hawaiian music is deeply rooted in tradition, other musical DNA from abroad has been added to the mix.
"What I've done with my guitar music is 'Montana-ize' Hawaiian music."
Winston has certainly helped spread his love and appreciation for ki ho'alu with his recordings of Kamakahi, Raymond Kane, Ledward Kaapana, Keola Beamer, Bla and Cyril Pahinui, George Kuo and George Kahumoku on his nationally distributed Dancing Cat label.
"Hawaiian slack-key guitar music was, for me, the least known but equally wonderful traditional music I ever heard. When I first heard Gabby Pahinui and Keola Beamer in 1974, I thought it perfectly expressed what I felt for Montana.
"I feel really lucky that all these guitarists I've recorded are my influences. It's been a labor of love, and I got to be the librarian for this ongoing project.
"I was told by one of them that what the white guys are good at is documenting things in a linear and scientific manner! And I know it wasn't meant as a racial thing as much as in the mainland environment I was brought up in."
To Winston, it's no accident that Montana, Hawaii and his original love of New Orleans stride piano have impacted him as such.
"The other wellspring of traditional music, besides Hawaiian slack-key, is the big New Orleans piano tradition. And they both have the same kind of endearing, venerable musician in Gabby Pahinui and Professor Longhair.
"It's an amazing coincidence but one that makes perfect sense."
Where: Honolulu Academy of Arts Theatre, 900 S. Beretania St. George Winston
solo guitar concert
When: 7:30 p.m. today
Admission: $20
Information: 532-8700
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