ENGENE LANCETTE Dennis Kamakahi

Kamakahi to perform
at academy

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By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

If "Wahine 'Ilikea" isn't the most popular song Dennis Kamakahi has written over the past 30 years, it is certainly one of the top five. More than 20 versions have been recorded since Kamakahi introduced it in 1974 as a member of the Sons of Hawai'i. He has since recorded a solo arrangement on one of the albums he did for the Hawaiian Slack-key Guitar Masters series on George Winston's Dancing Cat label, and again earlier this year on the second album by his new group, Na 'Oiwi.

Expect to hear it when he and the band perform at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Theatre tomorrow night.

"Certain songs were meant to be played backed up with a band, and I think 'Wahine 'Ilikea' is one of them," Kamakahi said. "It's a very spiritual song. It's probably the only one I've written standing at the actual spot that I'm writing about, where the waterfall is on Molokai, and actually hearing the melody coming out of the mountain while I was watching the waterfall."

Kamakahi had gone to Molokai with band leader Eddie Kamae to research some of the material they were considering for the Sons' next album, as well as to visit his cousins. As they were driving back to the airport, they glanced up and saw 11 waterfalls falling through the misty cover of clouds. As the mist dissipated, Kamakahi heard the mountain singing to him. "There was the melody and then the words. It just came out." Some songs take work, he adds, but "Wahine 'Ilikea" practically wrote itself.

'Na Mele O Hawai'i' Featuring Dennis Kamakahi and Na 'Oiwi Where: Academy Theater at the Honolulu Academy of Arts When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Admission: $15 Call: 532-8700

The title translates into English as "fair-skinned woman," but Kamakahi, a longtime student in the related disciplines of researching and documenting Hawaiian music, cautions fans of the song not to read too much kaona (concealed meaning) into the lyrics. For instance, he did not write it about any of his "fair-skinned" Molokai cousins or about any other woman in particular. In truth, he says, the lyrics compare the way the white mist parts after a rain to reveal the top of the mountain, to how a woman reveals herself to her lover.

"Wahine 'Ilikea" was one of the first hits Kamakahi wrote during his two decades with the Sons. The group disbanded in 1994, and Kamakahi recorded several albums for Dancing Cat (as a solo artist; as a duo with his son, David; and as a member of Hui Aloha) before forming Na 'Oiwi with David, Mike Kaawa and Jon Yamasato.

"I finally decided I wanted to get back into a band but still use the same concepts I learned through the Sons and pass it down to a younger generation. We're finding out that there's a younger generation out there that really dig the music that I played in the Sons."

Na 'Oiwi began when Kaawa invited Kamakahi to join him for a gig at Shipley's in the Manoa Marketplace. Other musicians starting dropping in until the duo had become an informal quartet, with Shawn "B.B. Shawn" Ishimoto as the fifth member. When Shipley's closed, recording plans were put on hold with three-fourths of a group in place -- Kaawa, Kamakahi and his son. Then Yamasato turned up. He'd been known as a rhythm guitarist in his days with Pure Heart, but turned out to be an accomplished bass player when he joined Na 'Oiwi.

The group gelled, and the group introduced itself in impressive style with "Crossroads" early in 2001. "The Sequel," released just over a year later, was a rare example of a sophomore release being better than the debut.

"It worked out pretty good because David and Jon are close in age, and Mike and I are the dinosaurs, and we cross in generations. I learn from them what the younger generation is thinking, and they learn how to do the traditional Hawaiian," Kamakahi said.

But Kamakahi is still his own man, fashion-wise. On the cover and credits of "The Sequel," Yamasato and David Kamakahi endorse one line of aloha wear, and Kaawa another. Dennis Kamakahi, on the other hand, endorses black, right down to his fingernails.

"My son dresses more conservatively than I do ... and, of course, I've gotten into problems with just wearing all-black. We'll go to something, and people will ask me, 'Can you wear an aloha shirt?' and I say, 'No, I'm gonna come the way I dress.' You've got to feel comfortable."

But when you get right down to it, what matters is the music, and with Na 'Oiwi, Kamakahi has been reviving both the traditions of the Sons of Hawai'i and the Peter Moon Band. As the Sons once explored "pili-grass" music as a Hawaiian counterpart to bluegrass and folk music, now Kamakahi is looking at fresh ideas with his own band.

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