Steel guitar virtuoso to play Mother's Day at Jazz Fest

Hawaiian musician Henry K. Allen has played with the best

NAPILI, Maui » Henry K. Allen plucks a few strings on his steel guitar and then runs a metal finger bar to extend the melody in his living room filled with photographs of jazz musicians such as George Benson and himself.

"How to hold the bar is very important," he said. "It takes years and years to play and write for the instrument."

Allen, 72, one of the most respected steel guitar players in an art form that resonates worldwide as a signature Hawaiian sound, will be among a host of musicians and entertainers performing on Mother's Day at the Four Seasons Resort Ballroom on the Big Island, as part of the finale to the Hamakua Jazz Festival on Sunday. The proceeds will go to benefit children's music education on the Big Island.

Allen is holding a free music clinic Monday at Honokaa High School on the Big Island.

Festival artistic director David Pettus said Allen is high on the list of great Hawaiian jazz musicians and is a master on the steel guitar, jazz guitar and ukulele.

"He's a musician's musician," Pettus said. "It'll be a chance for a lot of people on the Big Island to catch him."

Allen has played with the late legendary Hawaiian crooner Alfred Apaka and jazz entertainers such as Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Rene Paulo, Gabe Baltazar and George Benson. His birdcalls accompanied the "exotica" music of Martin Denny in the 1950s.

"He can play with the best," said Howard Rumsey, founder and owner of the renowned Lighthouse jazz spot in Southern California.

Allen said he learned how to play the steel guitar at age 10 from his uncle Albert Mersberg, whose grandfather was William Mersberg, the conductor of King Kamehameha III's royal band, the group that eventually became known as the Royal Hawaiian Band.

Allen said when he was growing up, he could not find music books on playing Hawaiian songs, so in his later adult years he decided to write his own, including a collection of songs for ukulele and steel guitar.

He has produced five albums and composed 33 original songs.

His music book on how to play the Hawaiian steel guitar has received high praise from island artists, including the late Hawaii musicians union President Milton Carter Jr., who called it "very important" and "comprehensive."

Allen has introduced hundreds of students to music through playing the ukulele and steel guitar at a number of rural elementary schools in such districts as Pahoa and Puna on the Big Island and Hana on Maui.

"I tell them when you go to school, you have to learn how to read and write," he said, "and when you play music you have to learn to read and write."