| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| hwnmusiclives |
Posted - 02/14/2011 : 05:47:25 AM
Valentine’s Day is typically a day to fall in love with someone all over again. But I am instead using it to break up with my love of 37 years: Hawaiian music. And in case you think you already know why, you probably can’t begin to imagine why.
The displays of (at best) discourteousness and (at worst) outright hatred I have witnessed in the short few hours since Tia Carrere’s Grammy win yesterday have literally and figuratively broken my heart. Whether it be the comments on Facebook or those right here on taropatch.net, the epithets have only grown nastier and more personal. I have not only lost my faith in music. I have lost my faith in people.
For many of you, Hawaiian music has been a hobby. But for me, it has been my life. For when I had nothing else, it was the only thing that I had to live for. I wonder why I did it now. I wonder why I gave so much of my time, my energy, my soul, my heart to something that did not want me back. That is worse than my worst marriages.
I don’t know why any outsider thinks he has the right or the privilege to play Hawaiian music. And as we have seen from similar debates in the past, it doesn’t matter if the “outsider” is from Los Angeles, Seattle, or New Jersey, and it doesn’t even matter if the outsider is of Hawaiian lineage. The general feeling expressed – not in so many words – by the Hawaiian music community in Hawai’i is that no matter how you define “Hawaiian music,” the farther the artist from Hawai’i, the less Hawaiian their music.
Forget about awards and competitions for a moment. Tia Carrere (and partner Daniel Ho) created a piece of music not for the purpose of winning an award. They went into the studio to try to create art. Whether or not you call it “Hawaiian music,” and whether or not Tia and Daniel are from Los Angeles or they just dropped in from another planet, they landed with a message filled with joy, hope, and love. After all, the title of the work is “Huana Ke Aloha” – “Overflowing With Love.” I would like to say that I can only imagine how Tia or Daniel feel to have brought a musical message intended to be filled with aloha but only to be met with such hatred. I would like to imagine it, but I don’t have to. I am Tia Carrere. In a small way, we are all Tia Carrere. Most of us here at taropatch.net are outsiders with some desire not to play armchair quarterback to Hawaiian music. We want to get in the game. We taught ourselves – or each other – slack key guitar or steel guitar or how to sing a Hawaiian song. Some of us do it passably and others of us more admirably. But it doesn’t matter how good or bad we do it. Hawaiians are predisposed to hate us for our attempt. There is a lot of history to be overcome – history I no longer have the time, energy, or patience to overcome.
For years I was told why I could not perform Hawaiian music – not should not, but could not. I was told that you could not play Hawaiian music unless you had been to Hawai’i. So I began spending two weeks, three weeks, a month at a time there. But that did not change hearts or minds. I was told that you have to speak Hawaiian in order to sing Hawaiian mele with feeling. So I studied the language and the poetry for countless hours. But then the kicker. I was told that – just as only a black man can truly understand the blues – only a Hawaiian could meaningfully perform Hawaiian music. Some went even further and said that only Hawaiians had the right to perform Hawaiian music. And that was when it hit me. After 20 years of trying to be taken seriously performing Hawaiian music, all of these obstacles were random. Some of your favorite Hawaiian music artists (and kumu hula) do not live year-round in Hawai’i, but you have not lost respect for them. Some of your favorite musicians in Hawai’i cannot speak the Hawaiian language, but they sing Hawaiian songs and sell thousands of CDs. I have asked some of them what they are singing about, and some of them – to my amazement – could not tell me. And many of your favorite musicians in Hawai’i are not Hawaiian. They just happen to live in Hawai’i. So all of these obstacles were not real. It was simply that those who did not want me involved in Hawaiian music put up obstacles until they found one that I could not overcome. Even if I studied mele until my eyes bled, even if I were willing to give up my career of 20 years and relocate to Hawai’i, there is still one thing that I could never be: Hawaiian.
You should see the hatred being spewed on Facebook. Some of your favorite artists – your heroes – claim to have been “robbed” of the Grammy, and their fans liken the loss to “Captain Cook all over again.” Is this really how I want to be viewed – as having stolen from Hawaiians what rightfully belongs only to Hawaiians? The recent thread here was about how easy and inexpensive it is to make a CD. Do you want to know why some of us have not made a CD? You witnessed it yesterday. It doesn’t matter whether or not we choose to compete for an arbitrary prize. It is not that they do not want us to win. It’s that they do not want us in the game. I am apparently good enough to sing two songs at the Waikiki Marriott on a Thursday night, but I suspect now that when I get on the plane to come home to New Jersey, I get mocked, taunted, and jeered as badly as they do Tia and Daniel. Have you ever wondered if they laugh at you when you get on the plane to go home after Aloha Music Camp, or even when you get in your car to go home after the local visit from your favorite kumu hula?
So if you see Tia as I do – as one of us – then this is what they do to her… what they do to us. But what about what we do to each other? What was written here on taropatch.net yesterday by the mainland community was as disrespectful as what I read on Facebook from the Hawaiian community. Who are we to judge even as others are judging us? Are your attempts at making Hawaiian music a joke? If not, why would you dare mock others? But the saddest part about what happened here on taropatch.net is not merely that we are attacking someone like us. We are attacking one of us. After all, when you don’t know if “onaona” should be pronounced “o-nah-o-nah” or “o-now-nah,” somebody invariably says, “Ask Amy Stillman.” When someone wants to know the words to a Hawaiian song they heard on a 78rpm record from the 1920s, they say, “I bet Amy Stillman would know” And yet even as you respect and trust a fellow taropatch.net member to answer your questions honestly and thoroughly, you do not respect or trust her enough to produce an album worthy of a Grammy Award? There was never such a lack of aloha as displayed by members of the taropatch.net community toward one of its own. And if you could turn such a critical eye to someone as well trained, well respected, and scholarly as Dr. Amy Ku’uleialoha Stillman, I wonder what you say about each other? It is one thing not to enjoy Tia and Daniel’s CD and to have our own personal reasons for this. It is another to say that their work does not deserve accolades when none of us are as well trained, well respected, or scholarly as the producer of the work. The NARAS voting block may not be well versed in what makes Hawaiian music Hawaiian. But as fans of and performers of Hawaiian music (or, at least, what we like to think is Hawaiian music), we should know a little better. You may not like Tia’s voice, but you cannot dispute that her use of the Hawaiian language is pristine. Who do you suppose is the orthographical expert on a Tia Carrere recording? Who do you suppose taught Tia to correctly pronounce the words that came from her pen? Go ahead and mock your beloved taropatch.net auntie. And then go ask her for some more free advice on how to be and sound more Hawaiian. What is the Hawaiian word for “hypocrite?”
So if the Hawaiians revile the mainland musicians who perform Hawaiian music, and if the mainland musicians who perform Hawaiian music revile each other, what is left to say? I want no part of this anymore, and I wish I could get back the 37 years I gave to Hawaiian music and give them to something truly worth my time. It might be easy and inexpensive to make a CD, but I would never do it now and let the community of musicians who claim to love Hawaiian music and the people who make Hawaiian music trash me as they have trashed each other. This is not what music is supposed to be about, and it is certainly not what humanity is supposed to be about.
Huana ke aloha,
Bill
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Admin |
Posted - 04/15/2011 : 12:37:36 AM
Nice job, Bill! |
| wcerto |
Posted - 04/14/2011 : 11:27:05 PM
Very fine. |
| thumbstruck |
Posted - 04/14/2011 : 1:02:36 PM
Too good! |
| markwitz |
Posted - 04/14/2011 : 10:22:57 AM
To Bill Wynne, my dear friend. I am delighted to see that your love affair with Hawaiian Music is not over. I really never had any doubt about that.
All the very best to you.
"Until next time. Keep aloha in your hearts. And take Hawaiian Music wherever you go"--Bill Wynne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTPgxq-i5GM |
| Admin |
Posted - 03/28/2011 : 05:30:01 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Bill Campbell
Until.... I discovered this website, through the invitation of Craig Patchett. I began to post comments that I thought to be enlightening, informative comments, like you can't always be sure that the tuning given in the CD liner notes is accurate (even on one of the songs on my own CD), but the barrage of vitriol and bitterness in the comments of those who responded to my posts was overwhelming. I then realized that many people on this board aren't really happy about hearing about anyone else's successes. So, I stopped posting. Well, I did send tablature for several Christmas carols a few years ago, and you can check the succeeding comments to find out how many voiced appreciation for any of them. Not very many.
...
I was sitting at the computer a while ago, looking through old Bookmarks, and I came across this one, so I decided to 'look in'. If I have offended anyone, I am sorry.
Hi Bill,
I am glad that Taropatch.net is still in your bookmarks and that you looked in.
No offense taken, although it is difficult for me to maintain an objective opinion about the forum. Overall, from my recollection and looking back at old posts, I thought the discussions were constructive and interesting. I am not sure - can someone please point me to the "vitriol and bitterness?" As I said, I am biased but need help because I am not seeing it.
BTW, Bill, I always appreciated your efforts and generosity in sharing Christmas tabs. It always put me in the holiday spirit. |
| noeau |
Posted - 03/27/2011 : 5:40:28 PM
E BC. I may have downloaded your tabs and if I did not say it then I say it now. Thank you. |
| Bill Campbell |
Posted - 03/27/2011 : 3:32:24 PM
I think the thrust of the original post on this thread was not about 'playing slack key guitar' but rather about 'having one's slack key guitar playing accepted', by whomever. I spent a lot of time on Kauai. I learned to play Hawaiian slack key guitar by listening to every Dancing Cat CD available at the time, taking weekly lessons from Hal Kinnaman, and practicing all day long every day (between beers, whale watching and trips to the beach). I was encouraged by many of my Hawaiian musician friends to make a slack key CD. I did that. I sent preview copies to many people whose judgment I trusted, including George Winston, Eddie Kamae, and Ozzie Kotani. They all were very encouraging, approving, and praising of my music, and wishing me the best. So, after I made the CD, I came to Kauai in 2002 to promote it, and I had arranged to have lots of gigs during that period, including interviews with Cindy Combs and others on radio. But, throughout all the gigs, even though I met many people from all parts of the world, and many people attended my performances (and bought CDs), I couldn't help but notice the absence of EVERYONE who I thought to be my friends. Not even my guru Hal Kinnaman could find the time to come to even one of my performances. I began to wonder why. But, I never thought that it might be because of envy, jealousy, or something similar.
Until.... I discovered this website, through the invitation of Craig Patchett. I began to post comments that I thought to be enlightening, informative comments, like you can't always be sure that the tuning given in the CD liner notes is accurate (even on one of the songs on my own CD), but the barrage of vitriol and bitterness in the comments of those who responded to my posts was overwhelming. I then realized that many people on this board aren't really happy about hearing about anyone else's successes. So, I stopped posting. Well, I did send tablature for several Christmas carols a few years ago, and you can check the succeeding comments to find out how many voiced appreciation for any of them. Not very many.
However, unlike Bill, I have not stopped playing slack key guitar. In fact, I still do it for money. I enjoy playing, and I enjoy the money and the impact that my music seems to make on my audiences. But, like Bill, I have stopped sharing any of that with Taropatch.net, because I detected the same animosity that Bill so eloquently described in the original post, and I don't like to offend folks, get their anger up, or engage in confrontational discussions.
So, Bill. Don't quit playing slack key guitar. Just stop making posts on this board or trying to play the music in venues where you feel that it isn't wanted. Trust me, there any too many places where your music will be enjoyed for you to worry about the ones that make you feel the way you felt at the time you posted your comment.
I was sitting at the computer a while ago, looking through old Bookmarks, and I came across this one, so I decided to 'look in'. If I have offended anyone, I am sorry. |
| slipry1 |
Posted - 03/10/2011 : 10:00:30 AM
Right on, as usual, Gary! When I was playing bass in a country band in LA in the 70's, a drunk came up and said to the lead guitarist "I wish I could play like you". My pal said "No you don't!", and I got ready for a beef, but he added, "What you want is for the Blue Fairy to come down, and **ding** make you a guitaist. I was a little, fat, loudmouthed kid with no friends who sat in his bedroom and played guitar [he had grown out of that condition by then] because I had no friends." The drunk said, "You're right!", and walked away. So - I agree with Kalai: there's a Goddess who comes to some of us and plants the spark in our heads. This can happen any time in your life. I really enjoy watching a kid with "the spark". They can't pass an instrument without picking it up and trying it. |
| Retro |
Posted - 03/10/2011 : 08:23:54 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Falsetto2002
...and share my loaned gift.
There's a point that should ring true with each and every one of us fortunate enough to have been lent a piece of that gift. Thanks, Kalei. |
| Falsetto2002 |
Posted - 03/09/2011 : 10:32:15 PM
Good debate.
But as for me, I went through the phase of I no going play Hawaiian music anymore. When I did not play, I was miserable and I knew that this GODDESS given talent was going to waist. If I did not use it to spread the aloha and touch as many as I could with Hawaiian music, then it could be easily taken away.
Hawaiian music is a part of me and I am energized and happy when I make music for all. Though winning a Grammy would be awesome and increase CD sales, but more important is the ability to make music and share my loaned gift. Its about Hawaii and bringing more people to the islands through mele. If they travel, yay for us and tourist dollars.
My tut said when she was alive, "if you no get now, maybe you getem later." "For its in the timing of the universe and Akua." "Not ours...hers/his." That's what she would say.
So, with this said; Bill, I send you much aloha on your temporary state of execution (not making music). Welcome back when you are ready to kani again.
Me kealoha pumehana
me...lol |
| Doug Fitch |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 9:40:49 PM
One last quip: While I am strongly dedicated to perpetuating older traditional forms of kiho'alu I also love new creative expression and song writing is a passion of mine. Isn't it interesting that I never hear anyone complain about how Iz played John Denver's gigantic international hit "Country Roads". Iz utterly altered the lyrics! As a native Coloradoan now in Hawai'i, I feel kinda of proud of both of those artists as a result! (so there... nah nah nah nah doo-doo!) Aloha, Doug |
| Doug Fitch |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 9:29:28 PM
Anyone who thinks its foolish for a Haole to play slack should take that issue up with my teachers past and present. Also, the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts who pays for my lessons these past couple of years. I have had great privileges and been shafted plenty. Life is never fair so all we can do is just learn to deal with it.
We (me included!) need to remember that we can take joy in simply savoring life, enjoying music, honoring the past and preserving those arts, while venturing into new creative outlets. Mostly, we must strive to enjoy one another. Life is short. |
| Retro |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 6:42:40 PM
Because it's easier to object than to be objective.
(That's one of my favorite Koryisms, btw.) |
| thumbstruck |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 4:38:37 PM
Eh, Chris, well said. Good people are all over. Why is "common sense" so uncommon? |
| ypochris |
Posted - 03/04/2011 : 11:59:20 AM
I come late to this discussion, and not to address the Grammys, but rather what I see as the heart of the original post.
I came to Hawai'i when I was fourteen, moving to what is arguably the heart of traditional Hawai'i, Waipi'o Valley. I experienced the full spectrum of treatment any haole could receive, from being adopted as a hanai son by Jackie Kaholoa'a and spending much time learning cultural wisdom from my neighbor Robert Kahele, to having someone spewing spittle into my face screaming "It's been a long time since I killed me one f***ing haole"; getting beat up in a park on the other side of the island just because I was a haole by teenagers who didn't even realize I was their neighbor and had lived in their father's house, sharing a luau there with them; and having random strangers swinging a baseball bat at my head from a speeding car, luckily just nicking an ear as I ducked.
But, I just lived my life, doing the things that drew me, moving from the subsistance living Jackie taught me to taro farming. Gradually neighbors became friends, and even enemies became friends. Always, though, excpt from some of the Hawaiian kupuna, I felt a barrier due to the fact that I was seen as haole. Eventually I came to realize that this reflected these people's own insecurity- it seemed that the pure Hawaiians always accepted me for who I was, the part Hawaiians came to accept me, and those with no Hawaiian blood always saw me as an invader, trying to be more Hawaiian than me because their skin was browner.
This is how I saw it, anyway, when after thirty years I moved to the mainland so my wife could attend medical school. That is when I came to realize how much aloha Hawai'i really had. Over here, the blacks don't like me because I'm white; the Latinos don't like you because you are white; the Native Americans don't like me because I look white, even though I was raised as a Native American, the whites don't like me because I'm not a Christian or because I don't dress like they do or because I choose to drive a ratty car or because I am a landlord or because I'm an environmentalist or because I hunt or because I'm not Republican or because I support property rights or because I'm a Native American, depending on how they see you. And generally, they never know who I am at all, because they don't look up, don't look you in the eye, never greet a stranger, don't want to know their neighbors, and are all only interested in how much money they can make so I wouldn't want to meet them anyway.
Let me tell you, I'd take the overt racism of Hawai'i over the subtle predjudice here any day. In Hawai'i the Hawaiians and Samoans and Japanese and Haoles and Portugese and Phillipinos and everyone else all make fun of each other, then share foods and culture and language before marrying each other. It's not at all bad, and so much better than it was in the early '70s when I came!
So play on, and ignore the haters. Who cares what they think? Good people are everywhere in Hawai'i. |
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