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EKK POWERS ON W/ KU AND SISTAH!

After a long day of hauling coconuts and storm debri to the dump, I was ready for a relaxing evening of music by Sistah Robi and Ku Kahakalau.

As I loaded up my van with EKK stuff and headed on to Island School, I picked up a phone message that Island School & KCC lost power. I called my brother at KCC and he said the electricity was on, so I rolled happily on.

As I approached Island school I saw workmen pulling conduits out of holes in the ground…uh…oh…maybe trouble. As I was hanging the EKK banner onto the tree, my head greeter Phil was driving out. “There’s no power!” He said he’d check with the electrical workers so I said I’ll check with the KCC shop if they know of any space on campus.

I checked every possible lead at KCC but with no one to authorize the use of any space, I drove back to Island School and stopped to ask the electrical workers if the light would come on soon. “Not for three hours…I think they’re going to relocate” they replied.

Confused what they meant by “relocate”, I continued on to Island School and saw a line of cars drive out and head toward the back of the college. “Hey! Where are you going?” “I don’t know …they said to just follow the car!” Next car snakes by…”Where are you guys going?” “I think we’re going to the automotive shop?” “Who said to go there?” I questioned. “They said Carol said to go there!”

“I did?”

I think there must be some miscommunication…I don’t remember telling anyone to go to the automotive shop. It was like watching those high school kids driving their designer low riders around and around the shopping center parking lot….every one following the leader but no one knew where they were going. (I found out the next day that cars went to the automotive, welding, machine and carpentry shops looking for EKK)

I was wracking my brain checking off possible places that we could relocate to…hotel, convention hall, the tent at Kilohana, Kukui Grove…as more and more cars arrived at the Island School parking lot.

Aha! I have Pohaku’s number on my cell, so I called him and asked if the cafeteria at Chiefess K School was available. He was already in Kapa’a but he turned around and drove back to Lihu’e to see if the space was available. So we sent someone to call back the cars at the automotive shop and told the ever-increasing cars filling up the parking lot to sit tight…don’t go anywhere.

In the meantime, I called Kukui Grove Center in case Chiefess is taken and the security guard told me he has to call his supervisor. The next incoming call was Sistah Robi, “We’re stuck in traffic but we’re almost there!” “No need hurry…no electricity here so we are just waiting for a call to see if we have another space.”

Message on my phone said, “Call me!” It’s Pohaku and the cafeteria was available so we tell everyone to drive down the highway to the next light and turn right into Chiefess School. A long, long, long line of cars snake slowly out to the traffic lights looking like an automotive centipede.

The Freeman guard stationed herself at the college entrance so the late cars don’t have to drive all the way in to Island School where a huge electrical rig was now taking up the whole road.

In less than 15 minutes everyone is sitting in the beautiful brightly lit cafeteria and Sistah and Ku are on stage doing sound checks. Can’t believe how organized this group is … even those there for the first time. At worst we lost our ukulele hour, but I never heard a single word of complaint. Thanks heavens for Pohaku Nishimitsu -- Principal, Hawaiian Studies Resource, Kumu Hula…and a great guy!

And then the music began!

The look of joy on Robi’s face when Kekai Chock and Dennis Chun joined them on stage clearly showed her appreciation to be backed up by two of Kaua’i’s talented musicians.

Songs written by Ku and sung by Sistah Robi are well known and much loved in Hawai’I so the audience participation came in loud and clear after Ku and Sistah shared the background, the inspiration and the mana’o of the songs -- “ Pi’I Mai Ka Nalu”, “Kaua’i Nani La”, “Keiki O Ka Aina”, and “Makua” (composed by Robi)

Ku shared the inspiration behind her well-known surf’s up song, “Pi’i Mai Ka Nalu”, based on the traditional phrase that explained why no one was around working in the villages when the surf was up. Even when they were kids, there were physical “indicators” that could be read by all about the condition of the surf that day, making it unnecessary for everyone to walk miles down to the ocean lugging their surfboard.

Watching the playful and laughter-filled banter between older sister Ku and younger sister Robi, one could get a clear sense of how much fun it was to live in their household where music was part of their daily fare. Ku, being the elder, played the guitar while little sistah Robi played the harmonica and shook the tambourine. A jazz musician Hawaiian Dad married to a German Mom took their young family to live in Germany where opportunities for a musician were more plentiful than in Hawaii. Ku was born in Hawaii and Robi was born in Germany where they lived until she was eighteen when they moved back to Hawaii. While households in Germany were neat and orderly, the Kahakalau household was very Hawaiian with musicians crashing for the night and stepping among sleeping bodies on the floor was a regular thing.

A Tita in her heart who realized she was finally home in the islands, Robi got a job in Waikiki where she had to wear what she calls her “pink pineapple outfit” which she detested and ripped off as soon she got home to Makaha. German was her first language so as she learned her Hawaiian songs, she had to make sure she understood the meanings, especially if it was a “kolohe” (rascal) song. Knowing the meaning of what you are singing is very important and helps you to learn the song faster.

Ku says that Robi was the flowery artsy type so she took to the music scene in Waikiki but she moved right away to the big island to be close to the taro patches where she still works today as a highly respected champion of educating children of Hawaiian ancestry in the traditional language, skills and experiences of their predecessors.

Ku talked about her felt books project which got started when she was “hapai” with her child and was asked to work along with the pregnant teens who had an assignment making felt book. Felt books were more the type of thing that artsy Robi would do, not her, but she went along and started making felt books which today is incorporated into her work in the Charter Schools. She took it beyond the activity itself into making it a vehicle for education to perpetuate the traditional stories of the hula dramas with characters such as “Nanaue” (shark), “Pua Lena Lena” and the conch shell, “Umi” and his battles, and the love triangle of Pele, Lohi'au, and Hi’iaka. Out of this came the song “Keiki O Ka Aina” which Ku said was meant for folks to write their own stories and “haku” (weave) it into the song, just keeping the chorus intact.

“Kaua’i Nani La” was written about Kaua’i and its people. Kaua’i has such an admirable spirit of “how many people like to live but cannot.” This song is a tribute to this indestructible spirit that is Kaua’i.

“Makua” composed by Robi is about an awesome place where you could hear the dolphins diving in Makua Bay, where the ocean is silver with “oio” and the kupuna are delighted with eating “lomi oio” around campfires and barbecues, where there is no TV, only AM radio. Ku’s husband’s great grandfather comes from Makua. It’s one of the few places left where “olona”, the strongest natural fiber for making ropes can be found.

It is the kind of place where words would just fall into your lap and this is how this song came to be. Robi said if she wrote the music, it would have only the 3 chords that she knows, but her boyfriend at the time was much more musically versatile and helped her with the music. Learning to sing “Makua” from Robi herself comes close to perhaps visiting the place; the song is enchanting.

Ku added that she calls the people in Makua when Robi is going to visit and everybody in town turns out. Today, unfortunately, Makua is one the few places that the military still uses for bombing and cement barricades keep the dolphins from entering Makua Bay.

Ku wanted to share “He Polani Makamae” as it is a song with many different levels of meanings. While it is a love story of two people in the night doing what they do which is akin to a “flash in the heaven”, it is also another interpretation of her daughter’s name Polani Makamae or heavenly night. It also means NEAT and her daughter lives up to that interpretation of her name.

“He Polani Makamae” gave Kekai Chock a chance to show off his wonderful guitar playing in the musical interlude or “Pa’ani”…always a treat to hear Kekai play.

Waipio Valley, which is shaped like a hand with its mountains and valleys, is one of Ku’s passion and where her Charter Schools education in takes place in the taro fields classroom. She shares the meaning of “Mala’e" as a “loi” or taro field that does not have a single blade of weed…her husband’s claim to fame, which is also a metaphor for “no obstruction in our relationship”. So she happily lays in the hammock with her two children while he’s keeping the “loi” free of weeds.

On the serious side, “Kawaiolu O Waipio” speaks of the life giving waters that flow through the “awae” that became overgrown with weeds during the period of time when everything Hawaiian was “less than others”, so by opening up the “awae” and freeing them of weeds, they are metaphorically opening up the opportunity for the students to learn in a curriculum where the main ingredient is ALOHA.

Sistah shared her stories of finding her way as a performer. She greatly admired the Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau and wanted them to sing a song with her but hesitated because so many musical greats had performed with them. She finally got up enough nerve to approach their manager. The Sons agreed to a trade if she would ask Ku to compose a song for them. So excited and not even consulting with Ku, she quickly replied “No problem…it’s a done deal!” – she would get Ku to write a song for them. The situation got testy when Ku wrote two songs and mistakenly gave the song that Robi had wanted for herself to the Sons. Robi was adamant and wanted “her song” for herself and told the Sons that the other song was actually written for them. When the songs were performed, even the Sons agreed that that was how it was meant to be; that they each got the right song.

Today Sistah Robi often tours with the Makaha Sons and was most recently performing with them at the Prince Kuhio Festival Outrigger Club fundraiser. They will also be on the program for Pu’uwai Aloha, a special “by invitation only” Concert for Kaua’i army of volunteers.

Electricity might have failed us but EKK powered on with Ku and Sistah Robi, Kekai and Dennis providing a musically lively evening filled with singing and stories about their musical inspirations and passions. “Hawaii Aloha” and a mahalo chant by young Ka’ohu Chandler brings the evening to a close for the nearly 200 folks present.

Monday, April 17, will feature Kenny Rapozo for the ukulele hour and outstanding falsetto artist Nick Castillo with his friends Nalani Duarte and guitarist Randall Giminez. Please let there be LIGHT!

Monday, April 24, is our final EKK 2006 Monday with slack key legend and prolific Hawaiian music composer Dennis Kamakahi, ukulele vituouso David Kamakahi and singer/writer/artist/producer Shane August in their new mega CD release together. <http://www.shaneaugust.com/

Carol Yotsuda

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