Masters of Hawaiian Music: George Kahumoku Jr, Led Kaapana, Jeff Peterson

George Kahumoku Jr. & Masters of Hawaiian Music
“Kahumoku was an affable raconteur, mixing his dialogue with passionate renderings of material…” 
–LA Times
“…The vocals and slack-key wizardry of George Kahumoku … is as cleansing as a Sunday drive through God’s country.” — The Honolulu Advertiser
“… a master with the acoustic guitar. His music is played from his heart and soul through the very tips of his fingers.” www.amzmusiczine.com Four-time Grammy-winner, master slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr., known as “Hawai‘i’s Renaissance Man”, is also a multiple Na Hōkū Hanohano (Hawaiian Grammy) Award winner, most recently for Best Christmas CD in 2017.
He is also a vocalist, storyteller, songwriter & author, world-traveling performer, as well as a teacher, –he founded the Hawaiian Music Institute at University of Hawai’i-Maui College –artist and sculptor, farmer, and chef (his farm to table). He is the producer and star of the long-running, weekly Slack Key Show® on Maui, which features the best of Hawaiian slack key and other leading music artists, now in its second decade. 
Masters of Hawaiian Music: George tours solo or with the finest artists from his renowned Slack Key Show®, to share the delightful experience of kī-hō‘alu (slack key guitar) – the distinctly Hawaiian style of open tunings. Shows feature good music and good humor, Hawaiian cultural knowledge, and the down-home spirit of the islands. 

Masters of Hawaiian Music features three of the most popular musicians from Maui’s renowned “Slack Key Show,” sharing Hawai‘i’s unique “slack key” –- open tuning -- guitar styles that traces its roots to 19th-Century paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) culture. Growing up in rural Hawai’i, slack key masters George Kahumoku, Jr., Led Kaapana, and Jeff Peterson were immersed from childhood in Hawaiian music and culture that brought family together with entertainment, learning, and joy. All are multiple Na Hōkū Hanohano (Hawaiian “Grammy”) Award winners. Four-time Grammy winner Kahumoku is known as “Hawai‘i’s Renaissance Man”—he’s a, vocalist, storyteller, songwriter, author, teacher, sculptor, farmer, and chef. Kaapana is a National Heritage Fellow, unsurpassed in his guitar picking style, and one of Hawai’i’s most influential musicians for decades. Peterson is a star of the current generation enlivening slack key traditions, known for his versatility from slack key to classical, jazz to film soundtracks.

GEORGE KAHUMOKU JR. lives on Maui with his wife Nancy, maintaining their 3-acre farm, growing fruit and vegetables, dry-land taro (for his famous home-made poi) and tending goats, chickens, and ducks. For nearly 20 years of his famed weekly Slack Key Show on Maui, which produced 4 Grammy-winning CDs. He has won multiple Na Hoku Awards. He founded the Hawaiian Music Institute at University of Hawai‘i-Maui College to preserve the legacy of Hawaiian music and prepare the next generation for music careers. A renowned story-teller, George collaborated on 2 books with long-time friend Paul Konwiser to capture his hilarious, entertaining on-stage stories. This project led to his film biography Seeds of Aloha. For the over 20 years, George Kahumoku Jr.’s Annual Maui Slack Key Guitar and ‘Ukulele Workshop creates one of the great musical learning experiences in the Islands, and embodies George's belief in sharing, celebrating, and perpetuating the unique music and culture of Hawai‘i. He was honored with HARA’s Lifetime Achievement Award

LED KAAPANA grew up in a family of musicians in Kalapana, in the southernmost district of Hawaii Island. His teachers included his mother, Mama Tina Kaapana, from whom he learned to sing leo ki'eki'e (Hawaiian falsetto singing), and his uncle, Fred Punahoa. "We didn't have electricity, no television, not even much radio," says Kaapana. "So we entertained ourselves. You could go to any house and everybody was playing music." Throughout his career, Led has dedicated himself to perpetuating the traditional style and repertoire of his home, beginning in his teens with the group Hui ‘Ohana which produced 14 best-selling albums and became a key figure in the resurgence of traditional Hawaiian culture and music during the 1970s. Launching a solo career in 1983, Kaapana has continued to garner acclaim for his improvisational melodies and falsetto vocals. In 2011, he was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Recognition by his peers earned Led four Grammy nominations in his own right and three wins on slack key compilations. He has won multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano (Hawai‘i’s “Grammy”) awards, including Best Slack Key and Best ‘Ukulele and was voted Favorite Entertainer of the Year in 2009

JEFF PETERSON was born on the Island of Maui and grew up on a ranch on the slopes of the Haleakala volcano where he was introduced to the rich heritage of Hawaiian music and to guitar by his father, a paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy). At an early age, he began to pick up influences from such Hawai‘i slack key greats as the Gabby Pahinui Band, Leonard Kwan, and Sonny Chillingworth, and went on to explore a wide variety of musical genres and to study jazz and classical guitar. Five of Jeff’s songs are featured in the award-winning George Clooney film The Descendants. Jeff was featured on two Grammy-winning CDs: Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2 which won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Hawaiian recording, and in 2010, George Kahumoku’s Masters of Slack Key Guitar vol. 2. He has has won 15 Na Hoku Hanohano (Hawaiian Grammy) Awards to date, including 4 Best Slack Key awards and a Grammy nomination for Maui on My Mind. His Concerto for Slack Key Guitar and Orchestra premiered in 2016 with Raleigh Chamber Orchestra and had its Hawaii Symphony premiere in 2017. Jeff has worked with a wide range of artists including Eric Clapton, James Galway, and Michael Feinstein.