When I arrived in Santa Cruz I was taken good care of by my pal – and co-founder of the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz – Andy Andrews. Check out the club website ( http://www.ukuleleclub.com/ ); it’s a fantastic entity and the premier uke venue west of the Mississippi.
The night I got to town, Andy and his wife Pam took me to the Rio Theatre for the final event of the seventh annual Pacific Rim Film Festival where I met Eddie Kamae and experienced his film, “Li'A: The Legacy of a Hawaiian Man.”
It’s an award-winning documentary film by Eddie and Myrna Kamae. Named One of the Ten Best Documentaries of the Hawaii International Film Festival, it premiered in November 1988. The documentary is about Hawaiian music and is also the story of a place, the Big Island's legendary Waipi'o Valley, and a man whose music was nurtured by that place, Sam Li'a Kalainaina, a man of an older time whose 94 years bridged two centuries and two ways of life.
It was a thrill to meet and learn more about Eddie, and especially to hear him play and sing before the film. Here is a little bit about him.
Born in Honolulu, Eddie Kamae has spent all of his life in the Hawaiian Islands, where he has distinguished himself as a singer, musician, composer, and more recently as a filmmaker. He has been a key figure in the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance, which found one of its earliest and strongest voices in The Sons of Hawai‘i, the charismatic band formed in the 1960s by Kamae and the legendary singer and guitar virtuoso Gabby Pahinui.
This band became known for the authenticity of its feeling and choice of songs, many of which were a result of Kamae’s research into the archives of long-neglected melodies and lyrics. He is recognized as the first well-known performer to systematically seek out the sources and origins of traditional Hawaiian music.
The night I got to town, Andy and his wife Pam took me to the Rio Theatre for the final event of the seventh annual Pacific Rim Film Festival where I met Eddie Kamae and experienced his film, “Li'A: The Legacy of a Hawaiian Man.”
It’s an award-winning documentary film by Eddie and Myrna Kamae. Named One of the Ten Best Documentaries of the Hawaii International Film Festival, it premiered in November 1988. The documentary is about Hawaiian music and is also the story of a place, the Big Island's legendary Waipi'o Valley, and a man whose music was nurtured by that place, Sam Li'a Kalainaina, a man of an older time whose 94 years bridged two centuries and two ways of life.
It was a thrill to meet and learn more about Eddie, and especially to hear him play and sing before the film. Here is a little bit about him.
Born in Honolulu, Eddie Kamae has spent all of his life in the Hawaiian Islands, where he has distinguished himself as a singer, musician, composer, and more recently as a filmmaker. He has been a key figure in the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance, which found one of its earliest and strongest voices in The Sons of Hawai‘i, the charismatic band formed in the 1960s by Kamae and the legendary singer and guitar virtuoso Gabby Pahinui.
This band became known for the authenticity of its feeling and choice of songs, many of which were a result of Kamae’s research into the archives of long-neglected melodies and lyrics. He is recognized as the first well-known performer to systematically seek out the sources and origins of traditional Hawaiian music.
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