Listen Now!

Imagine getting off the plane in Maui. The breeze, the flowers, the impossible blue of the ocean immediately calm us. We remember our carefree selves. Then maybe we experience a Maui waterfall in a lush rainforest and a feeling seeps into us of overflowing, embracing love grounded in serenity. This is how I understand the Hawaiian word aloha. Just glance at today’s headlines. We are in the habit of going crazy. Aloha is the Hawaiian culture’s important healing message for the rest of the world.  Despite colonialism, commercialism, the Hawaiians somehow retain this essence of aloha and they share it generously.

I feel this directly in the Hawaiian style of music called Slack Key.  The deep bass strings and simple harmonies go back and forth like ocean waves, creating peace and a sweet sadness of mortality, a nostalgia for people and great times long gone.

Bringing slack key back to Spanish classical guitar completes a circle in a way, since slack key began when Mexican cowboys from California brought their guitars to Hawaii in 1830.  They left those guitars to Hawaiian paniolo (cowboys) who played the instruments their own way, tuning the strings to accommodate different keys for their songs. You often read that by tuning or slacking down the bottom strings, the Hawaiians enlarged the guitar’s range so that it can mimic both the low bass and high tenor Mexican guitars.  But the colors these tunings create a relaxed sound distinct from other guitar styles.

PROGRAM NOTES

PLUMERIA
Pua melia or Plumeria seems a good way to begin.  This flower is everywhere on the island, sometimes white, yellow, red, even a combination of colors. Its subtle fragrance evokes a thousand feelings and memories. I composed this simple prelude to Plumeria as kind of an opening prayer.

KIHEI
Kihei is a laid-back beach town between the resorts of Kaanapali to the north and Wailea in the south. It has a special aloha all its own. Till recently, the Maui Lu hotel let you step back into time to a simple but elegant plantation with beautiful trees and birds above simple but expansive grass lawns. Kihei has a great surf community and some of the nicest beaches on the island. I can’t forget to mention Kihei Café, the best breakfast in Maui.

PAIA
Paia is an artsy, spiritual, surf hippie town known to tourists as the gateway to the road to Hana. But spend any time there and you discover that like all places in Maui, it has its own ethos and caring community, a refuge for people craving a simple lifestyle. This prelude incorporates three different sections of slack key sounds.

SWINGING BRIDGES
In the mountains on top of the northwest of the island is the beautiful Waihe’e Valley. A trail called Swinging Bridges follows the river in this valley through a beautiful forest of wild ginger and other native plants. The wooden bridges are a bit precarious—rotted in places and even missing planks. It’s a fun hike and so this prelude doesn’t hold back!

KAUPO
Kaupo—is the magical desert on the southern shore of Maui. The views and landscape of its harsh beauty are as dramatic as any on Earth. The road now is paved, but even so, parts of it require courage rounding one-way roads that hug cliffs above the ocean without guardrails.

HANA
Hana—going NE from Kaupo, the driest part of the island, you come to Hana, the wettest part. The Hana area is famous for its waterfalls, lush rainforest, dramatic coastline, and has become a symbol of an ultimate paradise destination.  It’s beauty and serenity are unsurpassed.

MAKAWAO
Makawao was/is the cowboy town of Maui, still home to several ranches. On my recent visit, it became clear that the roosters owned the town.

KULA
Many tourists never get to Kula, the mountains above Kaupo. Hiking there it is hard to believe you are in Maui; it feels more like the Sierra Nevada in California—yes with tall pine trees!

NAHIKU BEACH
On the road to Hana, the Nahiku turnout is a gravelly road that goes several miles to a small village with an exquisite small church and fertile vegetation. The road ends at a bridge now in disrepair. Beyond that bridge the road leads to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Actually there is no sand and the water is treacherous, but it curves around to a beautiful bay where locals fish. I’ve been there several times and find this the most tranquil spot on Earth.

BLUE POOL
All of this music leads to my most exploratory slack key-inspired piece, one I specifically titled Blue Pool. Blue Pool is one of Maui’s most poetic waterfall ponds, now off limits for tourists. On my one successful visit, I met a Hawaiian family whose journey to Blue Pool was an annual pilgrimage for healing and renewal. Blue Pool has become for me a symbol for all that is magical, serene, and healing about Maui. That magic is in its hidden resonances. For my Blue Pool prelude, I searched to bring out the hidden resonances in slack key, literally merging those sounds into the familiar slack key chords to create. At the end of this piece, you’ll not only hear the overtones directly , but feel and realize you heard traces of these harmonies throughout the CD.