Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 36, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2019 — Globetrotter [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Globetrotter

A windward O'ahu instrument-maker traces the footsteps of an early Hawaiian musical explorer, and his impact on all modern music By Kilin Reece |have been fortunate to work as a Luthier anel musieian in windward O'ahu for elose to two decades, making a living playing, building and restoring vintage acoustic stringed instruments. The word "Luthier" specifically describes one who works on instruments in the family of "Lutes," considered to be the ancient ancestors to modern stringed instruments like the guitar and 'ukulele. I have always found studying the history and genealogy of stringed instruments to be fascinating, and over the last several years have devoted mueh time to researching this aspect of my vocation. The anatomy of stringed instruments not only bear the traces of chisel blades and saws, but also the signatures of the cultures from whieh their designs originate. It has been said that Luthiers build the "shapes that surround the sound," crafting every curve in an instrument's wooden body, from the ribs and waist, to the belly, back, neek and headstock. Ultimately, with the aid of glue, we unite all these contours under the tension, strength and energy of strings to bring life to the voice that an instrument will possess. This voice, with our care and attention, has the potential to transcend the ages, weaving in time a eommon thread through the lives, songs and dreams of many generations. In tracing the lineages of the instruments I have met in my small restoration studio here in the shadow of the Ko'olau mountains, and in listening to the many stories their owners have shared, I have arrived at a perspective that Hawai'i is not as an isolated outlier in the evolution of our modern global soundscape.

but a long running epicenter of innovation the Royal Hawaiian Band in a tour across and influence in the western hemisphere, the the United States in 1895. modern piko of all things stringed.

This year marks the 186th year anniversary of the C.F. Martin Guitar Company, making it the oldest family-run string instrument manufacturer in the United States. My Luthiery work has been largely devoted to the study of instruments made by the Martin family. As a Bluegrass guitarist, I long ago found my six-string soulmate in the bold, full bodied sound of a guitar known as the Martin "Dreadnought". The instrument of ehoiee

for guitarists from Gabby Pahinui to Elvis Presley and from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan, it is easily the most ieonie and widely reproduced guitar design in the world. The Dreadnought Martin guitar began its life in 1915 as a custom-ordered "extra-large jumbo guitar" made for a virtuoso Vaudeville star named Mekia Albert Kealakai. It was the largest and loudest guitar the company had ever made, designed to accommodate audiences attending acoustic concerts by Mekia and his orchestra as they crisscrossed the United States long before the advent of microphones and PA systems. Born in Honolulu in 1867, Mekia trained under Henri Berger. He graduated at age 15, joined the Royal Hawaiian Band as Berger's star protege, and within a short time was composing songs with Lili'uokalani and Kalākaua, eventually leading

I had the pleasure of joining Chris Martin IV (the Martin descendant currently at the helm of the company) at the Kahala hotel in 2016, and after sharing my research and pouring through scrapbooks and photo albums he agreed that Hawai'i's contributions to his family's legacy were pivotal, and worthy of celebration. Working with the Martin custom shop, we began recreating the "Kealakai" model guitar, using the molds, templates and blueprints from the archives that brought the

original to life in 1915. This guitar will be displayed side by side with the Dreadnought guitars of Iohnny Cash and the Pahinui family in a Bishop Museum exhibition set to open April 2020. In the 1960s, the Library of Congress re-issued recordings made by ethnomusicologists in the 1920s. These recordings formed my first introduction to what is called Ameriean "Roots" or "Folk" music. As a teenager in Berkeley, California, I checked out 10-ineh vinyl records from our loeal Public Library, whieh had a complete collection of the Library of Congress Folkways record label. Legends like The Carter Family, Leadbelly, Son House, Lightnin' Hopkins, Doc Watson and Elizabeth Cotton took turns on my turntable bringing to life songs of hard luek rural America. On subsequent research trips to the Martin Archives in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, I began swinging down to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., hoping to find clues about Mekia's travels across the continent at the turn of the last century. On one such visit, I had a ehanee conversation with a librarian who mentioned some very old recordings in their eolleehon, made by a Hawaiian string band around 1904 for a small record eompany. He offered to make me a Compact Disc of transfers made from the records. Later that evening I loaded the CD into my rental car's dashboard player, and as the warble of music making its way through 115 years of time and space eame surging through the speakers, I nearly crashed into the car in front of me. What was I was hearing? The music was immediately familiar: acoustic guitars punching out rhythm while fiddles and flutes played in and around the vocal lines, accented by the ehop and strum of 'ukulele and banjo, rooted in the pulse of pizzicato eello. How was it possible that a Hawaiian string band had recorded music that sounded nearly identical to my beloved Bluegrass music, decades before any of America's most celebrated folk recordings? I later learned that Lui Thompson, the band's leader, got his start with Mekia Kealakai and his orchestra at the 1901 Buffalo World's Fair. By 1901, Hawaiian string ensembles like Lui's had been touring the United States for 30 years, playing vaudeville theaters and traveling tent shows from Sacramento to New York. In 2018, 1 was able to work with the Library of Congress to remaster and release in CD format the complete recordings of Lui's band, alternately calling

' j I ^ -; Mekia Kealaka'i, circa 1914- Photo: Courtesy