The 25th anniversary season of E Kanikapila Kakou closes with a concert featuring Dennis and David Kamakahi. They've received multiple awards — Dennis is a 2007 Grammy® Award winner and 2006 Hawaii State Foundation of Culture and Arts Individual Artist Fellowship recipient and that's just the tip of the iceberg. - Photo: Courtesy of Anne E. O'Malley

Kaua'i jam session celebrates 25 years

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola Staff

A nice shady backyard may be the best place to learn Hawaiian music – especially if you have a talented tutu in a teaching mood. But anyone on Kaua'i without access to the aforementioned can always count on E Kanikapila Kākou. Each EKK session at Island School in Puhi features one Hawaiian music master who gives instruction in a favorite composition. The take-home lesson for everyone is usually that the more you know about sweet Hawaiian music, the more you want to learn.

“EKK changes every year and the master musicians always bring in something fresh and new,” says series organizer Carol Yotsuda, who is a veteran art teacher on Kaua'i, well-known for her tireless support of art and music education. Case in point: this year Yotsuda organized EKK around the theme of “new and emerging artists.” Session leaders ranged from nose flute expert Anthony Natividad to the 86-year-old Ambrose Smith, who has been strumming his guitar quite proficiently for decades with Kaua'i's own Kama'āinas. But does Smith fit the theme of “new and emerging”? He does, explains Yotsuda, because he just finished recording his first-ever CD.

The EKK season, which begins every January, culminates with an April finale concert, featuring an all-star lineup at the performing arts center of Kaua'i Community College. This year's concert also marks a chance for the series to celebrate a quarter century.

EKK was born from a moment of inspiration at a Kaua'i gathering of friends in 1983, where Yotsuda just happened to let it slip that – even though she was from here – she really didn't know any Hawaiian songs. She wanted to learn, but the question was: Where to go? Others agreed that Yotsuda probably wasn't alone in her dilemma. And so one year and a small grant later, they helped her to organize the first E Kanikapila Kākou – 'ōlelo Hawai'i for “strike up the music.”

In the beginning, it was “a true hidden gem,” remembers Yotsuda. Two decades later, it's not so hidden: Banner attendance – including a mix of tourists and locals sometimes numbers into the standing-room-only hundreds. And what's not to love about getting free tutoring from some of the biggest names in Hawaiian music? “They not only teach the lyrics and the chords, they also get across the good things that are wrapped up in the music,” says Yotsuda. For example, picture Hawai'i's kupuna composer Irmgard 'Āluli cracking people up by revealing that Boy from Laupāhoehoe came to her while she was vacuuming, or contemporary songstress Robi Kahakalau sharing not only chords but her knowledge of kalo. These are some of the many memories shared by perennial EKK fans, Yotsuda recalls, including one local music teacher who has even archived EKK sheet music, preserving an impressive repertoire.