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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I just came back from Hawaii, and I found something rather refreshing in the "music attitude" there. I'm not sure I can put it into words but I will try.
While at the Polynesian Cultural Center (which is like an Epcot Center for the islands) I attended a musical demonstration from Tahiti where everyone was playing "traditional" instruments. I soon noticed that most of the instruments were "modern" not old. I found one guy playing his "traditional" mandolin, which was shaped much like an early BC Rich ???? What's up with that??? Traditional??? So I asked, and to them, much to my delite, the whole experience of the music is done in traditional fashion. In other words he made the Mando, trying to get a better sound, and played his own compositions on it. New materials and techniques are things to embrace, not shy away from. I also found, even in current music venues, that a good "strat copy" is much more desirable to most of the musicians I talked too than a new Fender. A vintage strat, may be nice as a collectors piece, but for working, a copy with a better bridge, better pickups and better neck is preferred.
It was nice to see $10 Ukulele's with neat graphics next to $1000+ Uke's and Ovations too. It seems that "tone" and "looks" and "history" are all equal parts of the equation, not just NAME! Actually name is probably the smallest part of the equation.
I did notice a distinct lack of Rainsong guitars. They are not popular there, and I thought they would be. The answer I got was they were "cold" sounding. Ovation and Taylor and Godin seemed to be the big players in that diverse climate. |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Miles
In an earlier post I mentioned the Samoans that played at Good Time Charlies bar in Ocean Beach CA in the 60's. They were all well over 6 feet tall and built like football players, they played "Hawaiin" music professionally at the (I think) Kon Tiki bar on Mission Bay, where they did what was considered Hawaiin music, but when they hit Charlies they did beautiful Samoan songs on what looked like clapped out acoustic guitars, but sounded great. The reason the guitars looked so bad is that when Charlies closed at 2 AM they went to the beach on Mission Bay and played and sang until dawn around a campfire every night. According to them that was what they did in Samoa as a way of life. Point being, they never saw a guitar as a status symbol, their guitars were like our toothbrushes, something you lived with and played the music like we sit around a fire and talk to each other, their music WAS their conversation from childhood on. I don't think any of them had any concept of brand name, they played what they could afford and made anything sound good. As I have said before, they were brought to San Diego by some promoter who was managing Polynesian bands on the Hawaiin music circuit, and like all young people they wanted to get away from their backwoods island and see the world, and in some ways we were all having great fun in 60's San Diego, an era that will never come back. Imagine, if you can, empty Mission Bay beaches during the week where my wife and I could take our kids and have the whole beach to ourselves during the day. It was the best place in the world.
Bailey |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Thanks Bailey,
I sometimes wonder if English is really my first language. I had this thought all bottled up in my head, and could not put it into words. My only addition is that the musicians were not "displaying" or "portraying" the traditions of days gone by... This is today, and they feel the same way as their ancestors did about it. When was the last time you went into a music store and found the people in the store, the people who run the store, the salespeople.. walking around with guitars and ukulele's around there neck noodling as they walk up to you and say "may I help you with something?" I saw this at all three music stores I went too. One Uke shop had a small stage with some percussion instruments laying around too. |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Miles
I had to correct my post, the players were Samoans. The thing still is, that music was not a alien thing to these guys, they lived it as you and I would say "Hello, how are you?" I have a theory that humans are musical by nature, and are inhibited by the few trogolodytes that didn't inherit that ability, whether it is from a gene deficiency or incest is hard to say. How many times has a cheap idiot comedien made a joke at the expense of a musician. If you have ever played in a cheap bar, it is not hard to notice the people who talk through your songs and try to take over the center of attention even though they are the most boring ones there. It is hard to fake music ability, but it is not hard to put down somebody who has it, I think the island cultures let the natural music ability surface producing the musicians that we have seen.
Bailey |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Samoans... the "happy people." As the guy explained to us very sarcastically. "we do all the cooking, and preparing of food, we climb coconut trees, we work hard, we are the last to eat... we are the happy people... I don't understand."
But yes, music is the language of Polynesia. They did not have a written language before outsiders came in, brought diseases and made them wear clothes. Hula was the language, and mostly danced by men too. In Tahiti women did the Hula and actually are known for the fastest hips in the Pacific, but remember... you are NOT SUPPOSED TO LOOK AT THE HIPS.. The "hands" tell the story.
(that's a line from a song if anyone is curious).
It's hard not to get hooked on the Aloha spirit. The only reason I think Lisa and I came home is the pets. Met several folks, most of the people at the dive shop, who came to the islands for a vacation, and just never left. When I lived there in the 80's the music scene was a blast. It was all fun and I think it's gotten better, but when you're on vacation everything looks a little better anyway so I'm not sure. But there were a LOT of live music and just folks playing everywhere. Quite nice indeed. Added shock coming from the the live-music void of Maryland. |
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What is "Traditional"
