E Kanikapila Kākou Week 1: “Golden Nā Leo: Makana Sings Hawaiʻi’s Songs of Romance from the 50s & 60s”

EKK opens Season 2025 on Monday, February 3 at the OUTRIGGER Kauaʻi Beach Resort & Spa in Lihuʻe with a nostalgic and scintillating musical flashback to an earlier time in Hawaiʻi featuring celebrated entertainer, singer and slack key virtuoso Makana.

Join us for an evening of “golden era” sounds as Makana takes us back in time to the heyday of Hawaiʻi’s legendary crooners, remembering icons like Alfred Apaka, Don Ho, Sonny Chillingworth, Kui Lee, The Kalima Brothers and more.

The atmosphere of mid-century Waikīkī inspires this tribute to a time and place that remains indelibly tattooed on the hearts and minds of people worldwide, never again to be experienced.

Makana shares about his inspiration and process reanimating these vintage styles and sounds:

“Modernity often feels as though we are being swept into a homogenized future leaving behind our rich and varied cultural past, yet we value timeless cultural practices, traditional folk arts, and cherished memories of a simpler time. I was watching old videos of my kumu, Uncle Sonny, and realized his unique slack key sound was partly attributed to a specific guitar – a 1964 Chet Atkins 6120. So, I went searching, found one, and had it restored. The sound is incredible and just like Sonny’s! Hearing it inspired me to go back through my LPs and fall in love once again with songs and sounds from those early days of highly melodic Hapa Haole classics- some sappy, some truly classy and others downright comical. The levity spoke to me; some innocence lost. Listening to live recordings of these legends brought tears to my eyes. I’m diving into arrangements in slack key and other modes to reanimate favorite mele and exploring my baritone and falsetto deeper. It feels like I’m unearthing all these varied personalities; like acting, in a fashion. I’m having a blast, and I’m excited to share these treasures from our past. There’s really almost nowhere in Hawaiʻi one can go to hear the older styles. Virtually everyone has moved on. But I’ve always felt these classic musical contributions deserve our eternal enjoyment and celebration. And they speak to our not-so-distant history, and in that I feel there is much to be learned in terms of envisioning where we are heading and where we may want to adjust course. As Hawaiʻi homogenizes more toward any modern capitalist society, what sense of place are we maintaining? Many transplants moved here with the vision portrayed in this old music. Now it’s gone, and so is the vision, which means those visions are often replaced by those offered up by corporations and institutions. We all have different orientations; perhaps this particular aesthetic still has great value to offer our diverse community. Simply, remembering a time when singing, laughing, socializing and appreciating beauty were core to our appreciation for being in Hawai’i.”

Makana believes in honoring those who came before. Makana shares about his inspiration and process reanimating these vintage styles and sounds:

“As Hawaiian music has “streamlined” with economic influences like the massive hula market in Japan, much of the musicianship and varied influences have quietly atrophied. Much attention has been given to the renaissance artists of the 70s- Gabby, Genoa, Sons of Hawaiʻi, Mākaha Sons, Calimero’s, Peter Moon, Hui ʻOhana, Beamers — but not so much from the previous eras. However, the music from all those eras was intimately influenced by American styles. The crooners of mid-century paved a glorious path of melody, rhythm and harmony that perfectly encapsulated the aesthetic of the era prior to the folk/ rock explosion of the late 60s. Those entertainers and their magical environs swept locals and visitors alike into a dreamworld of myth, romance and music- a curious blend of crooning, lounge, exotica, Hawaiian traditions, Broadway, Latin jazz and American pop. Songs from this era celebrate the amalgamation of cultures and lifestyles like no other, like time capsules to a time when Hawaiʻi was truly the romance capital of the world!”

Attendees are encouraged to dress “period-appropriate” with Hawaiʻi-inspired fashion from the 50s, 60s and even 70s. To get into the proper mood of the music of an earlier time, we invite the audience to come dressed in their best “retro” attire from yesteryear; arrive your fashionable best with Japanese silk “ka-be” shirts, vintage muʻumuʻu, elegant coifs and whatever else might transport you back to those days of magical music from the bygone golden era of romance celebrated in Hawaiian song.