Posted on: Saturday, July 14, 2001

Winston making slack key tradition his own

By David Bellino
Special to The Advertiser

"Played from the heart and soul through the fingers," is the quote found on all Dancing Cat label CDs. It is the emotional imagery used to describe the feeling that Hawaiian slack key guitar imparts to the listener. And though most of us know George Winston as the world renowned pianist, last night at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, he gave a slack key solo guitar concert worthy of the Dancing Cat phrase.

Allow me some leeway to explain his tie to Slack Key. Evidence of the segue is found in his solo piano work, in particular his originals.

Yes, phrasing and style are different on piano. But you can hear in his piano work why he is smitten with slack key. He often uses sustained notes in a way that mimics the open strings and bass notes that are used to support and embellish slack key melodies. It is these open strings and sustained notes, in part, that allow a melody to seemingly float by, giving us that dreamily beautiful feeling of "Nahenahe" ("sweet, melodious, as a gentle breeze,"according to the Hawaiian Dictionary by Pukui & Elbert). With the use of these sustained notes already in his pianistic vocabulary, it is easy to see how his sensibilities translate to guitar.

Winston is an impressive player, not a casual guitarist at all.

He exhibited fluency in techniques and stylings borrowed from the great players of Hawaii: pulling on the neck and bending harmonics like Barry Flanagan; chording at times like Ozzie Kotani, and picking nailess and pick-less like Sonny Chillingworth. And also in relaxed Hawaiian style, he was in jeans, a pull-over shirt and shoeless.

The concert opened with an upbeat rendition of Cyril Pahinui's, "Koali."

Although he warmed up a bit with this mele, the feel was authentic as were all the others. He played on a modified seven-string Martin guitar without cut-away. Reaching out over the body, playing double-stops, every note rang clearly.

In introducing Leonard Kwan's "Nahenahe," he joked about the name. Hawai'i is the only place he doesn't have to explain the name. In other places they think he's saying, "naughty, naughty." Playing on the pun, he explained that since he "doesn't play it 'soft and gentle,' maybe it is 'naughty, naughty'".

There's something about slack key even when you think you're outside the boundaries, it's like a mother and child: She comforts you, she holds you close. It was like that in this song, as if the name "Nahenahe" made it sure it would stay that way.

The Honolulu Academy of Arts was packed for this concers. And by the third song, rapt.

Playing a Frank Hewitt mele, "Kauai Lehua", he made extensive use of the Flaniganesque neck and harmonic bends but did so in a very traditional way.

Winston's right hand technique is such that he plays very close to the saddle, brushing the strings at times and not even picking. When he played above the sound hole, he brought out the sweetness of the melody and the instrument. The extra bass string sang deeply, giving a warm intimate feel.

In a song like this, you could feel how he is making this tradition his own.

He played songs of Ireland and songs he grew up with in Montana. He joked about how is playing would sound more like Montana than slack kKey. They didn't. He was able to evoke that Winston emotional palette in the rubato sections and ballads.

In particular, the only original song he performed, about the city he grew up in Montana, was highly reminiscent of his piano style. The Mainland songs sounded as if they were from the Heartland, as they should have. But he also told of his love of things Hawai'i, that Queen Lili'uokalani is his all-time favorite composer and how Ozzie Kotani is his favorite instrumental stylist.

Bravo!!!

In closing, the concert was well worth going to. Seeing a player of his ability move so gracefully to the guitar was inspiring. Now we await the arrival of a slack key CD bearing his name as an artist with full rights to, and firmly grounded in the ki ho'alu tradition.

Winston's Slack Key solo work can be found on the bonus tracks of his latest solo piano CD entitled "Plains."

More information on Mr. Winston's work can be found at www.geocities.com/george_winston1/index.html and at www.dancingcat.com/dancingcat/about-winston.shtml

David Bellino is a Honolulu musician and plays, among other things, slack key guitar.