In a career that includes having his original composition
featured on a Miss Universe Pageant television special,
becoming the first slack key artist to perform the national
anthem at a Major League Baseball game, opening for
legendary Hawaiian musicians Israel "Bruddah Iz"
Kamakawiwo'ole, Keali'i Reichel and HAPA, and cutting
two albums, it's no wonder that Jim Harrington of the
Oakland Tribune noted that "Patrick Landeza's mastery of
Hawaiian slack key guitar" keeps him in heavy demand.

Noted pianist and ki ho'alu player George Winston, who has
recorded and played with some of the greatest slack key
musicians, says: "Patrick Landeza is one of the best and most
dedicated of the new generation of slack key players."

Hawaiian slack key guitar first evolved in the 1830s (predating the steel guitar genre by more than 60 years), when Mexican and Spanish cowboys, hired by King Kamehameha III to teach Hawaiians better ranching methods, brought guitars to entertain themselves. The Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, quickly adopted the guitar into their culture, calling it ki ho'alu, which literally translates into "loosen the key."

A century-and-a-half later, ki ho'alu would spellbind Patrick as a teenager growing up in Berkeley, Calif. Patrick's parents, Danny Landeza, Jr. of O'ahu, and Frances Kawaipulou Kuakini O'Sullivan of Moloka'i, moved to the mainland in the 1950s, but kept close ties to what so many Hawaiian songs call "ku'u one hanau," or "beloved sands of my birth."

It's fitting that Patrick, who is of Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese and Irish ancestry, would be drawn to a musical genre evolved from a similarly rich combination of heritages.

A few years after being first introduced to slack key at age 15 by two uncles, Patrick discovered the ki ho'alu recordings of slack key master Raymond Kane. "He was my idol" said Patrick. "I listened to him religiously." The two would soon meet at one of Raymond's concerts in Berkeley, only two blocks from Patrick's house.

Taken by Patrick's passion for slack key, Raymond took the young man as student. Patrick would travel to Hawai'i and pick up pointers from Raymond, as well as other slack key masters such as George Kuo, Dennis Kamakahi and the late Sonny Chillingworth. "Patrick is a fine slack key player!" beamed Kane.

Nineteen-year-old Patrick started playing solo in 1992, opening tours for Hawaiian artists like Israel "Bruddah Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole, Cecilio and Kapono, Keali'i Reichel and HAPA. Patrick would join backstage jam sessions with slack key masters who were also on tour. Known simply as "The Kid," he would often be mistaken for an underage fan and prevented from entering venues. "They had to remind the venue that I was a performer," recalls Patrick.

In both 1995 and 1996, Patrick was the only mainland performer to be invited to the annual Bank of Hawai'i Ki ho'alu Festival, considered the "grand-daddy" of all slack key events. "Playing the slack key fest was a dream come true for me," said Patrick. In 1996, Patrick would venture further across the Pacific in a tour throughout the Philippine Islands.

1998 would be a big year for Patrick. His original composition, Mahealani, written for 1997 Miss Universe Brook Mahealani Lee, was featured on her half-hour television special that aired before the 1998 Miss Universe Pageant.

Later that year, Patrick released his first album, "Pu'unaue" ("to share"), in which he mixes original compositions along with traditional Hawaiian music. His special guests included Martin Pahinui, George Kuo, Dennis Kamakahi, and Pekelo Cosma.

One of the few mainlanders accepted into the close-knit circle of Hawaiian slack key artists, "many people believe that Landeza is on his way to becoming the mainland's leading players of ki ho'alu," wrote Sandy Miranda of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle in 1998.

In December 2001, Patrick released "Christmas to Me." Revealing his numerous facets as an artist, Patrick's second album takes the listener on a journey through many different musical forms and styles, tying it all together with the common bond of acoustic ki ho'alu. Among the talented guest artists on the album is legendary steel guitarist Bobby Black, who has played with such bands as Commander Cody, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Asleep at the Wheel and Barbara Mandrell.

Although a slack key artist for more than a decade, ki ho'alu has been more of a passion than a profession for Patrick, a former middle school vice-principal. Now, at 30, Patrick tours regularly with other slack key artists, such as Cyril Pahinui, and teaches ki ho'alu through workshops and private lessons. "Trying to get a lesson with Landeza is like trying to get admitted to Stanford," joked the Oakland Tribune's Harrington.

Patrick has guest lectured on slack key and on Asian Pacific American issues at Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Santa Barbara, and University of California-Monterey. He will also be a keynote speaker at a California State University-Hayward graduation ceremony in spring 2003.

In the summer of 2003, Patrick will teach a variety of workshops at North Carolina's The Swannanoa Gathering, a series of week-long workshops in various folk arts held on the campus of Warren Wilson College near Asheville in the heart of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

After teaching workshops in Washington, D.C., Patrick is scheduled to teach a workshop in August at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival 2003, the world's premier exposition of hand-made acoustic guitars.

"I am so grateful for the privilege of learning ki ho'alu from the masters and being able to entertain so many people with that gift," said Patrick. "Now it's time for me to share the mana'o, or knowledge and understanding, with others."