December 4, 2001
Oakland Tribune/ANG Newspapers

By Jim Harrington
Staff Writer

To Patrick Landeza, "Pu'unaue" is more than just the name of his self-produced debut CD. It's a way of life.

The title is Hawaiian for "to share" and that's exactly what the Berkeley native has spent much of his adult life doing. During the day, the 29-year-old works with students as a teacher and vice principal at St. Martin de Porres School in Oakland. He's a warm, gentle and funny man with a gift for telling stories and illustrating his points. It's easy to imagine him being a natural with the kids.

But his music is his undeniable passion. In particular, he's mad about Hawaiian slack key guitar. And as one of the mainland's leading proponents of ki ho 'alu, known as slack key, Landeza strives to share his love, passion and talent for this acoustic guitar tradition.

Perhaps the best of the new generation of slack-key artists, Landeza is in heavy demand by those that want to learn the highly specialized style.

"I just can't satisfy the demand. There are a lot of people that want to learn slack key," say Landeza, who currently lives in San Leandro. "I'm the only guy in the Bay Area who teaches slack key. And I don't advertise. People find me."

The Stanford of slack key

Trying to get a lesson with Landeza is like trying to get admitted to Stanford University, only a select few are chosen. Many of Landeza's current students tell stories of how they had to harass the overbooked instructor to get class time.

John Milke, a 45-year-old building inspector in Castro Valley, remembers the first time that he got turned on to slack key.

"I heard some CDs of some slack key music about five years back," he recalls. "I said 'That's what I want to play. That's it.'"

If Milke had wanted to play Paul Simon or James Taylor songs, he could have found thousands of willing instructors from Fremont to Berkeley and from South San Francisco to Menlo Park. But because he wanted to learn slack key, his options were limited.

"I didn't find anyone in the Bay Area that was teaching (slack key). Patrick was the only one. I found him on the Internet," say Milke, who remembers that Landeza was at first too busy to take on a new student. "I kept bugging him. The squeaky wheel gets the oil right?"

Mark Hardwicke, a 43-year-old Berkeley-based actor, was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, when he was first introduced to slack key. Hardwicke was visiting his mom on the Hawaiian island of Molokai and had the chance to attend a concert by the great slack key guitarist Gabby Pahinui.

"I go into this cinderblock community center and there was this little old man," Hardwicke remembers. "He was making the most beautiful music. He touched everyone in that room."

Years later, Hardwicke had the chance to see modern masters Led Kaapana and Cyril Pahinui in concert and his earlier interest was revived.

"I think it is the sweetest, most beautiful music in the whole world," he says.

And now he's a student. He's been taking classes with Landeza since the beginning of the year.

"I never played guitar until I took lessons from Patrick," Hardwicke says.

Some students are drawn to the sound. Some are drawn for cultural reasons. Slack key provides an important way for many mainlanders to get in touch with their Hawaiian heritage.

"My parents are originally from Hawaii," Dr. Ron Takahashi explains as to why he began taking slack key lessons from Landeza. "I just wanted to keep close to the ties that I had with Hawaii."

The 36-year-old Castro Valley resident, an oral surgeon practicing in San Leandro and Pleasanton, also loves the sound of the unique guitar style. In fact, he probably wouldn't be playing music if he hadn't fallen for slack key.

"It's a very soothing kind of music. You can play it by yourself without any accompaniment," he explains. "It's only acoustic guitar, so you don't need other instruments.

"I don't have the desire to learn other styles of playing."

'Loosen the key'

The roots of this acoustic guitar tradition can be traced to the 1930's, when the guitar was brought to the islands by Mexican and Spanish cowboys. Hawaiians loved the guitar and quickly adopted the instrument into their culture.

Cowboys didn't bring an instruction manual for the guitars, so islanders were forced to come up with their own tunings to match the range of their vocals. The result was ki ho 'alu, which literally translates to "loosen the key." The strings are loosened or "slacked" to create beautiful, luxurious sounds full of color and flavor. The player uses the thumb to play the bass while the other fingers pick out the melodies. The result can be devastatingly beautiful and utterly soulful.

"(Slack key great) Raymond Kane use to say, 'It's soul music,'" Landeza says. "It's Hawaiian soul music. It comes from the heart."

Traditionally, slack key has been a very personal art form that was only shared with close friends or relatives. Nothing was written down and people learned by listening to the music and watching the hands move. Guitarists would find their own tunings and pass them on to others within their immediate circles. For decades, slack key was basically unknown on the mainland.

Philip "Gabby" Pahinui (1921-1980) brought the art form some much-needed attention with his popular Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band. Others such as Kane, Ledward Kaapana, George Kuo, Keola Beamer and Pahinui's two sons, Cyril and Bla, have helped to keep the music on the public radar.

Perhaps no one has done more for slack key than George Winston. Through his Santa Cruz-based Dancing Cat record label, the famed pianist has made scores of recordings by slack key masters available across the country. Now, players like Kaapana and Cyril Pahinui are selling out clubs and theaters from Bakersfield to Boston.

"The current commercial status of Hawaiian slack key guitar music is doing very well. Compared to other traditional musics or guitar styles, slack key holds its own," says Ben Churchill, vice president of marketing and sales for Dancing Cat. "As more and more people hear slack key for the first time, they generally become instant fans. This music really embodies and conveys the easy-going, relaxing Hawaiian style and spirit of aloha."

Young gun

Landeza has a good shot at being the next monster on the slack-key scene. He has studied and played with all the best players, from Kane to Kuo, and shows immense respect for the genre's traditions.

"Even though he was raised on the Bay Area, Patrick has done his homework and was able to return to Hawaii many times for personal guitar lessons from the great Sonny Chillingworth and Ray Kane," says Churchill, who has known Landeza for years. "Patrick, more so than most young players, has made a concerted effort to learn and play in the older, more-traditional style of slack key."

Still, one would have to call Landeza a traditionalist and then add an asterisk. While following in the footsteps of Pahinui and Kane, he also keeps an eye on the horizon. Whether he is playing originals or standards, Landeza subtly shades each island piece with bits of his own mainland experience.

"When I was a kid, I use to hang out at the Freight and Salvage," says Landeza, remembering times spent at the eclectic Berkeley music club. "So I use to watch all that wonderful bluegrass and music."

Landeza's passion for slack key comes from his family. His mom played Gabby Pahinui records constantly while he was growing up. At parties and family gatherings, relatives and friends would break out the guitars and slack into action.

The young gun started playing at 16, which many would consider to be a fairly late age. Yet he pursued it in a fashion that made up for lost time. He was lucky enough to find some formal instruction and spent a huge amount of time learning on his own.

He met Churchill at a slack key show at Slim's club in San Francisco and the two became friends. Through Churchill's connections, Landeza met many other great players and got a chance to study their playing styles.

"I was able to go into the studio and watch their fingers and then talk to them afterwards," Landeza says. "I will always be known as 'The Kid' to them."

"The Kid" has opened for most of the major players at this point. He's been featured in numerous papers and magazines. He's a sought-after instructor.

Recently, he released his second slack key album, a seasonal work called "Christmas to Me." Sunday, the guitarist will perform a record release concert at the Freight and Salvage club in Berkeley.

Still, the most important thing to happen to him through slack key is he met Jennifer Quinto. She was in the audience one night when he was playing a show in San Francisco. The two met. The fell in love. They married.

"I think that is how I won her over," Landeza smiles. "It was the slack key."

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