July 5-11, 1998
San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
Datebook

By Sandy Miranda
Staff Writer

Ready to spread the spirit of the Bay Area's vibrant Hawaiian community is Patrick Landeza, a 25-year-old Berkeley native who makes his recording debut this month with his self-released "Pu'unaue" ("To Share"). His nahenahe (smooth) vocals and acoustic style can be heard Saturday at the California State University at Hayward Theater.

"You have to come to a live performance," says Landeza, who is of Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, and Irish descent. "It's the stories that come before the songs that are so good."

Many people believe that Landeza is on his way to becoming the mainland's leading player of ki ho 'alu, the traditional Hawaiian slack-key guitar style that uses rich, open tunings and evocative finger-picking patterns.

"He's leading the next generation of slack-key players, and he's got the potential to be a really big star," says Ben Churchill of Dancing Cat Records, which helped Landeza with his CD. G

uest artists on "Pu'unaue," which blends ki ho 'alu with original compositions by Landeza, include Rev. Dennis Kamakahi, Martin Pahinui, George Kuo and Pekelo Cosma. Among his musical mentors, Landeza includes reigning slack-key master Uncle Raymond Kane, Dancing Cat's George Winston and local bandleader Saichi Kawahara, who publishes the definitive Kapalakiko Hawaiian calendar of events.

Learning the old ways has always been important to Landeza, whose mother sings Hawaiian songs, dances hula and plays the ukulele. "Everywhere I went when I was younger," Landeza says, "I'd open up my guitar case and find a note that Mom had left that said, 'Watch, listen and imitate.'"

His father also worked hard to keep the aloha spirit alive on the West Coast, founding the Kaimanu Canoe Club. "Our house was always full of records by Sonny Chillingworth, Aunty Genoa Keawe, Lena Machada, Gabby Pahinui and the Sons of Hawaii.

"I was taught that the goal when you play Hawaiian music is to make the aunties cry," he says, "but now I take it a step further. I make everybody cry."

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