January 4, 1999
The Daily Review

By Robert Gammon
Staff Writer

In many ways, 26-year-old Patrick Landeza exemplifies the qualities that many Bay Area Hawaiian Americans hold dear.

Academically, he is a success, having graduated in 1997 from California State University, Hayward, with a bachelor's degree in sociology.

Professionally, he gives back to the community as a teacher, last year at St. Leander's in San Leandro, and this year as a substitute teacher at St. Mary's High School in Berkeley - his alma mater.

But maybe most importantly, through his music Landeza brings to life his love of the culture and the community of his parents' homeland - Hawaii.

"I was always taught to make the aunties cry," said Landeza, who plays slack key guitar, a musical style with a history in Hawaii going back to the 1800s.

Landeza, whose parents moved to the Bay Area in the 1960s, also maintains strong ties to the islands. He buys year-round passes to Hawaii and flies there once a month.

"That's unusual," said Saichi Kawahara, a 61-year-old ukulele player who emigrated from Hawaii to the Bay Area in the 1950s and is known in the community as something of an expert on mainland Hawaiian culture. "I know a lot of children of expatriate Hawaiians who have never been to Hawaii."

While Landeza is a connoisseur of the music and culture of the islands, he does not forget his Bay Area roots. Born and raised in Berkeley, Landeza calls his particular brand of slack key guitar "Hawaiian music with…Berkeley twist."

"He's such a great talent and a good person," said Ben Churchill of Dancing Cat Records, a Santa Cruz record company founded by pianist George Winston. "He's really developing as an all-round performer."

Landeza's development has resulted in a compact disc, which debuted earlier this year. He is also a producer, putting out his 12-song album on his own Oakland-based label, Pu'unaue Productions.

He has returned twice this year to Cal State Hayward to perform concerts. In attendance at the first performance was Brook Lee of Hawaii, Miss Universe 1997. Landeza met Lee last year at the Hollywood Bowl and wrote a song in her honor, titled "Mahealani," which means "heavenly moonlight."

Landeza has been involved with slack key guitar for a little more than a decade. The history of the acoustic style dates back to the 1830s when Spanish and Mexican cowboys came to Hawaii at the behest of King Kamehameha III.

The king hired the vaqueros to teach Hawaiians how to deal with an overpopulation of cattle on the islands. When the cowboys left, some gave their guitars to the locals, who then incorporated the instrument into their music.

The Hawaiians had never seen the guitar before, "Churchill said. "And they were never taught how to tune the instrument."

The result was Ki ho 'alu - Hawaiian for "loosen the key" - a unique solo style, featuring hundreds of different (and often secret) guitar tunings that reflect the range of emotions of the songwriter musician.

Landeza traces his exposure to slack key to the age of 15 when he began listening to two uncles from Castro Valley plucking away late at night at family get-togethers.

"They would play when the party was winding down and the drinks were kicking in," Landeza said.

Landeza gleaned as much as he could from his uncles and then realized he would have to teach himself. He remembers getting so frustrated at times that he would stick his head under a pillow and cry.

One night, at a low point, he prayed for a teacher. Hours later, his mother came into his room and showed him a flyer for legendary slack-key artist Raymond Kane, who was coming to Berkeley for a concert.

Landeza met with Kane (pronounced KAH neh) after the concert and credits "Uncle Ray" with inspiring him to stick with slack key.

In 1990, Landeza had his prayers answered again when Kawahara, who is also a band leader, singer and community organizer, accepted him as his student. Kawahara taught Landeza everything from proper Hawaiian pronunciation to stage presence.

Over the years, Landeza has grappled with being known on the islands as a "mainland boy." But through his devotion to the music, he has gained acceptance and has even shared the stage with many of his slack-key idols, from Sonny Chillingworth to Dennis Kamakahi.

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