Next Generation keeps Hawaiian music alive.

Byline: Paul Denison The Register-Guard

One raises livestock. Another is a former middle school vice principal. One is a karate champion, another is an ordained minister. Two are music teachers.

Put them together with some guitars and ukuleles, and you have Hawaiian Music's Next Generation. They'll say aloha to Eugene at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in a concert at the Shedd.

Jim Ralph, executive director of the Oregon Festival of American Music, describes Hawaiian Music's Next Generation as "a relatively new project that is made up of the sons of several slack-key/uke masters." One even brings along his father, a slack-key guitarist who played with the Sons of Hawaii.

In the Hawaiian language, "ki ho`alu" means "loosen the key." Traditional slack-key guitarists do just that, loosening their strings to produce a range of unusual tunings in six keys.

Although there are four basic slack-key guitar styles, the tunings often are highly individualized - some much so that they once were guarded as family secrets.

The tradition goes back to the early 19th century, when European sailors and Mexican and Spanish vaqueros (cowboys) brought guitars to the islands. After the vaqueros left, some Hawaiians took their hand-me-down guitars and integrated what they had learned with traditional island chants, songs and rhythms.

The tunings and performance have been evolving ever since. Early in the 20th century, recordings and live performances by Hawaiian musicians influenced blues slide guitarists and country-western steel guitar players on the mainland.

Hawaiian Music's Next Generation may renew and extend that influence. The group:

Keoki Kahumoku, 33, is a livestock rancher who teaches guitar and ukulele to children. A slack-key guitarist for more than a decade, Kahumoku has three albums out, one with his father, George, and two with Herb Ohta Jr.

Music reviewer John Berger of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin describes him as "a natural vocalist in the old style."

Herb Ohta Jr., also in his mid-30s, is a two-time winner of the Hawai`i Music Award. Taught by his father, he has more than 20 recordings out and has taught ukulele in Hawaii and Japan for two decades.

His new album, "Ukulele Breeze," is due out this month.

Patrick Landeza, 31, is a slack-key guitarist who created the Next Generation tour. Pianist George Winston, whose record label has released several slack-key albums, considers Landeza, a former school administrator from Berkeley, Calif., "one of the best and most dedicated of the new generation" of slack-key players.

Landeza's third album, "Slack Key World," will be released in October.

David Kamakahi, 22, is a ukulele player known for his progressive approach to interpretations of classic songs. He has toured the United States and Japan with his father.

His first solo album, "Pa`ani," is due out this month.

He holds a first-degree black belt in karate and has won gold medals nationally.

David's father, slack-key player Dennis Kamakahi, joined the Sons of Hawai`i in 1973 and stepped into the role formerly played by celebrated guitarist Gabby Pahinui.

Since 1977, he has been an ordained minister with the Ka Leo Mana o ke Akua Mission.

CONCERT PREVIEW

Hawaiian Music's

Next Generation

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: The Shedd, 285 E. Broadway

How much: $23.50, $18.50, $15.50 and $13.50 (obstructed view), through the Shedd box office

CAPTION(S):

Hawaiian Music's Next Generation features performers who learned their instruments at the knees of the masters.