Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 9, 1 September 1994 — Teaching "the steel" to a new generation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Teaching "the steel" to a new generation

Interview by Patrick Johnston AIvin "Barney" Isaacs Jr. and Scott Furushima are two well-known musicians on the Hawai'i music scene. Isaacs has spent most of his life mastering the Hawaiian steel guitar and has performed the instrument for more than 50 years. He is now. with the support of an Apprenticeship Award from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, sharing his knowledge with Furushima. Furushima is a trombonist for the Royal Hawaiian Band and has been playing the steel guitar since the late 1980s. KWO: Alvin, tell me a little about your work with Scott and the State Foundation for the Culture and Arts. Isaacs: My part in this whole thing is to teach a certain instrument, whieh is the steel guitar. That's the instrument I've always used, the Hawaiian steel guitar. You see, the 'ukulele and the regular guitar weren't created in Hawai'i, we adopted those instruments. The Hawaiian steel guitar is the only string instrument created in Hawai'i: invented and discovered and created in Hawai'i (by Hawaiian Joseph Kekuku). It used to be the lead instrument in all our groups just like the piano is in the trio. It was big for a while, and then, not too long ago, it kind of lost popularity. A lot of music started changing all over the Mainland too and the people that used to love Hawaiian music and hotels that used to love Hawaiian music kind of backed down. What I'm trying to do, and what other steel guitar players are trying to do, is keep what we learned and what we think is part of the Hawaiian heritage and teach the young people. Scott is young and he's a good musician and he catches on fast. I teach mostly by ear. The way I learned how to play is by ear and by feel. If you read music all the time you become kind of meehanieal. Scott ean read music and he ean play by ear. He's got a good ear and he's got a terrific mind. He has a creative mind for music. He's got a memory like an elephant. He memorizes many songs, Hawaiian songs, and he's doing very well for himself. And he's going to be a good steel guitarist too. He catches on fast.

KWO: How did you guys meet? lsaacs: With the Royal Hawaiian Band. During the half-time intermission we used to play Hawaiian music and he was part of the Hawaiian group. He blows brass for the Hawaiian Band. That's how we met, playing the Hawaiian portion. Furushima: I first saw him play at the Halekūlani hotel. I used to eome down to the hotel and watch Alvin and his group. KWO: Scott, when did you develop your interest in steel guitar? Furushima: When I first started watching him (Isaacs), in '86, '87. First I didn't know anything about Hawaiian music. I progressed from the 'ukulele and then finally to the steel guitar. KWO: So you were playing other instruments before you started the steel guitar?

Furushima: Yes, 'ukulele, guitar and bass and other instruments like trombone. KWO: What did you like about the steel guitar? Furushima: Actually at the beginning I didn't know what it was. As I got to play with Alvin more and more I realized, wow, this is something phenomenal. KWO: So you like the sound? Furushima: I like a specific sound, his (Isaacs') sound. The Hawaiian sound. We all try to get it but it's hard. It"s a difficult sound to attain. Isaacs: What he's trying to explain is that I have a sound. Another steel guitarist has another sound. We have our different styles. It just so happens he likes my style and Fm teaching him my style. KWO: So playing the steel guitar is a very personalized thing?

Isaacs: That's right. KWO: Now do other steel guitarists play in a way that is less "Hawaiian," or is it just an individualized thing? Isaacs: If you know the steel guitar then you ean tell the difference. Anyone who's playing the guitar who is not Hawaiian you more or less will know he's not Hawaiian. Hawaiians have a pretty good touch right off the bat. That's why he (Furushima) doesn't have the touch yet. He doesn't have Hawaiian. (laughs) But just like his 'ukulele and his guitar he has learned how to play Hawaiian music. He could play his guitar like crazy because he is a good musician. But his touch is different now that he ean play Hawaiian music. KWO: How would you describe your ability, Scott? Do you agree with Alvin? Furushima: Oh yeah. I'm at that level now. I gotta find the right sound.

Isaacs: Right sound and right touch. As far as the talent goes, he's got the talent. I just have to spend a little more time with him. KWO: Alvin, why did you get into the steel guitar? Isaacs: My father was a musician and a composer. More or less, I turned to music just like my father. You know, when he graduated from high school he became a polieeman and then one day he was on his bike and chasing some public enemy. It was a rainy day and the bike flipped and the axle went through his leg. He was forced to retire. Then he became a musician. He was self-taught. He

raugni nimsen aooui reading and everything. And he became a very good musician and composer. When I went to university I had my major all planned. But after the second year I got in an accident and almost lost my eyes. I had a depressed skull all the way to my neek. Because of that I couldn't go to school. So, just like my father, I turned to music. KWO: What was the accident you had? lsaacs: Somebody hit me with an iron. KWO: A golf club? lsaacs: A number four iron. KWO: You were a Punahou graduate, weren't you? Isaacs: Yes. KWO: So you were on a career track and then things got derailed?

Isaacs: It was almost like my father. I was halfway through my second year at college. But maybe it was all right because, with Hawaiian music, I did well. At one time I even owned three cars. KWO: So you think you did the right thing by going into music? Isaacs: Oh yeah: I've enjoyed what I've done, the music I play. KWO: Do you think the steel guitar is going to have a revival in the next few years? Isaacs: It's coming along. More kids are learning it now. More groups are using it now. It sounds good. For a while they had that contemporary beat. But whatever they do, the kids these days they really know their music. They're good. We just do our thing because I think this is good music too. And a lot of older people like what we do too. With him (Furushima) we have a variety of things we ean do because he knows a eonūnueā on page 22

Alvin lsaacs (right) and Scott Furushima: keeping a Hawaiian tradition alive. Phoio by Carl Hefner

Barney lsaacs, Scott Furushima and Aaron Mahi performing at the Kahala Hilton. Photo by Carl Hefner

Barney lsaacs

lot of songs. He's good. KWO: Scott, how do you find Alvin as a teacher? Furushima: Well when we first started, becau.se of my theoretical knowledge of music, it was hard for me because his angle was coming from the ear. But now I've got the mechanics. Now I know where he's coming from so it's easier. Before he would show me one pass and I wouldn't know where he was going. Before I was looking at it from a theoretical standpoint. But now I don't ask why, I just do 'em. KWO: I guess you have to understand him and what makes his music work to be able to play it. Furushima: Onee you focus into that then you see it. KWO: Is the meehanieal approach to music a more "Western" approach and what Alvin does more "Hawaiian"? Furushima: It is more like jazz improvisation. That's what he's (Isaacs) doing. He knows chord structure but he's just playing what he feels. He's playing musical motifs over a chord progression. That's what a jazz player does. It's just that he adds a Hawaiian flavor to it. KWO: Was the steel guitar hard to learn? Furushima: It was very hard to leam. It is a very difficult instrument. KWO: How long did it take you (Isaacs) before you felt like you were a competent steel guitar player? Isaacs: Oh a long time, a long time. It was only by the beginning of the '60s did I feel that I knew what I was doing. Then it was easy. 1 never used to really practice my steel guitar. Unlike some of these other guys that were really good. ... Mostly on the job I did

my practicing. I would feel certain licks I could do, progressions, while I was on the job. KWO: What have you done as a professional? lsaacs: My first big job professionally was at the Royal Hawaiian. I was with the Royal Hawaiian Serenaders whieh was, at that time, the greatest singing group in Hawai'i. Getting together with them was just a stroke of luek. I was still in university when they asked me to join them. ... They hired me because I could sing by ear. I could get the fourth part of the quartet. They told me I could practice my steel guitar while I was singing with them. That's how I started playing professionally. Then I became a member of "Hawai'i Calls." I played with Haunani Kahalewai at the top of the Waikīkī Biltmore Hotel. After that I went to the Hilton Hawaiian Village then took over the dance band at the Barefoot Bar at the 01d Queen's Surf. ... During the '70s I played with Danny Kaleikini. ... I've done some traveling. We went to the Orient. KWO: How was that? Isaacs: We did concerts. The Japanese love the steel guitar and they ean play too. ... KWO: Have you traveled to the Mainland United States? lsaacs: Oh Yeah. There are great big steel guitar clubs on the Mainland and in Canada. There is one, the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association, that has members from all over the world. There was this guy from Wales, Hal Jones. Boy, that guy could sit down and play Hawaiian music for three or four hours non-stop and almost not repeat any songs. KWO: Alvin, you've been in Hawai'i all your life. It has gone through a lot of changes. The population has changed, the culture has changed. How do you feel about the way the music culture is going in the

state? lsaacs: They use Hawaiian words in different kinds of music but often the music is not Hawaiian. Reggae is not Hawaiian but they use Hawaiian words. People from the Mainland say they ean get that kind of music on the Mainland. But these kids, whatever they do they do it well. ...

KWO: So you think as long as the kids are playing music and playing well that's OK. Isaacs : Well you've got to give them credit for playing that type of music and playing it well, but we've got to keep our culture, our music going. You get some other groups like Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and the Mākaha Sons of Ni'ihau. They're good and they've even added steel guitars in a lot of their recordings. There are a lot of groups that are keeping up Hawaiian music. We're not worTied about that. Everybody does their thing. Furushima: An important thing to note out of all the styles of Hawaiian music is that, with the style we do, there are only something like ten guys in the islands that ean do it. This is the style of the Territory of Hawai'i: the 1930s to the early '60s, the "Hawai'i Calls" era. This sound is hardly heard these days. You hear it at the Kahala Hihon and the Halekūlani but a lot of the performers are elderly gentlemen, more than half of the ten guys who play are over 60. Isaacs: We depend a lot on the young guys to keep this music going. KWO: Scott, what do you hope to be doing in the future? Furushima: For me right now the goal that I see is being a steel guitar artist, because

vocally I'm not that strong. I had all these other plans. I had tentative scholarships to go to the San Francisco School of Music Conservatory to be an orchestral trombonist. I also wanted to be a jazz trombonist. But I liked staying in Hawai'i and a lot of other stuff eame up. And for trombone there weren't very many jobs for nighttime gigs here. I'm really fortunate I got into the band. You know it's the last full-time city and county band in the United States. I'm happy to have that and now a lot of my focus is on Hawaiian music and the focus in the Hawaiian music is the steel. KWO: And you will continue to work under Alvin? Furushima: For a few more months. But we'll be working together after that. They say you ean learn a lot by watching. Even though I'm playing steel right next to him and I see all the moves, in a lesson setting it's controlled. When you see him playing on the outside with the rhythm section a lot of times a lot of ideas eome out that you wouldn't see in a lesson. A lot of creativity comes out. Isaacs: There's so many things you ean do with this instrument. Maybe in a eouple of years he (Furushima) will be able to dominate the instrument, to annihilate that instrument. He really puts in a lot of time on his own.

Scott Furushima and Alvin lsaacs