Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Posted 10 Aug 2000 5:18 am |
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The following announcement is printed with permission from the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association. Visit their website: www.hsga.org for more details.
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On October 5,6,7, while the rest of the country gets into the football season, one hundred plus wanna-be Hawaiians will gather at the Holiday Inn Express in Joliet, Illinois for three full days of Hawaiian music. This is the fifteenth annual convention in Joliet for members of
Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association, an international memberrship organization headquartered in Honolulu, Hawai`i.
Many members of the organization, which is a tax-exempt non-profit corporation, live in Illinois and the surrounding states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio. Many more fly in from Hawai`i, as well as New York, Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and most of the states in-between. Steel playing "regulars", who've been attending since 1985, come from Canada, and always, from Japan. If any of them know that Joliet is the site of a major Federal prison, it's of little interest. This is the single time each year die-hard Hawaiian steel guitar players, and an enthusiastic crowd of non-playing listeners, can gorge on three solid days of the Hawaiian music they love.
For a total of eighteen regular hours of music sessions,jammed into the three morning and afternoons, every popular Hawaiian tune gets played at least once, on every style of acoustic and electric steel guitar from vintage Fenders to the modern Canopus, made in Japan. Members back players on ukulele, guitar and bass.
It doesn't stop at dinnertime, however. Japanese members call this the "no sleep" convention, because of the all night jam sessions, led by the Hawaiian and California professionals, for whom the Midwest time zone difference has no impact. Convention ends with a full scale Hawaiian Lu`au, complete with Island-style "sticky rice", mastered by the local caterers, under the watchful eye of one of the club's Hawaiian-born members. This year, several short evening workshops in ukulele, steel guitar and hula are also planned.
In addition to diehard Hawaiian steel guitar players who attend, some pedal steel players from Texas secretly cross over from Country Music and Western Swing for a few days, to pick up new rhythm and styling tips, having learned that the steel guitar (often referred to as "lap steel" or non-pedal steel) was invented in Hawai`i, one hundred years ago, and only made it into country music dance bands after Hollywood discovered steel guitar in the 1930's.
In 1972, when most of the great steel artists in Hawai`i were already history, Nashville steel guitar artist, Jerry Byrd, not so secretly a Hawaiian music lover, moved to Honolulu and began teaching a new generation of Hawaiian musicians how to play their own invention, Hawaiian steel guitar. Byrd, called "The Master of Touch and Tone" started the renaissance of Hawaiian steel, still happening today. HSGA President, Alan L. Akaka (son of U.S. Senator from Hawai`i, Daniel K. Akaka,) and the club's Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. Isaac Akuna, both professional steel guitar entertainers, are former students of Jerry Byrd.
HSGA members are hoping that Jerry Byrd will be this year's special Guest Artist from Hawai`i. Says Isaac Akuna "when you're 80 years young, you have the right to say "no". Both Alan Akaka and Dr. Akuna , however, will attend, play and keep the "no sleep" evening jam sessions going until dawn, as usual.
HSGA, as it's known, welcomes visitors to its morning and afternoon audiences. The fee is modest and may be paid by check or cash at HSGA's Merchant's Row convention Courtesy Table in the hotel. For more information, contact HSGA Convention Director, Don Weber in New Lenox, Illinois 815-485-6765, or Wally Pfeifer in Joliet, 815-725-1887.
-- Marjorie J. Scott, Editor of the HSGA Quarterly magazine |
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