Kainani Kahaunaele and Kamaka Kukona are among this year’s hopefuls at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. Both rooted in Hawaiian culture, the multitalented entertainers have garnered 13 nominations between them.
They will learn the results on Thursday when the event, which was recorded last month at the Hawaii Theatre Center, will air at 7 p.m. on K5. In an unusual format to comply COVID-19 restrictions, the award-presenter introduction segments and musical performances were prerecorded. Every finalist also recorded an acceptance speech “just in case.” The winners’ speeches will be plugged in prior to the broadcast.
Although the award show is being presented differently this year, it will still celebrate Hawaii’s musicians and the breadth of music they bring in all 39 award categories.
Here, spotlights on Kahaunaele and Kukona reveal a glimpse into the rich, diverse pool of talent of those musicians.
Language is tie that binds
For Kahaunaele — singer, musician, entertainer, Hawaiian language teacher and multi-Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning recording artist — it’s a celebration of language, which she says can go anywhere. She’s proving it with her third album, “Waipunalei,” and the two songs on it that take Hawaiian-language music beyond traditional boundaries.
One of them, “Kaulana Versae,” has a sophisticated cocktail-lounge jazz arrangement that she recorded with Tommy James (piano), Noel Okimoto (drums) and Dean Taba (acoustic bass). The other, “He Lei Aloha No Mi Nei,” displays her jazz/pop consciousness with support from Shawn Pimental (guitar), Michael Grande (piano/keyboards) and Kale Chang (supportive vocals).
“Those are the kind of songs that I love to sing,” Kahaunaele explained on the phone from her home in Hilo. “I won’t classify myself as a jazz singer or an R&B singer, but I was making all the decisions as producer so I had a chance to experiment in what I wanted to try. There was nobody there to tell me ‘no,’ and so I could go for it. I thought as a songwriter I probably could write something in English, but my forte is in Hawaiian. I can definitely provide lyrics and Hawaiian perspective, and then the music can be any music. I’m confident in my songwriting, so let’s put it out there. I know what I want for my own songs.”
Kahaunaele’s confidence in her own production skills was well-placed. “Waipunalei” is a finalist in eight categories. The tally includes one for studio engineer Grande, but since Kahaunaele is the album’s producer she could earn two awards — one as a recording artist, one as a producer — if “Waipunalei” wins album of the year.
Hoku Award statisticians know that Kahaunaele’s first album, “Na‘u ‘Oe,” won three Hokus, including female vocalist of the year, in 2004. Her second, “Ohai Ula,” won both of the adjudicated Hawaiian-language categories in 2011. For the next decade, Kahaunaele was a working entertainer, educator and parent — she teaches Hawaiian language at the Ka Haka ‘Ula o Ke‘elikolani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and is also the mother of three children, daughters ages 14 and 11, and a son age 9.
“I go to school to teach and then go home to take care of the family, and then try to figure out what I’m going to do with the music. Those are my three basic units — teaching, the family and music — and they are all intertwined with each other, so Hawaiian-language education doesn’t only limit me to UH. All of my children are in Hawaiian immersion schools, so I am their second line of defense in education as well as language, and then Hawaiian music is my thing, so they all participate in that whether they like it or not.”
After more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions, Kahaunaele is looking forward to touring again.
“I’m imagining what my tour will look like. Where I would like to travel to sing. Locally and overseas. I just look forward to playing with the band.”
Getting creative
On Maui, kumu hula Kamaka Kukona has also received Hoku Award nominations for each of his albums. His first album, “Hanu ‘A‘ala,” won two Hokus in 2014 — male vocalist of the year and most promising artist. It was also the only Hawaiian album that year to make the final ballot in the regional roots music category at the Grammys. His second album, “ ‘Ala Anuhea,” earned him his second win for male vocalist in 2018.
This year, his third album, “Kahekeonapua,” is a finalist in five categories — album of the year, male vocalist of the year, Hawaiian music album, Hawaiian-language performance and Hawaiian engineering (which would go to engineers Michael Casil and Wailau Ryder).
The album had a difficult birth.
“We released it a week before the world went pandemic,” Kukona said. “Then my Japan trip was canceled just one day before I was supposed to go to Japan. My Japan CD tour got canceled, a 16-day tour with 12 venues — the cancellation was kind of dramatic.”
“But, now that I look back at it, we totally needed it. I don’t mean we needed the pandemic, but we needed a break to recenter our lives at home with our families, we needed to reevaluate what was most special in our lives. The break allowed us to do that. It wasn’t the greatest of circumstances, but we were doing things we normally wouldn’t because we’d always be traveling to Japan — go to Japan, come home, gone again, come home, gone again. Being ‘stuck on the rock’ was very important for the creative side of things.”
One of the creative things Kukona is doing this fall is Behind the Scenes of Hula, a community outreach program at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea. Kukona conducts a class on the hotel grounds with members of his halau, Halau o Ka Hanu Lehua, with visitors free to watch from the comfort of their balconies. The intent is to give visitors the opportunity to see what hula looks like performed by experienced dancers but not staged as a performance.
“We need to stay distanced, while still being able to provide visitors with a cultural experience,” Kukona explained. “We can’t give them private lessons because of COVID, but we can show them what happens within a normal class. And every week we have a different local artist. The first week was with Kalani Pe‘a. After that we had Napua (Grieg). This week it’s Ikaika Blackburn and next week is Josh Tatofi, so it’s turning into a nice little thing.”
Kukona said that although he is first and foremost a kumu hula, he considers it an honor to hear his music on the radio — or even in an elevator.
“At the end of the day, I like the fact that my music is being sung or played on the radio stations. I’m so stoked when I hear old songs from my first album being in rotation. To me, that’s the long-term honor, I really trip out on that. I think the most unusual place I’ve heard my music is in the elevator. We’ve always used that joke about ‘elevator music,’ and now, to hear your music in an elevator after all the jokes turns it around, and it becomes an honor.”
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WATCH IT
Na Hoku Hanohano Awards
7 p.m. Thursday on K5. The show will re-air at 7 p.m. Saturday on KGMB and 7 p.m. Oct. 30 on KHNL.
