Born in 1951, Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer was raised in Kamuela, on the Big Island, surrounded by members of one of Hawai's most illustrious and beloved musical families. The Beamers trace their roots to the 15th century; among their ancestors are the Queen Ahiakumai Ki'eki'e and Ho'olulu, a child of the favored wife of Kamehameha I.
Keola established himself early on as the family's youngest standard-bearer. A child of the rock and roll era, he has always been on the vanguard of the Hawaiian contemporary sound. However, he also helped drive what has come to be known as the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance: he has recorded many of the songs written by his ancestors, from the lively Keawaiki to the lullaby Pupu Hinuhinu. He has recorded and produced more than a dozen albums, winning numerous Hoku Awards, Hawai'i's equivalent of the Grammies, and has even appeared on Sesame Street and on NBC's "Today Show."
Keola was one of Hawai'i's first recording artists to integrate Hawaiian chants and instruments, like the tiny gourd whistle and the nose flute, with contemporary forms of music. "A lot of musicians in the past treated the nose flute as a frame," he says. "They played it at the beginning and the end of a piece. Through experimentation, I managed to integrate it into the piece. It has a gorgeous sound, a gorgeous texture."
Keola's legendary great-grandmother, Helen Desha Beamer (1882-1952), was one of Hawai'i's most prolific and accomplished singer-songwriters, whose compositions came to her in dreams, on boat rides, and during visits with friends. Possessed of a high, clear soprano, her fluency in the Hawaiian language endowed her with lyrics with vivid images. She was also a skilled dancer whose intricate footwork and fluid grace left a lasting imprint on the hula.
Her grandaughter and Keola's mother, Winona Kapuailohia Beamer, is also a noted chanter, composer, and author, who has spent a lifetime researching and teaching "Hawaiiana," a term she coined. Indeed, Keola's career as a musician began in his mother's Honolulu hula studio, where he played guitar as an accompaniament for the dancers. "That's part of being in the Beamer family - your job is as a musician," he says. Then he adds with a laugh: "And my mom is the only person who ever fired me."
In high school and college, Keola studied classical guitar, and later, when he began to teach guitar, he published a method book, Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, using a tablature system for 16th-century lutes as his starting point. At about the same time, in 1972, he recorded his first landmark solo album, "Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style," filled with the nahenahe (soft and sweet) sound of this Hawaiian tradition. This album continues to influence many guitarists.
"In my family, music was taken seriously," Beamer says. "It was an integral part of our lives, almost like a religion. But Hawaiians are up against a shallow stereotype, often demeaning to the native culture. That hurts." It has been the life passion of Keola Beamer to counter such images.
