Music

Hapa brings sunny Hawaiian sounds to Anchorage

As winter encroached on Boulder, Colorado, Barry Flanagan was longing to leave for a warmer destination.

A house fire had left him homeless and stunted his plan to gain residency in the state so he could attend the University of Colorado on the cheap.

"It was October and freezing," Flanagan recalled.

With little more than some insurance money from the fire, Flanagan boarded a plane to Maui, ostensibly to escape winter for just a few months.

But it was more than enough time for him to fall in love with the Hawaiian Islands, especially the people and their culture and soothing, buoyant music.

"It was immediate," Flanagan said of infatuation. "It was crazy immediate."

A little over three years later, in 1983, Flanagan formed Hapa. The word is Hawaiian for "half," often used to describe a person with partial Pacific Island heritage.

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Flanagan's introduction to the music was through Hawaiian legend Gabby Pahinui and Ry Cooder. Musicians like Pahinui were responsible for what is called a Hawaiian Renaissance that started in the 1970s.

"Gabby was an icon of this style of backyard feel-good Hawaiian music," he said. "Ry caught that fever. I was a Ry Cooder fan and that's what led to my interest."

In Hawaii, he was immediately taken under the wing of a neighboring family, as well as the local music community.

The neighboring couple, Jimmie and his wife Ardell Kaopuiki, helped him get work at the restaurant Ardell managed. Jimmie, whose father was a bassist in the house band on the popular "Hawaii Calls" radio show, provided some musical tutoring.

"That was serious lineage and all the sudden it's like I'm living next door to all the knowledge you'd ever need in his living room," Flanagan said.

Flanagan was already a guitarist, so he dove into the local musical traditions involving slack-key guitar and the native language.

"It was an obsession," he said. "It was 12 hours or more a day studying, learning, going to meet Hawaiian native speakers," he said. "I was thinking I might be leaving in a year."

Soon, Flanagan was nearly overwhelmed with opportunities to play professionally.

"The second year goes by and I'm doing 10 gigs a week, probably 500 a year," he said. "I look back at that time. It was really amazing, all these places wanted to hire you."

Flanagan's first partner in Hapa was Keli'i Kaneali'i, and the duo played together as the core of the group for 18 years.

It took nearly a decade of honing their sound and fundraising before Hapa made a record.

The group's self-titled debut, released in 1993, became a big seller and featured guest artists like Stephen Stills and Kenny Loggins, as well as top-notch production value. It was engineered by Greg Calbi, best known for his work with John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen.

The success of the album gave the group the ability to advocate for issues close to their music, like maintaining native language in Hawaii.

Back before the Hawaiian Renaissance of the '70s, Flanagan said, there were fewer than 20 adolescents speaking the native Hawaiian language. Today, that number has surged to upward of 10,000.

"Those musicians at the time wanted to bring the culture back," he said. "They were an integral part of bringing back a language that was almost extinct."

To ensure the vitality of the language, Hapa formed a mission statement and has donated to Punana Leo Preschools, which has a curriculum that emphasizes the native language.

Ron Kuala'au stepped in as Flanagan's partner in Hapa, which has grown to include bassist and vocalist Tarvin Makia and dancer Radasha Ho'ohuli.
"I have a long, long friendship with Ron and Tarvin going back to the '70s," Flanagan said.

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"Ron was the guy that all the old-timers said I should seek out. He was the one I had to hear. He had this handle on contemporizing Hawaiian songs."

Together, they create a musical atmosphere that can bring back plenty of carefree nostalgia for audience members who have visited the Hawaiian Islands.

"It's an emotion where everyone lets go of their ego and stop thinking about money and competing," Flanagan said. "It's a state of being that's very special."

Hapa

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Discovery Theatre

Tickets: $40.25, $48, $54.75 at alaskapac.centertix.net

Chris Bieri

Chris Bieri is the sports and entertainment editor at the Anchorage Daily News.

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