George Kahumoku Jr.: Making connections and sharing aloha
Four-time Grammy Award winner George Kahumoku Jr. plays a tune at sunset at Napili Bay.
Story and photos
By MATTHEW THAYER
George Kahumoku Jr. may not have been the strongest or healthiest in his family, nor even its best musician, but his innate curiosity, ingenuity and a burning desire to “find a need and fill it” have led him to heights few would have predicted.
The four-time Grammy Award winner says it’s all about making connections. His relationships with the land, sea and thousands of people he has shared his aloha with through the years have opened opportunities around the world. Not bad for a sickly underdog raised by his grandparents alongside 26 cousins.
With so many colorful twists and turns in Kahumoku’s life story, it is difficult to choose where to start. Do we begin with his tale of a private visit with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II? How she revealed that the first George Kahumoku was a heroic Hawaiian stowaway on a British sailing ship? Or how a later great-grandfather was one of the first Hawaiians to receive a guitar from Spanish cowboys and thus helped lay the foundation for the music genre known as slack key? Or maybe how Nona Beamer dubbed the celebrated Maui storyteller, musician, farmer, teacher and artist “Hawaii’s Renaissance Man” in honor of his willingness to connect traditional Hawaiian techniques with modern science?
Kahumoku picks a papaya on his Kahakuloa farm. The three-acre farm features a wide variety of crops including 30 types of avocado trees, 35 of banana, Hawaiian medicinal plants and herbs. With the assistance of volunteers and paid help, Kahumoku says the farm produces between 500-1,500 pounds of food a week.
Kahumoku has had so many varied careers and experiences, perhaps it is best to harken back to the early days when he was a small child at his grandmother’s knee.
“When I was young, I was really sickly,” Kahumoku said during a recent interview on his remote Kahakuloa farm. “I had asthma. My grandmother wouldn’t let me go out and work.”
While he longed to be with his cousins doing his share, his grandmother kept him busy inside, and in doing so, bestowed him the gift of Hawaiian language.
Wife Nancy Kahumoku shades George Kahumoku with an umbrella as they ride in Kihei's Whale Day Parade in 2010. On display with them is one of the four Grammy Awards he won. Nancy, the sister of the late pianist George Winston, is a driving force behind the career of husband George. “She handles airfare, marketing, branding and doing all the stuff I don't want to do," George Kahumoku said. "I don't want to do paperwork. The only thing I want to do (with paper) is draw or write."
“Most of the time they were the guys outside working hard and I was inside close by my grandmother. In a sense, by being close by my grandmother, she made me read the Bible to her all the time. So there I was reading the Bible in Hawaiian and not knowing I’m learning the language.”
Once he was set loose upon the neighborhood, Kahumoku began cooking up ways to earn money.
“I always felt I had to do more, you know, I always have to push it.”
From mowing lawns and cleaning used cars as a child, to going door to door at age 16 to hawk the services of an Oahu roofing company, Kahumoku displayed an uncanny entrepreneurial streak that continues to this day. He learned early how to turn a nickel into a quarter. Almost from the start, music has been one of his most lucrative hustles.
Kahumoku (from right) plays with special guest Nathan Aweau and Slack Key Show co-host Shem Kahawai'i at the Napili Kai Beach Resort this past Wednesday. It was Kahumoku's last show before heading out on a 12-state, coast to coast tour. The long-running Slack Key Show runs every Wednesday, 6:30-8 p.m. Kahawai'i said he is set to steer the ship while Kahumoku is off spreading his aloha on the Mainland.
He says he was washing cars at Lippy Espinda’s used car lot after school when he happened into his first paying gig. Espinda’s lot was on Kalakaua Avenue, near where the Hawaii Convention Center now stands in Honolulu.
“First time I got paid, I was 11 years old,” Kahumoku said. “This was at the Forbidden City on Kalakaua. It was a strip joint from 10 o'clock at night until about 4 in the morning. But from 3 o'clock in the afternoon to 8 o'clock at night, that is where Kui Lee was playing.
“I was washing cars next door at Lippy Espinda’s used car lot. I was playing guitar during one of my breaks and Kui heard me. He asked me, ‘Hey, come inside and play one song for us.’ I said, ‘OK.’
“I’m kinda shy as a young kid. I take my slack key guitar and they mic it up. I do one of my grandfather’s slack key songs. The place was full of construction workers and carpenters drinking cheap beer and eating free salty food. That place was just packed.”
Kahumoku plays Wednesday at his Slack Key Show.
At Espinda’s, Kahumoku says he made a dime for each car he detailed and waxed for the popular TV pitchman credited with popularizing the shaka sign. The fastidious Espinda made little George earn every penny. The goal for Friday afternoons was 10 cars to earn a buck. On Saturdays, he put in 12 hours to hopefully do 30 vehicles and make three dollars.
The reaction to his song at Forbidden City opened his eyes to the power of music.
“I do one song, took me three minutes. Those guys, they throw money on that stage. I made $27.10.” Professionally, I wasn’t paid for the gig; I was paid in tips.”
Every once in a while, Lee would invite him over to play another song. Kahumoku says the paydays were usually similar to the first, or even better. The memory still brings a wide smile to his face.
Oregon fan Carl Christianson takes video as Kahumoku plays his ukulele following Wednesday's Slack Key Show at the Napili Kai Beach Resort. Christianson asked Kahumoku to autograph the instrument for him and ended up with a signature and a song.
Dr. Norman Estin of Kaanapali snaps a photo of Kahumoku and Christianson.
Born on the Big Island, Kahumoku and his 26 cousins were moved to Oahu by their great-grandparents while his father, George Kahumoku Sr., and uncles were working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Kwajalein Atoll. The Kahumoku men were stationed there before and during the testing of nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands.
“I have photos of him with no shirt on and glasses they made of Coke bottle bottoms with an atom bomb going off behind him,” Kahumoku said. “They didn’t know. Nobody knew what the hell it was.”
He said the deadly radiation exposure wasn’t limited to the air. When the thrifty Hawaiians saw dead fish floating ashore, they harvested them to cook, salt and smoke.
“He was radiated inside and out,” Kahumoku says. “My uncles too, they all died young. They didn’t even live to be 50 years old. They all died from radiation poison.
“That’s why we were raised by our great-grandparents. First, by our great-grandparents, and then, when they died, by our grandparents, and when they died, by aunties and uncles.”
The elders moved the kids to Oahu with hopes of enrolling them at Kamehameha School. Of the 26 cousins, George was one of two to be admitted. He says his graduating class of 1969 featured some “shakers and movers,” including Keola Beamer, Mililani Trask, Malama Solomon and Kali Watson. Just as he may not have been one of the top stars in school, he says he was middling among family members when it came to making music.
“I wasn’t even the best guitar player in my family,” Kahumoku said. “My younger brother was the best, Moses. And I had cousins who were even way better. I was probably like the 11th best player, but I was the guy who knew how to turn it into money. That’s the big difference. The other guys were shy and stuff like that. And they needed to drink or get loaded, get high before they could play, to get enough encouragement.
“I was always the underdog when I was little because I have asthma. And I always wanted to prove that, okay, you know, I can do this. And my sister still says, ‘til today, she says, ‘George the race is over, you already won.’ She’s trying to get me to slow down too. But I don’t know how to slow down.”
Wainani Kealoha performs a hula at the Slack Key Show to a song played by Nathan Aweau. She has been with the show since 2012 and says it is "an honor" to work with Kahumoku. "George cares, he cares about people, he cares about the land," Kealoha said. "He loves to take care of the homeless. He's really one of a kind. He'll help anybody."
Kealoha helps lead concert goers in singing Aloha 'Oe at the close of Wednesday's show at the Napili Kai Beach Resort on Maui.
Now 74 years old and sporting a pacemaker to help his heart keep time with his busy mind, Kahumoku’s schedule is frenetic as ever. Not only is he running a farm, playing four gigs a week and thinking about adding another show, he and his wife Nancy will soon be leaving on a 12-state tour that will see him do 22 events in four weeks. Traveling with them will be fellow Hawaiian slack key legends Herb Ohta Jr. and Sonny Lim. Kahumoku says they will do workshops and small performances by day and play larger venues in the evenings.
It will be a chance for folks from coast to coast to hear great Hawaiian music and, no doubt, be treated to heartfelt stories about the islands and the people of Hawaii. A storyteller at heart, Kahumoku loves to share tales of the past. They might be about Hawaiian legends, working as a welder on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, or how he raised pigs and produce on the Big Island.
As for where he got his first name, he says it took a royal visit to learn the answer. Kahumoku said he was part of an entourage from Hawaii that traveled to London in 1977 for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. For his part, he played her the song, “Queen’s Jubilee,” which had been written for Queen Victoria in 1887 by Hawaii's Princess Liliuokalani.
Later in the reception line when it was his turn to introduce himself, the queen repeated his name before shaking his hand. The next day, he says, he received a note from the queen expressing a desire to meet. A car was sent to fetch Kahumoku, and the next thing he knew, he was down in “the dungeons” exploring the royal archives with the monarch herself.
Wearing a mask and white gloves to preserve the fragile paper, Kahumoku was led to where the captain’s logs are kept. The queen explained that an important part of her education was studying the leather-bound, handwritten tomes penned by ship’s captains who roamed the planet in service of country, king and queen. One can only imagine the geography, history, economics, politics and other subjects to be gleaned from the crumbling pages.
Queen Elizabeth directed him to a particular log, one with a story from 1793 about a heroic young Hawaiian. The surname and hometown were spelled phonetically, but both were easily recognizable.
“In the book, it says there is a young Kahumoku who is a stowaway from Kealakekua,” Kahumoku said. “That’s where my family is from, Kona. There was a huge storm right out of Nova Scotia and what happened is, the first mate fell overboard. None of those sailors knew how to swim. They don't know how to swim because they don’t go into the ocean. Here’s young Kahumoku straight out of Kealakekua Bay. He knows how to swim, how to surf and everything. So, when the guy falls overboard, he jumps into the cold icy waters and saves the first mate and brings him aboard. When he reaches England, he is knighted ‘George’ by King George. King George knighted him after himself.”
The queen let the words from the yellowing pages sink in for a moment, then asked: “Are you related? Are you from Kealakekua?” To his affirmative, she continued, “Well, that was the first George Kahumoku. What number are you?”
The young Hawaiian musician said his father was number seven and one of his brothers was number eight, so that made him George IX.
He says the queen did more than share a bit of history. As with other invited nations and communities touched by the British Empire, the Hawaii contingent returned home with a cache of important historical artifacts that had been collected and sent to England through the centuries.
Kahumoku (from left) shares a break with farm helpers Leo Kalua'u and Pascual Lopez Kelilikane. "It's a blessing we have uncles like this who bring us back into the old ways," Kalua'u said. "He's not only a good guy, he's an inspiration to young men."
Kahumoku’s meeting with the queen can be chalked up to fate or coincidence, but so many of his connections happen because he seeks and nurtures them. What other musician do you know who displays guest books at their shows and then mails postcards to the mainland to let people know he is coming to their town? Who else invites audience members to their farm to help with the chores and share a meal?
“I think the big thing I want people to realize, I’m just an ordinary person who saw an opportunity to connect,” he said. “To help others connect with others and make something useful out of it. Come up with something that can help out each other.
“The money was never the bottom line. The first line is connection. Even with my cousins, I’m just an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things. But it’s not that extraordinary if you look around. Like, people’s lawns needed to be done, so I mowed yards. People needed ginger, so I raised ginger. Then the next thing you know, I’m selling them Chinese taro and then avocados. It’s just one thing rolls into the next. I didn’t plan any of it, that’s for sure. I just go with the flow.”
Kahumoku conducts a Hawaiian blessing at a tree-planting event in Wailuku in 2020.
When Kahumoku is on Maui and not on tour, he says he generally performs on Mondays at Pailolo Bar & Grill at the Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort, Wednesdays at his own long-running Slack Key Show at the Napili Kai Beach Resort, Fridays at Kula Lodge and Saturdays at Leilani’s on the Beach in Kaanapali.
Going with the flow these days means that he and Nancy have put the Kahakuloa farm where they have lived for the past 22 years up for sale. Once it sells, a move to the mainland to be closer to their grandchildren is in the offing. As hard as it must be to leave behind all his trees, plants, friends, clients and neighbors, change has never frightened George Kahumoku Jr.
Perhaps it is because he never stops making connections, never stops learning and creating and never stops sharing his aloha.
To learn more about George Kahumoku's tour schedule, workshops, store, blog and how to connect, visit https://kahumoku.com.
George and Nancy Kahumoku share smiles during a community performance at a post-pandemic event in Lahaina in 2022. The Kahumokus are familiar faces at fundraisers and other Maui functions where they lend their talents to help others.
Merchandize available at Kahumoku shows includes books, CDs, artwork and sheet music to some of the several thousand songs and chants he has written through the years.
Kahumoku takes a photo of achiote, or red dye lipstick pods, growing on his farm. He said the pods are used to make Puerto Rican pasteles and gandule rice.
Kahumoku cups an edible nasturtium flower growing on his Kahakuloa farm.
Raindrops collect on the leaves of one of Kahumoku’s tapioca plants.
Kahumoku holds an Okinawan spinach leaf grown at his farm. He says the leaves are tasty eaten fresh, lightly poached or steamed. Spinach from his farm is featured on the menu at Hula Grill restaurant in Kaanapali, he said.