George Kahumoku, Jr. - A Lifetime of Music
George Kahumoku Jr. was born and raised in a large extended Ohana, or family, with 26 cousins, his great grandfather Willy Kahumoku and his great grandmother Tutu Koko’o Lottie Haae Kahumoku, in Kealia, South Kona, in the early 1950’s. His Dad, George Sr., worked on the atomic bomb in Kwajalein, Anawetok, and Bikini Island in the 1940’s and 1950’s. For the most part, George was raised by great grandparents, Willy and Tutu Koko’o, his grandparents, Bonifacio and Emily Ho’opale Dulay, and his aunties and uncles.
Everyone played Hawaiian music and Hawaiian slack key guitar, including Grampa Willy, George’s Dad, George Sr. and most of George’s male cousins. George’s biggest influence on slack key guitar was his first cousin Michael Naihe, who was two years older than George.
George grew up in a pig raising, taro, banana, coffee farming and fishing community. His music is tied to his environment, which included working the land and influences from his experiences from fishing in the sea.
George’s great-grandfather Willy raised pigs, which was the centerpiece for all the celebrations for rites of passage, such as birth, one year old baby parties, marriages, house warmings, new canoe or boat blessings, celebrations of life and one year celebrations after death, as well as birthday parties and high school graduations. Grandpa Willy would provide the Kalua pig necessary for the celebrations, as well as the slack key music. When food was being prepped, during the actual celebrations itself and the after party, people would come to help clean up and share the leftover food. There were three opportunities to share slack key and Hawaiian music at each of these Celebrations.
Grampa Willy also played slack key music at Pukaana Church with His wife Tutu Koko’o. George and his elder brother Van moved to Honolulu to attend a native Hawaiian school called Kamehameha Schools. They were both introduced and influenced by the choir music of Kamehameha Schools, and George started playing slack key guitar professionally at age 13. He won second place in the battle of the bands at the Waikiki Shell with a group called "The Climax Five". He played at a teenage club, "Club Jetty" on Kauai, as well as teen age clubs in Kailua and Nuuanu on Oahu.
In the late 1960’s, George went to California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and UC Berkeley, where he got to play music with Janice Joplin at Cody’s Book Store in Berkeley CA. He was also a pipe fitter at the Port of Oakland, where he worked with Sylvester Marshall, who also owned a blues bar on 7th St in Oakland CA . George got to share music and food prepared by BB King in the late 1960’s, and the early 1970’s at his friends Bar on 7th St in Oakland .
He also connected to Jesse Colin Young, Elvin Bishop and Norton Buffalo from the Steve Miller Band, through growing and sharing food, as well as through sharing Music. George, Norton and Jesse would put on concerts to raise money for the Kona Warldorf Schools, based on Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamic Farming in Kona in the mid 1980’s. George’s coffee , avocado , taro and, pig farm was organic and biodynamically certified from 1984-1992.
George and his brother Moses formed a duo called "The Kahumoku Brothers"; and played music at the Westin Mauna Kea Beach Hotel ( MKBH ), located in Kawaihae on the Big Island of Hawai’i, from 1975 to 1992, until it closed for a two-year renovation.
George and his son, Keoki, moved to Maui and played at the Westin Kaanapali from 1992 until 9-11-21, when the Twin Towers were stuck down in New York City. George taught school at Lahainaluna High School during the day and played music at night. George worked on his Masters of Education in Santa Cruz, CA from 2001-2003. During that time, he toured the continental USA and Europe, playing Slackkey guitar at colleges and the Worlds Fair in Hanover, Germany.
George Kahumoku started recording on George Winston’s Dancing Cat Label from 1995, touring and playing Slackkey music with slack key Dancing Cat Artists Ray Kane, Keola Beamer, Ledward Kaapana and Bob Brozeman till 2001.
George returned back to Maui in October of 2003 to start The Slackkey Show on Maui with Paul Konwiser at the Ritz Carlton Kapalua from 2003-2005. The Ritz closed for a two-year renovation, and the show moved to Napili Kai Beach Resort, where it continues to this day.
George, along with his team, produced Masters of Hawaiian music video documentaries of slack key artists David Kahiapo, Richard Hoopii, Martin Pahinui, Dennis Kamakahi, Jeff Peterson, Brother Noland, and George Kahumoku.
