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Special Guests
Saturday, October 12, 2002
LEDWARD KAAPANA grew
up in the village of Kalapana; his was a big family in a small place on
the Big Island, and they all played music. They had no electricity, which
meant no television and only battery radio. "So we entertained ourselves,"
he said, "You could go to any house and everybody was playing music."
Parties in that village went on for days. "People played in shifts,
taking over when somebody went to bed. You'd fall asleep to the music,
wake up and the music was still playing. The best alarm clock I ever had.
Even today when I play, I still picture all the family getting together
and sharing their songs."
He plays the slack key guitar in at least eight tunings, as well as ukulele,
bass, and steel guitar, and sings baritone and falsetto. He's has recorded
over 50 albums in his 37 years as a musician.
He learned to play at an early age by watching, listening and imitating,
and he practiced hard. He says that, from the beginning, improvisation
came natural to him. "I was doing it before I knew what it was,"
he says. "Everything you play, every time you play, there's a mood,
an energy. If you plug into it, the music just flows. Even in a simple
song, there are so many different ways to play the melody, the rhythm,
the harmony. It never stops if you stay open to it."
Playing with Ledward tonight on the Slack Key guitar is Princess Owana
Salazar, a gifted singer, Slack Key, and Steel Guitar musician. She is
the niece, six generations removed, of King Kamehameha the Great, the
conqueror and unifier of Hawaii.
DAVID FRISHBERG was born in St. Paul on March 23, 1933; part of the country's
recovery from the Great Depression. He's recorded 11 albums, the most
recent of which are By Himself in 1998 and Not A Care In The World in
1997. He began his career as a journalist, playing music part time, and
then got a job as intermission pianist at Eddy Condon's. He gave up the
jackal trade and stayed at Eddy's for a year, moved on to Bud Freeman's
quartet and then to Gene Krupa and to regular gigs at the Metropole. He
began writing songs, including an early hit recorded by Blossom Dearie,
titled Peel Me A Grape.
He worked in the 1960s for Ben Webster and for Al Cohn and Zoot Sims,
including a long stay at New York's Half-Note; he also played for Carmen
McRae, Kai Winding, Bobby Hackett and others. He left in 1971 to write
for a weekly TV show and suddenly found himself with an offer to join
Herb Alpert. He was quoted: "When I heard the personnel I jumped
at the chance. I loved it - it was the most fun I'd had. I got a solo
spot and played some of my Jelly Roll Morton stuff."
He's written hundreds of dry and clever songs, as in "Blizzard of
Lies":
We'll send someone right out
This won't hurt a bit
He's in a meeting now
That coat's a perfect fit.
DAN newTON, a.k.a.
"Daddy Squeeze," has been a Twin Cities resident since 1987.
After studying folklore and music at the University of Nebraska he traveled
extensively in the British Isles and across the U.S., learning whatever
he could about regional music and food. Dan now resides in St. Paul where
he maintains his life-long fascination with all things spicy, pungent
food, French Roast coffee, dark beer, Jug-band, Cajun Gypsy, and Cumbia
music, and unbelievable stories. He collects hot sauce, enjoys playing
baseball, and watching Betty Boop cartoons with his son, Walker.
Dan spends most his time playing accordion with his
group, the "Café Accordion Orchestra," performing the
repertoire of the popular Parisian dance bands of the 1920s and 30s,
Musette orchestras. He also performs regularly with country blues singer
and guitarist Dr. John Walker as "Daddy Squeeze and the Doctor,"
and with the bands Jumbo Ya Ya, Guys Can Talk, dotCombo, and Art Carnage.
He has appeared on recordings by Prudence Johnson, the Proclaimers,
Peter Ostroushko, Son Volt, and Neal & Leandra. In 2002 Dan released
his 7th CD, "La Vie Musette."
LYNN PETERSON
is a Minneapolis-based singer/songwriter who has appeared in "Best
of the Rest" at the Beacon Theater in New York and performed on
the "Today" show several times with B.J. Thomas. She sang
the national anthem at several professional basketball games in Denver
and lived in New York for eight years singing commercial jingles and
recording and writing R&B songs. Her latest CD project is "Hymns
for the Whole Family - Volume II."
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