Cecilio & Kapono "Hawaii's Legendary Rock Duo"
Meeting Cecilio Rodrigues: Cecilio Rodrigues, a friend of Kuponos Johnny Visara tells em hey there's a guy named Cecilio from the band "Unicorn" and they played at a place called "The Red Noodle" and the friend thought Kupono would sound great together. Kupono went to the North Shore Sunset Beach to meet people who were going to be there at the friends house so they went to have dinner and talked for a bit and then started playing. The group was looking for people to invest in and there were about ten people who were there listening to Cecilio and Kupono jam together playing songs like "Four and Twenty" by Cosby Stills and Nash where it went so smoothly as if it were rehearsed. They played a couple more songs and they sounded already like a band and that it was already together, so they thought it would be a great idea to become a band in the most organic way possible by hanging out. The Hawaii Vibe was all about putting yourself in a relaxed mood, cheerful mood, and be full of gratitude that you start to understand with experiencing the bad times and the good times and deciding on making things that make the good times happen more. This can be giving back to home and that's everyone lives here's home and that's a interesting dynamic than non-island places where everybody runs into people.
Columbia Records: The Rainbow Villa, Kalakaua Blvd, C&K played for three months with no one and opened for Frank Zappa and after that there was one night where there was a line around the block and the two thought they were fired. The place one night just packed, six days a week,, and lines until 1:00 am, so they went to the mainland and saw what was in San Francisco at Iron Works. After several weeks there was an offer to play at "The Troubadour" where all the record companies where they were signed after auditioning with people like Rick Springfield, Rodger McGuinn, and Bruce Springsteen alongside all the big name record companies. Being contemporary Hawaiian Soft Rock music was hard to market, but they toured and tried to find out how to promote that sort of sound and it drew a lot of people from Hawaii. Afterwards they realized they had opened the door for other artists who were playing that sort of sound like "Kalapana".
Traveling Notes and Making it Big: A few interesting notes was when Kupono would go back to Hawaii and scout at clubs to find talent in Hawaii and tell some of the larger companies who was going to be big. In California, they played at many venues but one that stuck out was playing at "The Golden Bear", because it was a place you could have a good time. Michael Stewart was the first producer who did stuff for Billy Joel and the company let C&K still be themselves and that was great about that studio relationship and just concentrated on making hits and explained to people there how to do it and get it done. C&K First Big Show was at the Waikiki Shell (10,000) people and about 3000 people outside with who knows how many trying to climb over the fence and party in between. But what was strange is that the pay was never there, because people kept on pocketing the money and the group just kept on barely scraping by while other California based artists were driving luxury cars and it makes you think if your not getting your share.
Writing Songs with C&K: Cecilio Rodrigues would come back and fourth with the group Unicorn and they were already friends with people in the Hawaii Music Scene and he learned every trip and every gig from all the friendly people in Hawaii. Cecilio wrote his own songs and Kapono wrote his own songs and they would finally come together to arrange the songs and have different styles that would add variety to the song list. In the bathroom there was inspiration for the song "Friends" came about when trying to sleep, so sometimes thoughts about writing come at the strangest times like Surfing or Hiking. Inspiration comes at the weirdest times and when you try to write a song with someone you need to sometimes hope that it comes and it doesn't always come to you when you want it to, so sometimes start it and get stuck, let it go and come back after trying different things. Inspiration for Cecilio and Kupono would see an idea or inspiration as something that is received and when it comes they had to get it, but it wasn't always on command that it would come. Influences were from: Eagles, Stevie Wonder, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, James Taylor, and there was a development of those styles that merged all together to make C&K.
Henry Kapono
Henry Kapono Hosea Ka'aihue, singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, producer, actor and author would be simply known as Henry Kapono. He has been a household name in Hawaii not only from his famous songs that were on the radio or his great adventures working with the record labels and in C&K, but from what he gives back to the community. Sharing the good times with friends and continuing to make music and show power, excitement, and passion in pushing the envelope of musical tunes. While off the stage he is known for his kindness, commitment to the arts, and making sure the next generation gets off to the right foot.Grammy Nominated…Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards winner of Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Rock Album of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Best EP, Compilation of the Year, Contemporary Album of the Year. He made several television appearances including: Byrds of Paradise, Live With Regis & Kathy Lee and Magnum P.I. Movies he has appeared in: Behold Hawaii, Damien and Waterworld, Dance of the Long Bone. He would be able to be seen by residents and tourists for the famous “Dukes on Sunday” by Waikiki beach. Hes also a award winning children’s book author of “A Beautiful Hawaiian Day” Ka Palapala Po’okela Award for Best Book in 2000. Honolulu’s Mayor would decree in 1998 that the 3rd of June was Henry Kapono Day.
Growing Up with Music, As Henry grew up he heard lots of Hawaiian music that would fill the house and that was a few sorts of music, but it gradually became more and more things that weren't restricted to ukuleles and steel guitars, but it was all about different styles and that's what's beautiful about it he said. Influences were: Kui Lee. Going out with friends they would be playing Rock and stuff: Jimi Hendrix, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, James Taylor, Ray Charles, James Brown, and those became influential musicians for Henry. Henry went to Punahou School on a Baseball Scholarship and played in a band with some friends, but what he aspired to be was a professional Football player. He couldn't make the draft back then because playing football left him with injured knees, but he would be playing for the troops in the war zone anyways in his younger years.
The Magic of Music, Before the War Henry grew up in Moheau St (Kapahulu) where his parents house was. before the streets were paved and plenty kids stay running around and the Okamura Store, Bill's Bakery, and music in the houses where people danced hula and play music. Henrys Dad came home from his three jobs (parking attendant, home mover) and one of those was for the City & County of Honolulu, so he would come home and start to play some Ukulele to chill out until he played himself to sleep. There were eight kids Henry being the third youngest he had a memory of when his father would teach Henry a little bit and take him to Waikiki and to meet the Beach Boys and play Ukulele with them to show how music could bring people together.
Hawaii's Music Scene, There was a lot of music with houses having great music, clubs had great music, and people would be on the streets playing music with a thriving music scene. Henry would start playing guitar (14 years old) after going to Church Camp during the Camp Fire Sing a long with his friend who showed him a D chord on how to play and his friend kept on playing. Eventually he would end up playing guitar for his friends in a living room in Hawaii Kai and had a good time with the friend asking him if he should get an actual job, so he started going to auditions and then the first stage performance was at Aloha Surf Lounge in Waikiki doing cover songs. Henry Kupono was ragged on for not making a Hawaiian album at first, because he didn't grow up learning the language due to not being allowed to speak the language in school or even give a child a Hawaiian name, so he would give it time before pursuing something like that.
Vietnam War and the Pakalolo Trio: Pakalolo Trio, after Highschool, Henry Kapono (19 years old) went with Mel Mossman (drummer), Steve Maii (Bassist) on a plan by a friend to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia. After Thailand for a month he got stuck in Vietnam during the Vietnam War as it was declared a warzone where the group played for the troops after getting a british girl and Thai dancer for the soldiers, because they didn't want just music. They knew they were stuck there and it would be for three years playing with musicians who didn't speak english, saw things from the war first hand, and were spooked to have no way back to Hawaii due to the management company bailing out on the musicians. The performances still had to go on, so the Firebases where the fighting was happening was where most performances were taking place with cannons and explosions going on with all the troops with smoking pakalolo while rocking out. That experience made all of them grow up really fast from being exposed to overseas travel, living in another country, freedom of life, music comfort, and entering a war zone.
Henry’s Solo Career: Henry Kapono would end up meeting Cecilio David Rodriguez and work for Columbia Records and learn a lot of things. After the C&K era, his solo career would not slow him down with his albums with a few early ones being: Stand in the Light (1995), Spirit Dancer (1995), Home in the Islands (1997), and a Song for Someone (1998). His songs would keep on evolving as he learned new things with later albums like “The Wild Hawaiian” would be a bit traditional and a bit wild to represent the times with the persians and guitar of modern alongside the Hawaiian language (Olelo). He would continue making songs that would further be era-defining and later on end up even being iconic songs that are not trapped in time, but actually transcend it.
The Best of Friends: Family Connection with the love the islands and a Hawaiian family has allowed Henry to really get an understanding about family support and building up others to be go-getters. If it wasn’t his siblings entertaining him or inspiring him and supporting him it would be through his friends that would teach him even more things. In a way one of his best friends would be inspirational, a mentor, and a friend as well as a father that would spend lots of time with Henry and later on he would write a song for his father called “Sailin'”. These connections being built at home would be what would allow Henry to go off and make some really good friends with strong bonds with backing each other up, respecting one another, and realizing the memories that were experienced together that can be seen as the good times. This sort of belonging is what is given off in his efforts of helping others through empowerment and support especially seen in the Hawaii Music Industry where his foundation “Henry Kapono Foundation” has Programs, Grants, Education and Resources.
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