Joseph Kekuku's 151st Birthday

[Michael Kiese]

This Friday, Dec 19, is Joseph Kekuku's 151st birthday.

I recently discovered that he is buried in Dover, New Jersey. I'm currently planning to visit some family for the holidays, and Dover is not terribly far out of the travel route. I may pay him a visit.

Finding his gravesite is what made me realize that his birthday is coming up.

Joseph discovered steel guitar at the age of 11, so that makes Steel Guitar about 140 years old.

So "Hau'oli la Hanau" to the inventor of the instrument we all love!

[Rick Aiello]

I heard he was close friends with a guy from Martin guitars and his preference for large bodied guitars ultimately led to the “Dreadnaught” body style … interesting if true

[Mike Neer]

Years ago, Mike Esposito organized a Joseph Kekuku Festival at the Dover Theater. It was going to be a great night, and it still was, but the heavy rains the night before completely flooded the basement of the theater and made getting around very difficult.

Anyway, I performed with the group The Moonlighters, and met Dave Giegrich, Mike Scott and others whom I can’t recall at the moment. It was a pretty cool event that could have been so much better if the weather cooperated.

[Michael Kiese]

I heard he was close friends with a guy from Martin guitars and his preference for large bodied guitars ultimately led to the “Dreadnaught” body style … interesting if true

Aloha Rick,

That's very interesting! You know, a lot of that information was unfortunately lost because it was so long ago.

Hawaiian music really did have a large influence on American music and Jazz. So much of the contributions that Hawaiians have made to music has been lost, and then recovered by historians, and that information is very very slowly diffusing back into consciousness.

But if you know what to listen for, you'll hear the Hawaiian music influence. A lot of Jazz and Country has Hawaiian DNA in their turnarounds and licks.

I have a hunch that the secondary dominant II7 V7 I came from Hawaiian music, and namely the lap steel itself. All that old jazz had dominant chords everywhere, which is the language of steel guitar, which came from Hawaiians.

[Michael Kiese]

Years ago, Mike Esposito organized a Joseph Kekuku Festival at the Dover Theater. It was going to be a great night, and it still was, but the heavy rains the night before completely flooded the basement of the theater and made getting around very difficult.

Anyway, I performed with the group The Moonlighters, and met Dave Giegrich, Mike Scott and others whom I can’t recall at the moment. It was a pretty cool event that could have been so much better if the weather cooperated.

That's really cool to know! I used to wonder how the sacred steel players were introduced to Hawaiian steel, and I noted that most of the sacred steel based gospel churches are in the New Jersey, and New York areas of the country.

Once I found out that Joseph Kekuku himself is buried in New Jersey, that question was answered.