Any-kind, poi music of Apokolani.
Crossover musical originals, that fuses early Hawaiian jazz and kī hōʻalu—like poi— blending live elements that bubble, rest and change constantly to be sweet, sour or both. Handed down, Hawaiian family style—As a keiki, sit quiet and listen. Watch. Most of all—feel it before you play it. Thatʻs how.
KEOKI APOKOLANI CARTER aka “Uncle” Keoki creates in rhythm and movement borne from the land and paniolo roots of his Hawai‘i island ancestors through time, blended with latin, funk, rhythm and blues. He says, “most times, it feels like music writes me, lets me know what Iʻm feeling in stories and sound that moves through the body—blood music.” Any-kind poi music—rhythm the story conjures—ocean sway, heartbeat, heartbreak, joy, calm, sorrow. From the air, sky, soil and waters. Light waves, sound waves, energy waves. Itʻs all waves. Crashing, lapping, rocking, swaying, resting, ebb and flow.“ Thatʻs why I call it “blood music” mele koko.
Playing by sound…thatʻs what I do…not by ear…itʻs all in the sound. Sometimes I have a wandering pinky that searches, wanting a special feel to add to the chord. No matter, guitar or ukulele, standard or open tuning, soprano, tenor or baritone, four, five or six strings. Wandering fingers and tunings, searching for the sound. The sound holding the clearest, strongest, feeling. Music, the best way I know to talk true.
YVONNE YARBER (CARTER) “Aunty” Yvonne at such a small kid age, was singing for the sheer joy and being in the moments of ohana on both sides; filling home, backyard, beach or carport gatherings with song and instruments for all to play. First born on both sides…given so much music love. Lifted up to the round wobbly piano stool for tiny fingers to peck out notes and sing along. Old Timey country music, Jazz, Pop, Old Standards, Hymns, Hawaiian, Latin, Local-Kine-Make-Your-Own-Campfire-Lyrics, Appalachian. A blend of all my hapa roots. Mahalo to the journeys, joys, sorrows and never-ending music of ancestors who walked and sailed the pathways.
Born in the Territory of Hawaii, parents tell of a tiny wedding at Waioli Tea Room when Mom worked as an officer at the Salvation Army Girls Home, & Dad in the Navy. Being without much money, they found a small, inexpensive bungalow to live with a new first borne to both sides of big families. As a new baby, so lucky, I slept and played to the rhythm & sounds of ocean lapping with peaceful walking of ohana and neighbors on the beach day or night. Mom & Pop stores dotted the stretch of 40s and early 50s Waikiki with the only two hotels at the time being the pink Royal Hawaiian, and the historic Moana Hotel (the added Surfrider came soon after). Music floated on gentle breezes from a sprinkling of bars in Waikiki including where we lived at the ewa end—a place called Duey Way. A for-real village, long ago torn down to make way for the post war boom of changing Waikiki—replaced in 1955 by the expensive Kaiser Hawaiian Village (became the Hilton) for people from far away places. This is just one facet of the many experiences and vast changes weʻve absorbed to shape our music. Always, music through time, holding stories and spirit of place, however changed.