Keola Beamer ← THE MATRIX of FABULOUS DISCOVERY

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Keola Beamer

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I'LL TAKE YOU THERE

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Curation by: The Matrix

Who I Am & Where I Live

Name: Keola Beamer
City: Lahaina, Hawaii
Country: United States

My Life

Bio: “Keola Beamer’s [slack key] style is the best there is on the planet”, says Willie Nelson. Keola Beamer has breathed new life into slack key guitar music yet stays true to its deep Hawaiian roots. He is a Hawaiian legend: singer-songwriter, composer, guitar master, with an impeccable, gorgeous style that is featured on The Descendants soundtrack and his 16 CDs. Keola was one of the first to use Hawaiian slack key techniques to create contemporary music that is also at home on jazz or classical stages. His wife Moanalani Beamer joins Keola in performances with her beautiful hula and the exquisite sounds of traditional Hawaiian instruments.

Keola Beamerʻs well of talent springs from five generations of Hawaiʻi's most illustrious and beloved musical families. Keola's mother was revered Hawaiian cultural treasure, Aunty Nona Beamer. His great-grandmother was one of Hawaiʻi's most illustrious composers, Helen Desha Beamer. The Beamers trace their roots to royal families of the 14th century and have been cultural practitioners through generations.

► The matrix originated as an extension of a record shop opened to divulge the little known music of the people of the Recôncavo and sertão of Bahia, Brazil (per this interview with David Dye for U.S. National Public Radio and hence a sugarcane cutter as our logo), along with other great Brazilian music.

► But in order to best provide pathways from around the world to these little-known (with one exception) but masterfully powerful artists, the matrix has to do likewise for all artists everywhere.

Sprawled across broad equatorial latitudes...

Stoked and steamed and sensual in the widest sense of the word...

Limned in cadenced song...

Bahia is a smile inside an irony wrapped in a conundrum.