We Still Going
The band that helped define a generation of local music is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an upcoming concert beneath the moon and stars at Tom Moffatt Waikīkī Shell.
Few bands helped inspire a generation of local artists and shape contemporary Hawaiian music more than the outfit known as Kalapana, which brought pleasing harmonies along with a pop-rock-jazz-funk sensibility to listeners’ ears.
Particularly in the 1970s, the band churned out timeless songs like nobody’s business — from the soaring, ethereal majesty of Naturally and the romantic bossa-pop feel of Nightbird to the lively chord progression and easily singable chorus of The Hurt.
Yet despite its immense popularity, Kalapana was once surprisingly unaware of just how revered it was beyond Hawaiʻi’s shores.
When group members traveled to the Philippines for a couple of concerts in the early ’90s, for example, they were completely taken aback by the reactions overseas.
As keyboardist Gaylord Holomalia remembers, “We had no idea just how big we were down there. When we landed in Manila, we never saw customs — they just let us through. We then went straight to a reception for us at the airport.”
At the shows, the group performed in front of 10,000 adoring fans each night. On the second night, the band was even encouraged to play The Hurt not once, but twice.
“After we were done playing the song, the promoter said, ‘Do it again and this time let the audience sing it,’” Holomalia says. “So we did that, and the people all stood up and sang because The Hurt was huge in the Philippines.”
Proving it still possessed an incredible amount of staying power, Kalapana returned to the archipelagic country 20 years later as part of a small tour with the British-American rock band America. After arriving at a hotel and heading to dinner together, the groups’ members found themselves strolling past one of the lounges when a live band recognized them and abruptly cut the music.
“They just stopped playing and went, ‘Oh, wow!’” recalls Holomalia.
But the interest wasn’t in America and its catalogue of hits — among them, A Horse with No Name, You Can Do Magic, Ventura Highway and Sister Golden Hair. Rather, it was in Kalapana. As proof of this, the live band “immediately started playing The Hurt,” says Holomalia, chuckling at the memory.
Such wonderstruck moments don’t happen as often these days and particularly since the passing of three of Kalapana’s founding icons — vocalist/guitarist Mackey Feary (in 1999), vocalist/guitarist Malani Bilyeu (2018) and guitarist DJ Pratt (2021). Even Holomalia admits, “Our star has faded a little.”
But that doesn’t mean the band that made it magical to sing along to When the Morning Comes, Moon and Stars, You Make It Hard and Going Going Gone is done.
Five decades after the release of its self-titled debut album that helped usher in the defining sound of an era, Kalapana will celebrate its golden anniversary next month in front of scores of loyal and appreciative fans.
The concert, Kalapana 50, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4 at Tom Moffatt Waikīkī Shell. For tickets, visit ticketmaster.com.
“Our music is what keeps us going,” says longtime bassist Kenji Sano, who just turned 70 in August. “The fans love our music, and we love playing for the fans.
“For us, it’s been 50 years … and we still going.”
Joining Holomalia and Sano for the evening performance will be a number of well-known entertainers, including Henry Kapono, Jorden Kealoha-Yamanaka of PARTYFOUL (formerly of Crossing Rain) and Atsushi Satō, a vocalist with the J-pop group EXILE. Also on the ticket will be Kirk Thompson, past keyboardist and Kalapana’s only surviving founder; former band member and saxophonist Michael Paulo; international disc jockey Kamasami Kong, who once referred to Kalapana as “the Beatles of Hawaiʻi”; and several younger-generation musicians who Holomalia regularly brings along to help further the band’s legacy.
“Some people might say, ʻOh, it’s a young Kalapana,’ but it’s a young Kalapana that’s going to carry on and keep (our music) alive,” explains Holomalia, 71, of the band’s shuffling lineup. “They might not always do it within this band, but they’ll do it in whatever they do because they love the music of Kalapana.”
While he shepherds Kalapana’s path forward with fresh talent, Holomalia hasn’t forgotten about those who built the band. It’s why he still incorporates video footage of Feary, Bilyeu and Pratt in Kalapana’s live performances — recorded clips all perfectly synched so that yesterday’s musical heroes can play and sing along with today’s band members.
While some aren’t enamored with this approach to live music, Holomalia plans to carry on with playing videos of his departed friends at next month’s 50th anniversary concert. It’s his way of bridging the past with the present.
“I’ve had musicians tell me that we shouldn’t do the videos, that it’s not good. But the fans tell me they love it,” Holomalia explains. “I mean they cry when they see Mackey singing Moon and Stars, or DJ playing guitar all the way through Velzyland, a song that he wrote.”
Taking in a deep breath, he then adds, “I miss those guys. I like hearing them and I like seeing them. I like them being there (in concert) because I’m more comfortable. Maybe it seems kind of selfish, but I like having them with us.”
In recounting how they ultimately joined Kalapana, Holomalia and Sano point to a common denominator: Feary.
In Holomalia’s case, he recalls rehearsing with Billy Kaui (of Country Comfort fame) at his Waimānalo home one day in 1977 when Feary, who had just left Kalapana due to group tensions, showed up at the door.
“Mackey came by and we kind of knew he wasn’t with Kalapana anymore, and he wanted to be a part of the band,” recalls Holomalia. “So that lasted for a little bit, but then Billy had a solo thing going and kind of had his own producer and everything, so I basically just said, ‘Hey, Mackey, why don’t we just make it the Mackey Feary Band?’ And that turned out to be Mackey’s first musical endeavor after Kalapana.”
That union eventually disolved, however, leaving Feary on the lookout for a new group to join forces with.
Enter Sano, who in the early ’80s had been playing in a band with guitarist-vocalist Maurice Bega. Feary ran into Bega at a party, listened to a tape of the group and liked what he heard, and expressed interest in teaming up. A surprised Bega immediately phoned Sano.
“Maurice calls me up and he goes, ‘Eh, you not gonna believe this but Mackey’s here and he wants to join us.’ And I’m like, ‘Get the hell out of here,’” Sano remembers saying in disbelief.
That encounter led to the formation of Mackey Feary and Shine, although the name was subsequently scratched just before the band’s debut album in Japan.
As Sano explains, “If you read it in Japanese, ‘shine’ means, ‘Hey, go die.’ Not good.”
The band quickly rebranded itself as Mackey Feary & Nite Life.
Despite his solo projects, Feary had not closed the door completely on a Kalapana reunion. In the early ’80s, concert promoter Tom Moffatt convinced Feary, Bilyeu, Thompson, Paulo and original band drummer Alvin Fejarang to perform a concert at Waikīkī Shell. That gathering not only produced a live album, but set the stage for the group reforming in 1986 — this time with a lineup consisting of Feary, Bilyeu, Pratt and, because of Feary’s familiarity with them, Sano and Holomalia, the group’s then-newest members.
Today, the Kalapana veterans live miles apart from each other — Holomalia in Honolulu and Sano in LA. But the distance apart is made all the sweeter whenever they gather to play the band’s classic songs, with the next opportunity coming at October’s anniversary concert.
For Sano, he’s still tickled over the fact that he’s a part of one of Hawaiʻi’s greatest musical acts.
“It’s a big responsibility, but at the same time I’m thrilled and honored to be able to continue the legacy of Kalapana music,” he says. “There was a reason why I was asked to join and be a part of this journey and it became the biggest part of my life and still is. I have a responsibility to myself, to the departed brothers, to the ‘ohanas, and to all the fans of the past 50 years — young and old.
“Kalapana music,” he adds, “is in my heart and soul.”
