Sneak Peek: PJ Hirabayashi, 2011 National Heritage Fellow and Taiko Drum Leader

We’re kicking off Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by revisiting with three 2011 National Heritage Fellows taiko drum leaders Roy and PJ Hirabayashi and slack guitarist Ledward Kaapana. The Hirabayashis began one of the first Taiko Drumming ensembles, San Jose Taiko. In part 1 of this week’s pod the Hirabayashis discuss recasting the Japanese art of Taiko as an Asian-American art, how their exploration of Taiko was motivated by their curiosity about their own heritage, and the centrality of collaboration and community-building to their work. Led Kaapana is a master of the slack key guitar and the ukulele. He comes from a family of musicians and is considered one of the key figures in the resurgence of traditional Hawaiian culture and music in the 1970s. In part 2 of the podcast, Led talks about his upbringing in the small isolated town of Kapana with a musical family; he explains slack key guitar-playing, his ideas about Hawaiian music, and playing with musicians across genres.