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GRAMMY Nominated Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Moku Maluhia (Peaceful Island) received a nomination for the recording industry's most prestigious award, the GRAMMY at The Recording Academy's (NARAS) 61st Annual event. Honoring excellence and exceptional achievement, it is the recording industry's most prestigious award. This recording features an all-original playlist of super-relaxing slack key guitar by master guitarist Jim Kimo West with special guest appearances by George Abe on shakuhachi (ancient bamboo flute) and Simone Vitucci on cello. |
Pure slack key guitar magic by one of the world’s finest fret-board masters, Moku Maluhia is like a sonic treasure hunt into the lore and legend of Hawaii |
MWE3 - Robert Silverstein |
There is a magic to this kind of music. With just a few bars of play, my heart rate slowed, my breathing eased, and I felt such a peace that cannot be readily explained. Hawaii is an enchanted place. The o’hana, the family of man on Hawaii is just as special. Jim “Kimo” West’s music is a tribute to tradition and to the future of Hawaii that remains true to its past. This is an excellent recording. Mele no ka oi. |
Artisan Music Reviews, R J Lannan |
Kimo West is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar aficionado. His compositions are consistently lyrical and beautiful without being cloyingly pretty. Tide Pools opens the album with a beautiful evocation of Hawaii's tide pools (in Drop C tuning). The title tune employs two baritone acoustic guitars (in the traditional Taro Patch tuning), evoking the calm feeling of the Hawaiian islands, surrounded by more water than any other place on Earth. |
All About Jazz, Mark Sullivan |
Blissful! FIVE STARS. West has a wonderful way with slack key guitar. His approach, while firmly rooted in Hawaiian culture, is more like the way James Taylor might play slack key, very precise and beautiful. There is a warmth and deep feeling in his writing that I find forever satisfying. And he captures the Hawaiian vibe perfectly. |
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Jim Kimo West is recognized as one of the world's top slack key guitarists bringing his own unique musical perspective to this great acoustic guitar tradition. Besides his solo slack key career, West is best known as the long-time guitarist on CDs and tours for the world's most famous musical satirist, "Weird Al" Yankovic whose recent CD, Mandatory Fun debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and won the Grammy for Best Comedy Recording. West is also a prolific composer with a generous output of new, exciting slack key guitar originals. In addition he writes and produces music for too numerous to mention feature films and television shows.
A Canadian native, West grew up in Florida and was playing professionally in various rock bands by age 16. A decade later he landed in Los Angeles and began working with "Weird Al" Yankovic. West can be heard on and seen in all of Yankovic's iconoclastic videos, albums, and concerts playing guitar.
In 1985 to decompress after a long summer Weird Al tour, Jim made his first trip to Hana, Maui. He fell in love with the culture and the physical landscape of Hawaii. As the sounds of Gabby Pahinui, the Sons of Hawaii, Sonny Chillingworth, The Sunday Manoa, and others played on the turntable, Jim jammed along for fun and relaxation. Already a long-time devotee of open tunings, he was immediately drawn to the gentle rhythms of the slack key guitar and soon began writing his own songs. West didn't concentrate on learning the standard riffs and songs but instead developed his own unique slack key vocabulary which now defines his very unique approach to this great tradition.
While always retaining the heartfelt essence of traditional slack key, Jim Kimo West brings his own musical heritage to his original slack key instrumentals. His style can best be described as nahenahe, a Hawaiian term that means soft, sweet, or of gentle voice - a fusion of old and new deeply rooted in tradition. Kimo's seven slack key CD's have garnered him much praise and well over 75 million streams on Pandora and Spotify.
Besides being acknowledged by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for his work on Mandatory Fun, West is also a recipient of the Hawaii Music Awards (American Music Awards equivalent) and has been honored by the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts with a Na Hoku Hanohano Award (Hawaiian Grammy) nomination, is a two-time winner of the LA Treasures Award for his contributions toward the perpetuation of the Hawaiian slack key guitar, and most recently his album Moku Maluhia (Peaceful Island) received a nomination for the recording industry's most prestigious award, the GRAMMY at The Recording Academy's (NARAS) 61st Annual event. Honoring excellence and exceptional achievement, it is the recording industry's most prestigious award.
Jim Kimo West - Grammy Nominated Moku Maluhia Peaceful Island WMR 30010-2
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