Anyone have any information on him?

I think this is the student you are asking about.

Sept '99 at the Halekulani ...

So I don't think he's the guy Denny T. was referring to in the early 90's ...

Good question though ... he was all over the Quarterlys for a year or so ... ???

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Aiello's House of Gauss

The pic on the front is entitled, HSGA's "Superteens" - Al Green, Jr, Konapiliahi Lau, and Benjamin Cheney.

The recent HSGA newsletter (Fall 2004), features an article on the Cheney family. The father, Steve, currently plays at the Polynesian Cultural Center. He taught steel to three of his sons, Benjamin (the oldest-who is now 24), Joseph, and Samuel.

According to the Fall 97 newsletter, Al Green, Jr was a student of Alan Akaka. He was the guest artist in Joliet in 1997.

[This message was edited by Jeff Strouse on 26 November 2004 at 06:15 PM.]

Roger

Big Island

Al Greene, Jr. plays at the Copper Bar at the Maunakea Beach Hotel, all Saturdays at 5:30-8:30 pm.

Also, the young gentleman in question was a dead ringer for Jeff in how I picture he might look today; Tall, lankey, poised and pointedly polite. It is by the young man's appearance that I have thought it was Jeff for a couple of years now.

I wish that one of the several names mentioned would have rang a bell, ...but alas, not. I still hope I can find that Hoolaulea's tapes and solve the puzzle it is to me now.

He decided to take a different route in the musical road that lay before him and it worked out rather well.

What ever happened to Wayne Newton? He showed so much promise as a young steeler in the late 1950's.

Danke-shoen in advance.
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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 28 November 2004 at 07:43 PM.]

I wanted to add my 3 cents worth concerning Al Green. Al's original music instructor was John Auna from Kailua, Kona. John was an instructor for many youngsters in steel guitar, rhythm guitar, and ukelele. He took on Al when he was 15 yrs old. He schooled him with the old Hawaiian style of playing, namely the old ways of playing vamps. I first heard Al when he was 16 playing at a May Day celebration at the Hawaiian Village. John had brought him over from Kona to Honolulu to have others hear him and to give him the experience of playing before a large crowd. He played a number of old Hawaiian songs. I mean old too. They were songs that you do not hear unless you travel to the "sticks" as John Auna would say. John could only take Al Green so far musically speaking, because John did not read music. He played all music on the steel by ear and that is how he taught Al Greene. But he taught Al an old style of playing Steel. John knew he could not take Al any further.

Others saw the potential in Al and HSGA offered him a scholarship. It was here that Alan Akaka came into the picture. Alan took him on to the next level. Alan even traveled weekly to Kona to teach Al the finer points of musicianship.

While I recognize that polish was needed for him to perform professionally, I very much enjoyed the old style of playing steel by Al in his formative years.

When John Auna who is at least in his 70's plays, he can play an old style of steel that is out of this world. I always try to get him to play the old style which I heard him play 25-30 years ago, but he gets bitten by some bug on the way to Honolulu and he tries to play a different style, perhaps to satisfy younger tastes.