Kolomona Ku (Hawai’i)
Kolomona Ku grew up in Kaneohe on Oahu and began studying classical piano at age four, later earning a degree in piano performance from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He also plays saxophone, guitar, and bass, and served as keyboardist, saxophonist, and music director for the island reggae band Kolohe Kai, whose album Paradise (2013) won Reggae Album of the Year at Hawai’i’s Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. After moving to Los Angeles, he began releasing ambient piano music as Kowrites. He is now worship director at Pepperdine University in Malibu.
Featured Song:
“Aloha in the Air” is Hawaiian reggae, a style that took root after Bob Marley and the Wailers performed in Hawai’i in 1979. Local musicians began blending reggae’s offbeat rhythms with ukulele and island themes, and by the early 1990s the fusion, sometimes called “Jawaiian,” had become one of the most popular sounds in the islands. Ku carries on that tradition, with a chorus that nods to Marley’s “One Love” and presents aloha as a spirit that connects people: “Aloha in the air, I feel it everywhere / Roots run deep, no burden to bear / One love shining, oh so true.”
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