Meet Mr. Grammy
No, he’s not related to that other famous musical Ho, but with his third Grammy win, Daniel Ho is creating his own legend in Island music. In fact, the two never met. “I can’t tell you how many
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OK, first things first. Daniel Ho is not the son, nephew or cousin of Don Ho.
In fact, the two never met. “I can’t tell you how many times I’m asked that question,” laughs Ho. “As far as I know, we’re not related.”
However, much like the legendary Don Ho, Daniel has humbly made a name for himself throughout our state and the world. He has captured three Grammy Awards, working with some of the most prestigious musicians in Hawaii - Ledward Kaapana, George Kahumoku Jr. and Dennis Kamakahi. And just like Don, Daniel has been instrumental in the musical careers of many upand-coming artists.
The similarity probably ends about there.
Daniel Ho grew up in the back streets of Kaimuki - 3rd Avenue, to be exact. He has one older brother, Gilbert, and after their mother, Ellen, passed away from cancer when he was 6 years old, their father, Arthur, who worked as a chemist at Pearl Harbor, raised them both.
“My mom was a substitute teacher at St. Patrick and Sacred Hearts Academy,” says Ho. “I don’t remember too much because I was so young. But my dad never remarried and raised us by himself with the help of my mom’s mom, our popo (grandma in Cantonese).”
Ho’s early school years were spent at St. Patrick School right down the street from his house, and he later transitioned to Saint Louis School, which was an equally convenient location.
“We did have a very easy life because my commute was literally three minutes to school,” recalls Ho. “And my dad, he wasn’t a strict father. No curfews, no chores, we never had to work. All he said to us over the years is just get good grades.”
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So besides keeping up a decent GPA, Ho spent a lot of his time at the ocean surfing, crabbing and fishing. And then there was always music.
“I wasn’t particularly focused - I was focused in the sense that I really enjoyed music, but not focused in that I didn’t really stick to one instrument,” says Ho. “And I was lucky, because my dad is a wonderful person and his whole goal in life was to give us more than he had. So any music lesson that I wanted to take or anything I was interested in, he would send me. He would buy me the instrument and send me to the lesson. So I had the opportunity to try whatever I wanted.”
What Ho describes as his “scatterbrain ways” was actually the start of a successful music career. His high school music teacher found ways to utilize Ho’s liking for all types of instruments including ukulele, organ, guitar, piano, bass and drums.
“Because I wasn’t good at any one thing, my musical mentor, Ray Wessinger, told me that I should be a writer so I could utilize my knowledge of different instruments and arrange and compose.”
And that’s just what he did.
After high school, Ho moved on to Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, where he studied composing, arranging and film scoring.
His first claim to fame was as the leader of the contemporary jazz group Kilauea. The group released several records that garnered huge amounts of success.
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Mostly because of the lack of gigs in Hawaii, Ho’s pursuit of music took him to the shores of California. There he struggled to find his niche. He soon found himself back in love with the sounds of Hawaii, and began focusing his energies on the ukulele and slack key guitar.
And it wasn’t long before he formed an independent record label called Daniel Ho Creations.
“I started this company so I could be an artist, because I’m primarily a writer and composer and I wanted to get my music out there without the whole ‘this is going to be the title of your song, make sure you sound like so and so,’” says Ho, who admits to being a T-shirt-and-jeans kind of guy.
In fact, the shirt he is wearing on our cover happens to be from his new line of DHC Designs shirts available on his website www.danielho.com
Shortly after the creation of his label, Ho met George Kahumoku Jr., and the rest is, well, Grammy history.
In 2005, the Grammy Awards added a Hawaiian Music Album category, and in 2006 the honors were awarded to Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Vol. 1, an album produced by Ho and his record label.
Legends of Slack Key Guitar won in 2007 and Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in 2008 - both produced and released under Ho’s record label.
“The Grammys have always been so exciting,” says Ho. “It is probably the three highest points in my career. It’s always been cloud nine for me. But I don’t do the red carpet. I walked the red carpet the very first time and all the photographers just put their cameras down because they don’t know who we are. Those things are for the big stars. We just walk in the back.”
As for another hana hou in 2009? Let’s just say Ho has confirmed that another collaborative slack key album is in the works
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