For musician Jonah Booth Cummings, music runs in the family. He takes after his musical ancestors and now his children are taking after him. The guitarist/vocalist with a knack for emulating a warm, husky tone with a remarkably fluid style
For musician Jonah Booth Cummings, music runs in the family.
He takes after his musical ancestors and now his children are taking after him.
The guitarist/vocalist with a knack for emulating a warm, husky tone with a remarkably fluid style said music was part of his life as early as the age of 6.
“It was a phonograph playing 45s,” Cummings said of his one of his first, early musical memories.
“Back then was turn-of-the-century stuff. I remember on the black-and-white TV, watching jitterbug on ‘American Bandstand.’ I said to my mom, ‘they look mad, throwing each other up in the air.’”
Despite what he saw on the TV, however, it was the memories of music by the likes of Gabby Pahinui and Sonny Chillingsworth collaborating with his musical family members that painted his childhood.
“Gabby and Sonny played with him (his father) for weeks at a time,” he said.
Originally from Kalihi on O‘ahu, Cummings has lived on Kaua‘i for “some 40 odd years.”
His children have now taken his influence and have formed their own band, Ka ha o na ‘opio, featuring Jonah Cummings Jr. on bass, Alton Kaneholani-Cummings on drums, backup vocalist Jacob Kaneholani-Cummings, lead singer Naomi Kaneholani Cummings and lead guitarist Paul Ka‘imina‘auao.
Of course, their father joins to play occasionally, too, daughter Naomi Kaneholani Cummings said.
The band has opened for concerts all over the island, and has played at such night hotspots as Tahiti Nui in Hanalei, she added.
“My dad’s a big inspiration to our band,” his daughter said. “He’s the reason I started singing.”
As for how the band got its start, it was somewhat organic, to say the least.
“We one day got instruments and just started working on playing around, and somehow we got the hang of it,” she said. “Now we’re playing for a lot of people we didn’t think we’d be playing for.”
While his children’s band has been using websites like YouTube and MySpace (www.myspace.com/Kahaonaopiomusic) to help further network themselves, their father has been doing just fine in bridging any potential generational gaps.
Not only on MySpace and Facebook, he’s also got a Digitech JamMan loop station to which he plugs in his 1965 customized Fender Stratocaster, allowing him to lay multiple tracks when he’s onstage solo.
As for how many guitars he has, Cummings humbly states he “used to have more,” adding now he only has “three.”
Always engaging the audience with his airy sounds, it’s his ocean-colored Stratocaster on which he played such classic rock as the Eagles’ “Peaceful, Easy Feeling,” and contemporary-Hawaiian music such as “Hanalei Moon” by Bob Nelson and Kui Lee’s “I’ll Remember You” and “Days of My Youth,” while performing at his weekly Saturday-night gig at Shutters Lounge in the Kaua‘i Beach Resort near Hanama‘ulu.
It’s there that Cummings practices the philosophy of engaging the audience and inviting them to participate in requests by writing songs down on napkins and giving them to their servers.
“I try and stimulate the room because the way I look is like, intimidating,” he said. “Otherwise (the audience members) say, ‘we’re not going to ask that guy.’”
As for his musical inspiration, Cummings’ list is far more expansive than just a few genres.
Cummings seems to have an insatiable appetite for a wide range of music, loving everything from Backstreet Boys to Sly and the Family Stone, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Stevie Nicks, 98 Degrees, Eric Clapton and Chaka Khan, to name a few.
His hands-down favorite, however, is Kenny Loggins, he said. “I like his style,” he added, noting, “He’s got everything going on.”
As for those interested in booking him for a wedding, it might take some convincing.
“It’s too much of the particulars and not enough simplicity,” Cummings said, noting with humor, “I try and make the price ridiculous so they go ask someone else.”
E-mail hanoj5144@yahoo.com or see him play 7 p.m. Saturdays atthe Kaua‘i Beach Resort Shutters Lounge.
My dad’s a big inspiration to ourband.
Naomi KaneholaniCummings
of Ka ha o na ‘opio
