(Ambient noise) (instrumental music)   Narrator  Spectrum Hawaii visits the editors of a  local literary journal, then watches a   poem come to life.

The American heritage of  jazz is being preserved in Hawaiʻi today,   and so are the bulrush slippers created by  the eldest man in Hanalei Valley, Kauaʻi.

(Instrumental music) Narrator  It is midday in the Hanalei Valley  on the north shore of Kauaʻi,   and the valley's oldest resident, Kenichi  Tasaka is on his way to gather bulrush reeds   for his slippers.

Kenichi Tasaka  They grow in mudland and that they will grow  straight up.

But where that that place there,   once in a while, the salt water go in, and that's  why the the plant is strong.

But I have some way   up in a valley here that that bulrush is no  good.

I cannot make because they break.

That's   the difference.

(Banging) Narrator  He brings his bundles home and pounds the fresh  reeds, crushing the strong fiber.

As a child,   Kenichi Tasaka would watch his father make  bulrush slippers, but it wasn't until much later,   when he made his first pair.

Kenichi Tasaka  After I retired, I was working for the county  for 39 years.

I used to go farming little while,   but I never had no interest to learn from my  father.

I never learned so I had a hard time.

Then I was kind of little sorry that I didn't  start little early.

I start from 83 or not   long.

My life is not too long, and I'm now 90  years old, so I think kind of little too late,   but my hobby so now I'm gonna get this.

I have to hold it tight up this thing,   otherwise we slip off, however,  this way, and I twist around.

And then I come this way again.

Be sure this  is tightened up.

Then I come back this way   again and then I... Kenichi Tasaka  But when you weave it, try and get this part  always even otherwise, this is going to be big and   small according to this width.

So I always try.

Before, I used to, now where's my measurement?

I used to measure all the time.

I got to measure,  but now I don't have, I don't have to because I'm   pretty used to so, before he used to take time.

Narrator  Today, his slippers are sold in a local  art gallery.

Once commonplace in Japan,   these slippers are now hard to find as machine  made products replace handcrafted shoes.

Kenichi Tasaka Three years ago, my wife and I went to Japan,   and that Japan, they don't have this kind of  slipper now.

And we went to the hotel in Osaka,   and we didn't know that that room slipper not  supposed to go down the lobby.

So we had these   two packets, no two slipper, one for my wife  and myself.

Then we walk around in that lobby   and around the store.

There are people in, ladies  and people down there, they follow us.

They said,   "Where we got from?"

I told them, "We came from  Hawaiʻi, and we bring from Hawaiʻi."

They didn't   believe it.

They didn't believe it.

But in Japan  now they don't make this kind of thing, because   especially the old generation all died, and now  all the new generation they don't fool around.

Narrator The slipper is almost   finished.

Mr. Tasaka pulls on the cords to close  the toe of the shoe.

Then he attaches the thong to   the sole.

Once worn every day, now considered  folk art, the Slippers of Kenichi Tasaka of   Kauaʻi are like the man himself - simple,  strong and ageless.

(Instrumental music)   Narrator The Bamboo Ridge Press is a Hawaiʻi literary   quarterly that publishes local poems, plays  and short stories.

It is edited by Eric Chock.

Eric Chock Bamboo Ridge is,   it's quite unique, I think.

I mean, actually,  there are other journals in the country that   publish Asian American literature, but most of  them are struggling, I would say, and don't come   out very regularly.

We come out four times a year.

We've been doing it since 1978 and we get grants   from the National Endowment for the Arts and the  Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines in New   York, and from the State Foundation.

Narrator  And Darrell Lum.

Darrell Lum  In eight years, we must have published  about 250 different authors.

Eric Chock People think of him as   probably the foremost writer of pidgin literature  in Hawaiʻi today.

A writer of fiction and drama,   and he's an editor for Bamboo Ridge.

He has  written essays on what local literature is.

He has given readings in college classes, not only  here, but also on the mainland.

He has his books   and his stories taught in literature classes.

He's, you know, a well rounded person.

He does   a lot of different things.

Narrator  One of those things is acting as an academic  counselor at the special Student Services Division   of the University of Hawaiʻi.

Darrell Lum  Not in a sentimental kind of way, but you know.

Woman  Do you remember any unusual questions they ask?

Narrator  Here, he advises a Vietnamese pre-med student  who's been invited to attend interviews at   several medical schools.

Darrell Lum  Don't try to second guess them, you know.

Or don't try to be so kind of wishy washy   that the guy won't know what your opinion  is, you know.

So if he asks you something,   just answer, you know, whatever you think.

The  magazine started out because Eric and I knew a   whole bunch of writers while we were in school,  who it seemed like after we got out of school,   didn't write anymore, or if they did write, they  were getting rejected a lot by mainland magazines,   which didn't mean that it wasn't good work, but  somehow, a lot of the work wasn't appreciated.

That's a 499, Kim, yeah?

Woman  I should sort of explain why I got, my  grade got worse and worse over the year.

Darrell Lum I don't think anybody will look   at it and feel like it got worse.

Eric Chock  We're trying to advocate a literature which more  people will have access to, which more people will   want to read and enjoy, and not so much the kind  of what you might call ivory tower literature, or   the kind of esoteric poetry that nobody wants to  read because it's so obtuse and nobody understands   what it's about.

So that's one of the main ideals  that we're following in doing Bamboo Ridge and in   promoting the idea of local literature itself.

Narrator  One of Darrell Lum's recent plays entitled,  "My Home is Down the Street" concerns an   elderly Chinese man resisting a  transfer to an old folks home.

Darrell Lum A lot of people responded to it because it   seemed to have struck a nerve in terms of, I guess  it's more common a situation than I had realized.

Some of them said that it was difficult to watch  because they saw their own family situation in   the play.

The play isn't really about a  78 year old Chinese man.

It's about us.

Darrell Lum A friend of ours named the magazine because he had   just learned how to go fishing at Bamboo Ridge.

Narrator  Bamboo Ridge was once a popular fishing  locale northeast of Hanauma Bay on Oʻahu.

Darrell Lum He told us about   this way of fishing, that people don't do it  anymore, and it seemed right for the magazine,   Narrator 75% of Hawaii's population find their ethnic   roots in Polynesia or in the Orient.

The writing  of the Bamboo Ridge journal reflects these roots.

Darrell Lum A lot of it happens   to be based in Hawaiʻi, and it's about us.

It's about the kind of people that live here.

Narrator Including people who shape their lives by ideals.

Eric Chock What I'm doing with my whole life,   I think, is fairly idealistic.

I mean, I'm trying  to live the life of a poet.

Generally speaking,   that means that in order to make a  living, you have to do something else.

Darrell Lum I think Eric's poetry   is, are some, probably some of the finest pieces  of writing I've seen period.

His work tends to be,   have specific images, detail is almost deceptively  simple.

It always tells something of a story.

Eric Chock You don't generally get paid   for writing poems.

I get paid for teaching other  people to write poems in the poets in the schools   program, and reading poems to them and inspiring  people to understand and appreciate poetry.

Darrell Lum His voice is, I think,   real confident and real, real sure.

You know  that this writer knows what he's talking about,   and I like that in his work.

Narrator  One of Eric Chock's most popular poems is about  the death of his uncle, Bill.

It's called Pāpio   after the fish.

Darrell Lum  Because you get the idea that in this particular  poem, that it was his uncle who taught him how   to fish.

It was his uncle who taught him a  lot of things.

But then, as well as being   sort of a remembrance of, of the uncle, it's,  oh, I don't know what you want to call it,   I guess, a poem about the rites of passage,  of becoming a man, learning about death.

Eric Chock Pāpio, this one's for you, Uncle Bill.

I didn't want to club the life from its blue and  silver skin, so I killed it by holding it upside   down by the tail and singing into the sunset.

It squeaked air three times in a small, dying   chicken's voice, and became a stiff curve like a  wave that had frozen before the break into foam.

In the tidal pool we used to stand in.

I held  the fish and laughed thinking how you called   me handsome at 13.

I slashed, the scaled belly,  pulled gills and guts, and a red flower bloomed   and disappeared with a wave like the last breath  your body heaved on a smuggled Lucky Strike and   Primo in a hospital bed.

You wanted your ashes  out at sea, but Auntie kept half on the hill.

She   can't be swimming the waves at her age, and  she wants you, still.

(Instrumental music)   Narrator The sounds that jazz portray   today have resulted from years of improvisation  by the masters of music.

Combinations of different   styles of music, such as classical rock, Afro  Cuban, swing and many others have given the   world a fusion of forms that continually  advance our definition of the word jazz.

(Ginai singing: A joy.

A vision.

The way she moves.

She's a dancer)   Narrator The growth   of jazz in Hawaiʻi is a direct reflection of  the history and growth of jazz in America.

(Ginai singing: By light and  music as she starts to sway)   Narrator Jazz could be defined   as experimental attempts to reach new levels  of audio perception, clarity and excitement.

(Ginai vocalizing) Narrator  Talented jazz vocalist Ginai Benuska  began her singing career at an early age.

Ginai Benuska I started singing when I was seven, eight.

I   hit the stage when I was about 12, and I haven't  really stopped since.

I really enjoy singing.

I,   I, I loved it so much that I just did everything  and anything that I could.

After I got out of high   school, I got on a plane, went to San Francisco,  did a lot of growing up there musically.

I went   to Laney College, and I took some classes, and I  got to play with a lot of different people, mostly   jazz influence when I first got there, and then  a little more funk, you know, played with a nine   piece band, and then on the other side of the  coin, I just did little duos with a piano player   and myself.

Came back to Hawaiʻi and got involved  with the pop influence, top 40 dance music,   and that was pretty hot for a while, and I'm  still involved with that, except now, kind of   running in the background is the jazz influence  that I've always had from when my mother used to   listen to all those old records, and I used to  sing along, and it's really coming together now,   because I can use the jazz and the pop influence  together, because it seems like a lot of people   out there are doing the same thing, you know,  they're taking a little bit of this, little bit   of that, putting it together and calling it their  own.

So that's basically where it all came from.

Spirit's here in Hawaiʻi, the energy from the  Bay Area, coming back home was a real good idea.

Gary Johnson Jazz in Hawaiʻi over the   last few years has been quite impressive as far  as its growth is concerned, and that sort of ties   right in with the national market.

We're seeing  an upsurge in jazz, principally because of the,   I guess, what we'd call the baby boom generation.

It's an overused word, getting a little tired,   but it's very appropriate.

Those are people born  between 1946 and 1964 and that group of people,   oddly enough, is appreciating some of the old  jazz, some of the old bebop, much more so than   some of the folks that were around during the  swing era.

This is reflected in an increase in   sales of this sort of music.

Also we're seeing  this tremendous upsurge of new crossover jazz,   where they take the standard jazz improvisation,  solos, techniques, and you put it with a solid   rock foundation, sort of what's found  in rock and roll, and you bring it up,   and you have a new kind of music, a new  sort of virtuosity that really does work.

Narrator The unique sounds of Frank Leto and his   group,Picante, add a new dimension and excitement  to the Hawaiian and American jazz scene.

Frank Leto I think that jazz music is a type of music that's   continually changing.

It started off as kind  of a means for musicians to express themselves,   and from that, I think that the musicians are  always looking for another means to express   themselves.

A lot of times when we think of jazz,  we think of four, four, a swing rhythm.

Though,   I think that these musicians were looking for  other types of rhythms to express themselves on.

(Instrumental music) Warren Fabro  I think the Hawaiʻi Jazz Society is made up  of a very special group of people.

It mirrors   the melting pot of Hawaiʻi - the melting pot of  the Pacific is what we're called, and I think it   mirrors what the jazz society is all about.

We've  got people from all different ethnic and cultural   backgrounds, of all type of musical tastes.

We  cross from classical people to folks are into   Bruce Springsteen, and we find a medium ground for  them, and we find that they're very supportive of   the music.

They're very hungry for the music.

(Instrumental music)   Narrator Hilo born musician   Gabe Baltazar has often been referred to  as the godfather of jazz in Hawaiʻi.

Well, that's quite an honor to be called the  godfather of jazz, but there were quite a lot of   fine people in Hawaiʻi that were instrumental  in jazz.

You know, such as Trummy Young,   who lived in Hawaiʻi for many years, the  late Ernie Washington, the late Ethel Azama,   and well yours truly helped, I think, helped in  the the survival of jazz, so to speak, in Hawaiʻi,   and trying to keep the flame burning.

Being  that Hawaiʻi is multi mixed cultures, also that   you have many people from the Europe, European  area, and many people from the Asian countries,   all in one area called Hawaʻii and, and there's  a lot of mixed taste and lots of taste on very   variations of music and jazz is also a very  important part of the Hawaiian way of life.

Narrator The way in which award-winning graphic   artist and photographer Ron Hudson captures magic  moments in a performance are not left to chance.

Ron Hudson The excitement for me   with photographing the musicians knowing almost  in anticipation of what they were going to do,   by virtue of having some musical background  myself.

Studying percussion for about eight years,   I could hear it coming.

So I knew where the  crescendos, the decrescendos, the soft spots,   the hard spots, were going to be, so I  could catch them doing what they do best,   that high note.

The music coming to me in what  I do as a graphic designer and a photographer,   it's so spontaneous, and a lot of the work that  I do is not spontaneous.

It's quite rigid.

So I   like the spontaneity of jazz, and I think  that's probably what keeps me listening.

Anthony Smart But I feel that things   are happening that the people in our country  are realizing that jazz is ours, and that the   fact that it is appreciated so widely everywhere  else is coming back, and even the government of   the United States has gotten in to the act in the  last five to 10 years, of realizing that jazz is   a universal musical language.

Bailey Matsuda  As a composer-arranger type, and not necessarily  a front person like, I call it, I definitely need   Ginai to get my message across if I have one in a  song or something like that.

I mean, I'm not going   to get up there and sing, look good like she can.

And she needs me to work out the arrangements and   to help her write songs.

I think it's definitely  a two way street.

We both need each other to   survive in this place, especially in Hawaiʻi.

(Ginai singing: I can tell.

It won't be too   long before...I can tell.

Gabe Baltazar  The future outlook of Hawaiian jazz like I  say, it's going up and down, but I think it's   on its upswing now the preservation, Hawaiian  Preservation Jazz Society is help promoting   things, and we're looking also into radio  stations that we promote jazz and little clubs,   and especially preparing for the coming big jazz  festivals in Hawaiʻi, so to speak.

We're starting   out a little small, but eventually we're  looking forward into making it a big thing,   because the people in Hawaiʻi, we're gaining  many population people from all over the world   live in Hawaiʻi now, and they have a very  large mixture of taste and jazz is one of   the biggest questions - where's the jazz?

We're  gonna tell them where the jazz is in Hawaiʻi.

(Ginai singing: I can tell you why.

You're abandoning the love you deny.

And what's left is a shell.

Oh baby I can  tell.

(Vocalizing & instrumental music)   I   can tell)   (Instrumental music)