Ozzie Kotani & Steve Sano - biography

   Ozzie Kotani is a respected teacher, arranger, composer and accompanist as well as a solo performer. He has played ki ho'alu, Hawaiian slack key guitar, for over 20 years, representing it on the Mainland, in Spain and Japan, as well as all around the Hawaiian Islands. Like the late slack key master Sonny Chillingworth, with whom he studied, he freely interjects his own personality into his playing, preserving and expanding the tradition.

Conductor, Director of Choral Studies, and Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, Steve Sano discovered his connection to the music of Hawai'i many years ago when he was drawn to the innovative ki ho'alu style of Ozzie Kotani. Steve began studying with the slack key master, and Ozzie's deep respect and love for the art form touched Steve's own reverence for musical traditions. Through the years, Ozzie's artistry has continued to inspire Steve's exploration of ki ho'alu. Steve is a recorded artist on the Daniel Ho Creations label, and his duet recordings with Ozzie have been nominated as finalists for the prestigious Na Hoku Hanohano Award and the Hawaiian Music Award. At Stanford, Steve supports the art form by inviting slack key artists to campus and teaching a seminar that not only teaches students the basics of playing the art form, but also places slack key in its historical, socio-cultural, and political context.

Keenly aware of his off-island origins, Steve continues to approach his relationship to slack key with the care and responsibility he believes is demanded of all practitioners but particularly those who approach it from outside the Island community. Acknowledging the powerful spirit of those who have gone before him, Steve's goal is to always approach the art form and its masters with the greatest reverence and respect. It is his hope that all students of slack key share these sensibilities - creating a community of players worthy of the powerful Hawaiian roots of ki ho'alu.

Recent Reviews
"Guitarists Ozzie Kotani and Steve Sano make an important contribution to the genre with this beautiful collection of Japanese and Okinawan melodies played in slack-key tunings ... a perfect cross cultural project."
John Berger
Honolulu Star Bulletin

"Two stellar guitarists who first collaborated on 'A Taro Patch Christmas' are back with a nostalgic and quietly poignant collection of Asian titles that meld the artistry of two strummers from different worlds ... the marriage is blessed with precise guitar work...."
Wayne Harada
Honolulu Advertiser

"Sano and Kotani's arrangements feature lush, jazzy chords and gently swinging rhythms ... they achieve a nearly impossible feat: taking familiar songs like 'Little Drummer Boy' and 'Jingle Bells' and making them sound fresh and interesting."
Michael Simmons
Acoustic Guitar Magazine