Stolen instrument returned to Ho‘okena’s bassist
JASON GENEGABUS / JASON@STARADVERTISER.COM
Chris Kamaka poses for a photo with the bass that was stolen from his parked car Thursday. The instrument was recovered Friday morning at a Zippy’s restaurant in Kalihi.
A day after it went missing, Chris Kamaka’s upright bass was back in the award-winning musician’s hands.
Kamaka, bassist for Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning group Ho‘okena, was all smiles Friday afternoon as he took the string instrument out of its case at his family’s South Street business, Kamaka Hawaii, and strummed a few notes. He and his son, Chris Kamaka Jr., had just picked it up at a Zippy’s restaurant in Kalihi after being informed it had been dropped off.
“Oh, I just felt relieved and just happy,” he said of seeing it once again. “I just wanted to thank everybody. I appreciated all the concern, all the willingness to help me.”
Managers at Zippy’s kept the instrument safe until Kamaka and his son picked it up at about 1:30 p.m. The blue case was on backward, and the bridge shifted a little bit, noted Kamaka, but he said the damage can be easily fixed.
On Thursday morning Kamaka parked his car at the Keauhou Place public parking garage in Kakaako and returned to find one of his windows broken and the bass missing. It happened at about 8:40 a.m., he said, and the suspects were believed to have taken off with it in a silver Honda Odyssey.
Through old-school “coconut wireless” word of mouth and social media posts, news of the missing bass spread quickly. Fellow band member Horace K. Dudoit III received a phone call Friday saying that the instrument would be left at Zippy’s.
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The bass has great sentimental value for Kamaka, who inherited it from his aunt Marian Diamond, of the Marian Diamond Trio, after she died more than 20 years ago. The bass, which has had a lot of repair work done on it, including patches where termites caused damage, is at least 70 years old.
While it may not be the best-looking bass, Kamaka said it’s one of the best he’s ever played.
“You (can’t) beat the sound,” he said.
Kamaka had just played the stand-up bass with Ho‘okena in a performance Tuesday evening to help Gov. David Ige welcome Japan’s Prince Akishino and his wife, Princess Kiko, to dinner at Washington Place.
He said as far as he is concerned, the bass is back in one piece. Police will follow up on the case, and hopefully the perpetrators will have learned a lesson on doing the right thing, he added.
“I just want to thank everybody,” he said.
