Kimo

Kimo was born of Dutch, Indonesian, French, Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry. Kimo's family tree has spanned the globe from Maui to Indonesia to Singapore to Holland to Texas to California and full circle back to Maui. Living among these various places and cultures have contributed to Kimo's musical diverity.

Kimo recalls playing his father's ukulele and guitar at a young age. Later he received guitar lessons at his uncle's music store, jazz at a local community college, and cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology with Dr. Don Brenneis at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. During his junior year Kimo traveled through N. India with Dr. Rees Flora of Monash University, Australia assisting with the recording of nomadic musicians and also studied sitar for a semester in Nepal with Sri Ram Achriya. 

Upon graduation from college in 1988 Kimo single handedly took care of his family’s farm on the Big Island of Hawaii tending the goats, geese, chickens and organic papaya grove while exploring his Hawaiian musical roots. He studied the art of building and playing the 'ohe hano ihu, ka 'eke'eke, and 'ukeke with Kumu Hula Lanakila Brandt in Kealakekua, Hawaii and gleaned from his Hawaiian slack key friends the Wong Yuen and Kahumoku families. In 1992 Kimo started incorporating some of these sounds with his Big Island group Kaona on their Rhythms of the Earth album . During this time Kimo made use of his degree as a Hawaiian archaeologist for the Volcanoes National Park conducting emergency excavations for the ancient Hawaiian villages, heiaus and other critical sites threatened by the Kilauea lava flows.

From 1989 to 1993, with a Hawaiian team from Kailua-Kona, Kimo interfaced with Maori elders in New Zealand sharing their faith, culture and music with each other on their beautiful maraes. This wonderful polynesian exchange inspired Kimo to adopt the Maori term Ranga Pae. With the blessing from a Moari elder Kimo received permission to use this name for thier new band. hat

So in 1995 Kimo and his wife Jody formed the world fusion group Ranga Pae in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and began a whole new musical journey. Combining many exotic instruments they blended musical genres and world traditions. In 1997 they recorded, produced and released Like Rain which included a total of 24 instruments from around the world. 

In 2004 they released their Full Circle album that feature the koto, bamboo flutes, slack key guitar as well as some surprising covers.

In 2008 they plan to release their third Ranga Pae album.

Kimo currently lives on the island of Maui with his wife Jody and perform at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.