Ozzie Kotani is a slack-key guitar player and a well-respected teacher, arranger, solo performer and accompanist.
Kotani was born in 1956 in Honolulu, Hawaii in the neighborhood of Pauoa. He learned how to play the 'ukulele in fourth grade, but his interest in kī hō‘alu, or Hawaiian slack key guitar, was sparked in high school when he heard Keola Beamer on the radio.
In 1975, Kotani enrolled in Peter Medeiros' slack key guitar class at the University of Hawaii Continuing Education program. In 1976, Kotani began to study privately with slack key legend Sonny Chillingworth. Kotani returned to the University of Hawai'i program in 1986 to teach and pass on his knowledge of the Hawaiian slack key style to others.
Kotani recorded his first album, Classical Slack, in 1988. Kotani followed up his debut with Kani Kī hō‘alu in 1995, To Honor a Queen: The Music of Lili'uokalani in 2002, Paka Ua in 2005, and Hō'ihi in 2008.
Teaming with Dennis Ladd in 2000, Kotani published his first instruction book on slack key guitar titled Guitar Playing Hawaiian Style: Kī Hō‘alu, An Instrumental Method For Slack Key Volume One.