REVIEWS BY JOHN BERGER / jberger@staradvertiser.com
Keola Beamer
‘Malama Ko Aloha (Keep Your Love)’
With career accomplishments starting in the early ‘70s and continuing through the release of this album Keola Beamer needs no hype or hyperbole regarding his importance as a slack key guitarist, composer, vocalist, recording artist and educator.
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“Malama Ko Aloha (Keep Your Love),” described in the liner notes as “inspired by“ a nationally televised PBS Hawaii television special of the same name, is a beautifully crafted overview of his work in recent years. It includes a song that represents his work with native-American flautist R. Carlos Nakai, another drawn from his popular musical partnership with Raiatea Helm, a third that honors the musical legacy of his mother and a fourth that he wrote in her memory.
It’s indicative of Beamer’s commitment to quality as an artist/producer that he and his musical ohana use “live” instruments — including bassoon — where others would resort to computer tracks. The various combinations of European, native-American and traditional Hawaiian instruments make each selection interesting.
There’s “Pupu Hinuhinu” for example, recorded countless times over the years but made fresh and mesmerizing by the interplay between Beamer’s guitar and Geoffrey Keezer’s piano. Their work together on “Kaulana Na Pua”/“One Hanau” is imaginative as well.
Daniel Ho
‘On a Gentle Island Breeze’
Daniel Ho, a five-time Grammy winner in the defunct Best Hawaiian Music Album category, notches a career-first and explores a new genre of cross-cultural island music with this imaginative and impressively packaged album.
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Ho teamed up with a Taiwan-based record label to record aboriginal Taiwanese melodies using ukulele, slack-key guitar or piano. Seven Taiwan-based singers add their voices to Ho’s instrumental arrangements on various selections. The contrast between the vocal performance of male singer Hao-en Wu and the familiar sound of slack-key guitar on a song titled “Call of Passage” is particularly vivid.
Most of the Taiwanese melodies are from songs about traditional activities such as hunting and traveling. Others speak of romance. The one nontraditional song is of relatively recent origin.
“The Warship Song” dates from the era when Japan replaced China as the colonial occupier of Taiwan; Ho describes it in his liner notes booklet as a song indigenous musicians performed when they “greeted Japanese warships” that were returning to harbor.
The set list includes instrumentals Ho composed after visiting Taiwan in 2012. Ho’s final composition, “Indigenous Echos,” brings together motifs from the Taiwanese melodies heard earlier.
Ho completes this precedent-setting project with a booklet that contains his slack-key and ukulele tunings, detailed descriptions of the arrangements, cultural information on Taiwan’s indigenous people, and notes on the career accomplishments of the singers.
It should be mentioned, giving credit where it’s due, that Teresa Bright released an album that combined Hawaiian musical traditions with indigenous Okinawan music several years ago. Ho’s work here with the music of another island people is another important step forward. It also gives Hawaii resident musicians another reminder that many musical opportunities remain for creative exploration acrosss the full spectrum of island music.
Weldon Kekauoha
‘Pilialoha’
This Grammy-nominated album by Weldon Kekauoha celebrates the richness of Hawaiian music, with classic compositions by Helen Desha Beamer and Lena Machado, and a larger collection of newly written songs by Kainani Kahaunaele and ‘Iliahi Paredes.
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Kekauoha has won multiple Na Hoku Hanohano Awards both as a member of the Mana‘o Company and as a solo recording artist. His latest solo album was picked as a finalist in the regional roots music album category by The Recording Academy. (The Grammy winners will be announced Sunday, Feb. 10.)
The instrumentation is traditionalist; Kekauoha accompanies himself on acoustic guitar, Alexander “Alika Boy” Kalauli IV plays bass and sings harmony, and Bryan Tolentino is the primary ukulele player. From the opening bars of “Mahai‘ula,” arranged as a medley with ”Kona Kai ‘Opua,” Kehauoha and his musicians honor Hawaii’s musical traditions and bring them forward.
Among the stand-out numbers is a beautiful arrangement of “Ho‘onanea” that features steel guitarist Casey Olsen and also captures Kekauoha’s talent as a falsetto vocalist. Kekauoha’s zesty rendition of “E Ho‘i Ke Aloha Maunawili” is a nice change-of-pace piece that also demands attention.
Kekauoha’s commitment to perpetuating the Hawaiian language is underscored by the fact that with the exception of a few phrases the lyrics here are all Hawaiian. Kekauoha and producer/arranger Dave Tucciarone document the music with a liner notes booklet that provides the Hawaiian lyrics, English translations and important background information.
Various Artists
‘The Descendants: Music From The Motion Picture’
Hawaiian music has been heard in Hollywood films ever since the advent of the “talkies” in the early 1930′s, but no mainstream feature film in recent years has showcased Hawaiian music — not local pop, rock or Jawaiian — as prominently as “The Descendants.” The film’s soundtrack album consists entirely of Hawaiian and hapa-haole music.
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Slack key predominates. “Descendants” director Alexander Payne and his soundtrack production team include five recordings by Gabby Pahinui and a sixth that Pahinui made while he was a member of the Sons of Hawai‘i. Slack key is also represented with recordings by Keola Beamer, Sonny Chillingworth, Dennis Kamakahi, Ray Kane, Ozzie Kotani, Makana, Daniel Ho, Jeff Peterson and George Winston. There are two versions of “Hi‘ilawe.”
Hawaii’s beloved hapa-haole tradition is represented with one song each by Lena Machado and Sol Hoopii’s Novelty Trio — the local bar band seen and heard in one scene in the movie did not make the cut.
More perplexing is the absence of any songs representing the 19th-century musical traditions of the Alii class whose land was the foundation of the (fictional) King family fortune. One or two of those classic melodies would have introduced film audiences to another important form of traditional Hawaiian music while also referencing the family’s roots.
Hawaiian lyrics, English translations and artists’ bios are also not included. Hopefully many of the people who buy tickets to see George Clooney will be as enchanted by the music as Payne was when he first heard it and then be inspired to do their own research. That makes the album a welcome showcase for traditional Hawaiian music.
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John Berger has been a mainstay in the local entertainment scene for more than 40 years. Contact him via email at jberger@staradvertiser.com.