Hawaiian music is always a great gift idea, whether for a music lover who has yet to experience the islands or for sharing the sound of home with a former resident now far away.
Here are three of 2017’s most notable Hawaiian releases.
— John Berger, Star-Advertiser
“‘Aina Momona: Molokai (Music for the Hawaiian Islands Vol. 6)”
Kuana Torres Kahele (Kuana Torres Kahele)
Kuana Torres Kahele’s newest album, released Nov. 29, is the sixth of a planned series of seven that each honors one of the Hawaiian Islands with new music for performance by musical groups and halau hula.
Kahele sings most of the vocal parts and plays most of the instruments; his Hawaiian falsetto harmonies are exquisite. Casey Olsen (steel guitar) and Zachary Lum (piano) are his studio sidemen.
Kahele completes the album with annotation providing the lyrics, English translations and background information.
“Pili Me Ke Aloha”
Kawaikapuokalani Hewett feat. Manalani (Jasrac)
Kawaikapuokalani Hewett is one of the few culturally significant kumu hula who is equally significant as a recording artist. “Pili Me Ke Aloha” lives up to expectations in all respects. He describes it as “a step-by-step format of a wedding ceremony reflecting ancient Hawaiian traditions.”
The songs all are originals, and Hewett sings and chants in his unmistakable style. He completes his recommendations with a booklet full of lyrics, translations and other information.
“Ho‘okena 3.0”
Ho‘okena (Huliau LLC)
Ho‘okena has been “quenching the thirst” for traditional Hawaiian music since the release of its aptly titled debut album — “Thirst Quencher!” — in 1990. With “3.0” the group upholds this important musical legacy.
The harmonies and strong solo voices, always supported by the trio’s acoustic instruments, are a strong and consistent foundation throughout. Extensive annotation completes the package.
“Ho‘okena 3.0” is a finalist in the best regional roots music album category for the 2018 Grammy Awards.
AMONG THIS year’s books of Hawaii interest, the following struck us as perfectly suited for holiday giving and sharing.
— Mindy Pennybacker, Star-Advertiser
“Hana: A Photographic History of Hawaii’s Paradise”
Bruce McAllister (Self-published, $40, besspress.com)
In the late 1940s, San Francisco-born Bruce McAllister’s parents bought a second home in Hana, the fabled, remote district of East Maui where he learned “how to body surf and live without electricity” and has been photographing ever since.
He takes readers there in bracing panoramas of the wild coast, pools, waterfalls, heiau and vertiginous trails and highway, but the heart of this illuminated book is McAllister’s portraits of local people: a little girl in plumeria lei with a fierce stare, youth-to-kupuna photos of park ranger/lifeguard Eddie Pu and other local heroes.
Fishermen shore-cast in a scene worthy of Hokusai in this place that leaves its people time and reason to stare into space.
“Lili‘uokalani: A Royal Album”
Allan Seiden (Mutual Publishing, $15.95)
The 100th anniversary of the death of Queen Lili‘uokalani this year is commemorated by Allan Seiden’s condensed biography in an appealing design that evokes Victorian ladies’ albums. Seiden adds to an already rich body of writing by and about Lili‘uokalani with brief excerpts from her memoirs and photographic calling cards from her personal albums.
Photos and accounts of Lili‘u as an impetuous-looking teenager in an off-the-shoulder gown, a dashing William Lunalilo, the future king to whom she was briefly engaged, her hanai sister and close friend Bernice Pauahi Bishop, and many others in this intimate volume makes her approachable in a way that queens are generally not.
“from unincorporated territory [lukao]”
Craig Santos Perez (Omnidawn, $17.95)
A stimulating new collection of poems by Craig Santos Perez, an assistant professor of English at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, centers on his wife’s pregnancy and the birth of their daughter.
Bringing a child into a troubled world is always a daunting prospect, but while “[lukao]” extends the themes of migration, militarization, global warming and vanishing species in Perez’s previous three books, it resounds with infectious joy over the new arrival. She is heir to two island cultures: Perez is a native Chamorro from Guam, and his wife, Brandy Nalani McDougall, is Native Hawaiian.
Poetry buffs and new parents will appreciate these poems.
“Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir”
Amy Tan (Ecco, $28.99)
Although Californian Amy Tan does not write about Hawaii, her work has interested local readers since her first novel, the 1989 best-seller “The Joy Luck Club,” helped put the Asian-American and immigrant experience on the mainstream literary map.
Her engaging new memoir tells how she became a writer and how she keeps writing: Like music, it requires practice. Noting that MRI images show that when “jazz pianists were improvising, their brains were not more engaged, but less,” Tan says that once she sets up the structure for a novel, her writing is freed.
In China she learns that a fine tea includes the odor of the person who rolled the leaves, an apt metaphor for how a writer grows out of intermeshed experiences, her own and others.
“‘Ano Lani: ‘Ano Honua: A Spiritual Guide to the Hawaiian Lunar Calendar”
Wendell Kalanikapuaenui Silva (Self-published, $12.95)
Written by Wendell Silva, a practicing kahuna, this small but potent book puts you in touch with an all-important celestial presence: Mahina, the moon. Delving into “the ancient Hawaiians’ connection to the nocturnal domain of their matriarchal lunar goddess, Hina,”
Silva shines their knowledge and practices on our lives today. For instance, Hilo, the new moon, which resembles an ewe, or navel string, is a good day for growing crops like sweet potato or gourds that grow in a line and for starting innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises.
The thin volume is filled with lovely black-and-white line drawings.
“Malama Honua: Hokule‘a — A Voyage of Hope”
Jennifer Allen (Patagonia, $60)
The Hokule‘a, the traditional Polynesian sailing canoe, returned to Honolulu in June, concluding a three-year, around-the-world voyage themed “Malama Honua,” care for the earth. It is chronicled in an eponymous book written by Jennifer Allen and filled with ravishing color photographs by North Shore resident John Bilderback and illustrations by John McCaskill.
“Malama Honua” captures the sweep of open ocean and majestic coastlines; ports of call and their residents from New Zealand to New York; and profiles of crew members and their families.
At 352 pages, printed on 100 percent post-consumer-waste recycled paper, this big, gorgeous volume is the must-have Hawaii book of the year.
“The Hawaiian Horse”
Billy and Brady Bergin (University of Hawai‘i Press, $42)
For little (and grown-up) island girls who dream of riding horses, to paniolo, polo players and ribbon-winners in dressage, this 365-page book by two local veterinary doctors about the social and economic history of horses — and their riders — in Hawaii will be a welcome gift.
Chapters feature different breeds, including the Mauna Kea horse; the great North Kohala valleys of Waipio, Waimanu and Pololu; and longtime local equestrian families.
From early portraits of modest pa‘u queens to action shots of rodeos, polo matches, cattle roundups and horse racing in Kapiolani Park, the photos educate and please.
“Growing Hawai‘i’s Native Plants: A Simple Step-by-Step Approach for Every Species”
Kerin Lilleeng-Rosenberger (University of Hawai‘i Press, $46)
In 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified 87 percent of Hawaii endemic plant species as threatened with extinction. So, if you have any outdoor space — a yard, a community garden plot or a few lanai containers — you can help by cultivating our native flora.
A must-have guide is Kerin Lilleeng-Rosenberger’s newly updated “Growing Hawai‘i’s Native Plants,” which covers 1,386 indigenous species. A two-page spread per plant tells all you need to grow it.
A skilled writer as well as botanist, Lilleeng-Rosenberger’s book is eminently practical and readable — the perfect companion for gardeners of any level.
