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"K’nova"
K’nova (Hawaii Entertainment Group)
Back in 1993, R. Kelly wrote "Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number" for his 14-year-old protégé, Aaliyah. Mono-monickered K’nova presents a fresh variation of that empowering principle on his self-titled album with "Age Ain’t Nothing but a Thing." Catchy Jamaican-style rhythms, strong lyric hooks, engaging work by K’nova on vocals and producer George "Fiji" Veikoso singing in the mix combine to make it an excellent musical calling card. It is also one of the most memorable locally written songs of 2012 so far.
K’nova should score with several other songs. There’s the first song on the album, "Old Halalani," which introduces his smooth blend of Jamaican-style rhythms and contemporary African-American harmonies. That same commercially viable formula works well with love songs ("Love Is So Official" and "Rock Me Baby") and with slice-of-hip-hop-life tunes such as "What If," where K’nova addresses the issue of women who pretend to love a man while scheming to take him for all the bling they can get.
There are also two poignant songs apparently about death, dreams, angels and his mother, and another that he sings in an unidentified Polynesian language.
Erich Sylvester is the prime mover in this collection of hapa haole and Tin Pan Alley Hawaiian classics. Sylvester sings and plays ukulele; his sidemen include four steel guitarists — one per song. The use of acoustic steel guitar gives the project a classic old-time sound.
The songs date from the first four decades of the 20th century, when Hawaii was known worldwide as a wonderful place to be. Some were the work of such island residents as R. Alex Anderson, Don McDiarmid Sr. and Johnny Noble. Others represent Hawaii and its music as imagined by writers in New York. Either way, the perceptions are positive, even fanciful.
The final song, "Becky, I Ain’t Comin’ No More," recalls a popular genre of a bygone era: "ethnic" music. Sylvester adopts a Jewish accent in a song about a man who sends a message to his girl back east that he has decided to stay where the "hula dollies" are "better than the Minsky Follies."
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