”All In”
Pali Ka‘aihue
(PK Records Hawaii)
Pali Ka‘aihue has been known until now as a Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning record producer, songwriter and recording artist with his namesake band, Pali, and for his service as president of the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts. With "All In" he steps forward without his group to record an all-instrumental album with a tight team of studio musicians.
Composers’ credits are not provided but Ka‘aihue identifies two works as originals. One is the title song.
He explains in the liner notes that "all in" has become his rallying cry after facing a number of personal challenges last year. The album was also inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Personal ordeals and public tragedies have resulted in a beautiful body of work that encompasses several styles.
The title song pairs Ka‘aihue’s ukulele with electronic percussion in an up-tempo rock arrangement. "Rising" opens with hints of Asian stringed instruments, koto or gayageum perhaps, and a few bars of "Arirang" before it erupts into big-scale rock. In dramatic contrast, "Affirmation" is a romantic electric jazz number that blends guitar and electric piano with drums and bass. Two other songs showcase the nahenahe (sweet, melodious) sound of slack-key.
www.pali.net
"Rising"
‘Dangerous Crossing’
Stuart Hollinger
(Keala Records)
"Go big or don’t go" is the principle in play here as singer/guitarist Stuart Hollinger takes on the immense challenges involved in remaking well-known songs and comes up with something fresh and imaginative almost every time.
Veteran island musicians Greg "Rocky" Sardinha and Ben Vegas lead the constellation of top local studio players who support Hollinger in what is to date the most imaginative local album of the year. Hollinger reworks "Hawaii ’78," one of the greatest hapa-haole mele ku‘e (songs of resistance) of the 20th century, as a powerful up-tempo rock anthem akin perhaps to "Jesus Christ Superstar." The "Hawaiianness" of the traditional arrangement is gone but the message and the emotions are intact, and Hollinger’s hard-rock arrangement could introduce the song to new audiences.
For something more extreme, imagine "Jumpin’ Jack Flash" without the unforgettable Keith Richards guitar riff and with a completely different rhythm. Hollinger takes the song so far from the definitive Rolling Stones arrangement that — accept it or hate it — his imaginative vision of it is worthy of respect. Visualize "Hold the Line," Toto’s biggest hit, with bongos replacing the guitar hook. There, too, Hollinger imagines a version so far from the one everyone knows that it works.
The Beatles’ "Eleanor Rigby" with keyboards and bass replacing the string quartet? A jazz musician somewhere may have done something similar but Hollinger’s take is original as well.
Hollinger is also a songwriter. With the title song he describes the challenges posed by contemporary society, rapid changes in technology and information overload in compelling style.
"Hawaii ’78"
