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"Mamo"
Mamo — Nathan Aweau & Jeff Peterson (Peterson Productions)
The term "supergroup" came into use in the late ’60s in reference to performers like Blind Faith and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, whose members had already achieved stardom as soloists or as members of another group. Hawaii has seen some supergroups of its own through the last half-century — the Hoku Award-winning quartet of Henry Kapono Ka‘aihue, Roland Cazimero, Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole and Cyril Pahinui.
"Mamo," by veteran Hawaiian musicians Nathan Aweau and Jeff Peterson — performing here as Mamo — adds another Hawaii supergroup to the list.
Both men have impressive credentials. Peterson has recorded several precedent-setting albums with Hawaii-born shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) master Riley Lee, has performed and recorded as a solo artist, and was both a group member and producer of another supergroup project, "Amy Hanaiali‘i and Slack Key Masters of Hawai‘i," in 2010.
Aweau emerged as a solo recording artist after years of semi-anonymous work as one of Don Ho’s backing musicians and was Barry Flanagan’s musical partner in the second version of HAPA. He made history in 2006 when he won two Hoku Awards as a member of HAPA and two more for separate solo projects, one of them jazz, the other hapa haole.
With "Mamo," these two Native Hawaiians share their love of the islands and their heritage. Aweau is the voice of the project; he also plays guitar, bass and various percussion instruments.
Peterson, a versatile guitarist whose repertoire includes slack key, classical and jazz, also plays ukulele and contributes four original songs.
Aweau uses his falsetto voice on beautiful, traditional arrangements of "Pua Lililehua" and "Ku‘u Ipo ka He‘e Pu‘e One." A straight, traditional approach is also represented by Peterson’s slack-key wizardry in the three instrumentals he wrote for the project.
In sharp contrast to those traditionalist arrangements is the duo’s blending of several contemporary genres elsewhere. Updated arrangements of "Hawaii Calls," "Henehene Kou ‘Aka" and "Noho Paipai" make notable use of Aweau’s experience with various jazz idioms. Aweau’s iconic electric bass gives a strong contemporary vibe to the duo’s rock ‘n’ swing take on "‘A ‘Oia!" while modern record studio multitracking allows him to add the harmonies of a vocal group behind him.
Aweau and Peterson present equally imaginative cross-cultural takes on "‘Ulupalakua" and "Makee ‘Ailana." If there was a Hoku Award category for "best new arrangement," their work here would make them front-runners to win.
The one thing Aweau and Peterson omit from their celebration of their ancestral culture is proper documentation. Hawaiian lyrics and their English translations are useful parts of any Hawaiian album — particularly as long as most residents of Hawaii are not fluent in ‘olelo Hawaii. Background information on the songs — the reason Kawena Pukui and K. Lake wrote "Pua Lililehua," for example — would also help preserve this valuable cultural knowledge for future generations. Perhaps Aweau and Peterson could post this essential content on their websites.
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