“HUAKA‘I KU‘U POLI”
Kamanawa
(Keala)
Blaine Kia and Kalei Kahalewai started working together as Kamanawa in 2008. After nine years together they’ve made the move from live performance to the recording studio. They took their time and they did it right.
Simplicity is the foundation. Like the Brothers Cazimero or ‘Elua Kane (the Hoku Award-winning duo of Damien Farden and Tau Grieg), Kamanawa is two voices and two instruments. Kia plays acoustic guitar, Kahalewai plays bass, Kia is the lead voice on some songs, Kahalewai takes the lead on others. The 15 songs include original compositions, contemporary compositions by Kawaikapuokalani Hewett and Louis “Moon” Kauakahi, and Hawaiian classics.
The album opens with a crisp up-tempo arrangement of “Ka Lei E” that catches the ear and shows off the duo’s harmonies quite nicely. The song is one of several where a guest sits in. Kia lets guitarist Derrick Lee play the lead lines on “Ka Lei E”; percussionist Jon Porlas and steel guitarist Greg Sardinha are the third man on others.
Kia adds cellist Anna Callner to his arrangement of “E Ku‘u Morning Dew,” the Eddie Kamae/Larry Kimura classic of the 1970s; Kia’s arrangement is exquisite in all respects.
English translations aren’t provided, but anyone not fluent in Hawaiian will be able to appreciate the romantic content of the two hapa haole songs that the duo includes on the set list.
Visit kamanawamusic.com Opens in a new tab.
“ALOHA SPIRIT”
Tavana
(Self-published)
Tavana McMoore is a versatile singer-songwriter who plays several string instruments and accompanies himself on percussion. His fourth album is an impressively crafted calling card.
The title song is Tavana’s answer to a question that has percolated through island society for generations. He defines the aloha spirit as “more than just a feeling” and says “when you’re lost, it will find you.”
“Island Days” takes a traditional hapa haole scenario and retells it in an imaginative contemporary style — many people who came to Hawaii find it very difficult to leave.
A third song, “Sparrow,” is Tavana’s most elaborate production. Tavana works with a drummer, a pianist, a trumpeter and a cellist to build an arrangement that suggests a smokey blues club far from Hawaii and perhaps many years in the past.
Tavana’s music isn’t traditionally Hawaiian or Polynesian, and it is closer to blues than fusion rock, but Hawaii can take pride in hailing it as music from these islands. He appears Monday at Blue Note Hawaii, with two shows that evening at 6:30 and 9. ($15, $25 and $35; more details at bluenotehawaii.com Opens in a new tab).
Visit tavana808.com Opens in a new tab.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Tau Grieg’s surname.
