“Sax & Steel Hula Blues”
Bill Noble & Dwight Tokumoto
MP
Saxophones were prominent in hapa haole music through the end of the Big Band Era, and the electrification of the steel guitar in the early 1930s gave the instrument the volume it needed to join the sax and all the other instruments in the dance bands that played in the major hotels of Waikiki. That history makes “Sax & Steel Hula Blues,” by Bill Noble (soprano sax/alto sax/tenor sax) and Dwight Tokumoto (steel guitar/guitar/ukulele), a welcome celebration of a romantic era in Hawaiian and hapa haole music. Matt Spencer (acoustic upright bass) and Michael Surprenant (drums/percussion) sit in as the other members of the studio orchestra.
The quartet opens with “Hula Blues,” one of the great hapa haole songs of the 1920s, melody composed by Johnny Noble (no relation). Next come classics by other composers of the era — Andy Cummings, Sol K. Bright and Andy Iona among them.
Noble and Tokumoto share credit as arrangers. Their take on Bright’s “Sophisticated Hula” is especially memorable in giving each member of the quartet time in the spotlight.
One song each by Bob Nelson (“Maui Waltz”) and Kui Lee (“I’ll Remember You”) represent the composers of the early Hawaii statehood years. The closing song is “On a Little Street in Singapore” which was written and first recorded in the 1930s. But “Singapore” is best known locally as recorded by the Peter Moon Band in 1982.
Noble is a two-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner as a member of Kahulanui (best jazz album, 2018) and as the composer of “Kahulanui Boogie Woogie” which won a songwriter’s award (instrumental composition) that same year. His productive partnership with Tokumoto is certainly a Hoku-worthy contender for 2021.
“Sax & Steel Hula Blues” is available at mele.com, cdbaby.com and iTunes.
Contact Noble at billnoble625@twc.com.
“Poisoned Love”
Storm
Tin Idol Productions
Two-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winner Storm (metal album 2018 and 2019) is prepping Hawaii for the release of its eighth career album this summer with this download-only single. “Poisoned Love” is a strangely romantic lyric tale of a woman’s struggle to resist a romantic attraction so strong she fears that “it will be my funeral pyre.”
She can’t get enough. She could lose her soul.
Will she drink the “poisoned love” anyway?
Vocalist Sandy Essman captures the emotional quandary in memorable style. Storm founder Gerard K. Gonsalves (drums), Ryan Imata (guitars/keyboards) and Darren Soliven (bass) provide the powerful instrumental support that fans of the group have come to expect.
Storm has become Hawaii’s benchmark for metal rock. Consider the upcoming album as a Hoku front-runner for 2021.
Visit reverbnation.com/storm808.
