“Huliamahi Volume I”
Various artists
(Kahuli Leo Le’a)
Nicholas Keali‘i Lum and Zachary Alaka‘i Lum — two-thirds of the multi-Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning trio Keauhou — made
an important contribution to the perpetuation of Hawaiian music last fall as co-editors of “Lei Nahonoapi‘ilani: Songs of West Maui,” a magnificent 236-page, soft-cover book that documented 83 songs written about places along the mountains of West Maui. Some were classics from decades past; others newly written for the project. Nicholas Keali‘i Lum also produced and annotated the companion CD of the same name.
Zachary Lum joins his brother as co-producer of a new collection of culturally significant songs from Maui. He and U‘ilani Tanigawa Lum share credit for the liner notes.
The 15 songs on this album are newly written — by Cody Pueo Pata, ‘Iliahi Paredes and by all three members of Keauhou writing individually. Most of them relate to the struggle to return the water to the streams of West Maui that was diverted by the sugar industry more than a century ago. Some songs honor individuals who have been leaders in the struggle.
The liner notes booklet provides essential information about the songs. The annotation also explains the deeper meanings of the word Huliamahi (spelled with a kahako over the first “a”) and the phrase “aloha ‘aina.” English translations make the songs’ basic meaning accessible to the majority who are not fluent in Hawaiian. The original Hawaiian lyrics are included too, of course.
Proceeds from sales go to the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.
Visit mele.com.
“One”
Frank De Lima
(Pocholinga Productions)
In early September, shortly after Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced the latest revisions to his stay-at-home regulations — hiking, swimming and other outdoor activities were allowed as long as they were done alone — Hawaii’s song parody wiz Frank De Lima quickly responded. “One,” written and first recorded in 1967 by Harry Nilsson, and popularized by Three Dog Night two years later, was an obvious vehicle for De Lima’s comments on the mayor’s policies.
Social media commentators point out that swimming and hiking are not things that can responsibily done solo, and that small children shouldn’t be left to wander around alone. De Lima eschews criticism and sings of families deciding via jan ken po which one of them can go outside.
“Two no can sit on da beach or hike a trail,” he sings. “It sucks to picnic wen you da only one who stay.”
Like De Lima’s other download projects, “One” is available for free at frankdelima.com, but a payment of any amount supports his nonprofit Frank De Lima Student Enrichment Program. Consider paying at least the traditional 99-cent download rate.
Visit frankdelima.com.
“Catching a Wave”
Steve &Teresa
(Aloha Got Soul)
Steve Ma‘i‘i and Teresa Bright were working as duo at Pat’s at Punalu‘u restaurant — he played electric bass, she played acoustic guitar, they both sang — when they were discovered by record producer Rick Asher Keefer. Keefer had recently arrived from the mainland and opened Sea-West Studios. He liked what he heard, and recorded the duo’s debut album at Sea-West in 1983. Aloha Got Soul’s Roger Bong makes it available to a new generation of Hawaii music fans with this reissue.
The title song was one of two compositions Ma‘i‘i contributed to the project. It’s as fine a celebration of the joy of surfing as any written. The other, “Kaho‘olawe Song,” envisions the island as a place “where I’ll be happy” rather than as the battered “target island” it was throughout the 1980s.
All but one of the other selections are island standards. Most of them are sung in Hawaiian; all are exquisite. Ma‘i‘i and Bright were superb solo vocalists who also harmonized beautifully. Their arrangement of “Ta Ha Ua La” shows that they could rock it island-style on bass and guitar as well.
“That’s My Desire,” a non-Hawaiian song recorded by Russell Wooding and His Grand Central Red Caps in 1931, foreshadowed Bright’s eventual solo career as a seductive pop stylist. But before Bright went solo she and Ma‘i‘i won a Na Hoku Hanohano Award (song of the year) in 1988 for a song they wrote together, “‘Uwehe, ‘Ami and Slide.”
Go to alohagotsoul.com.
