For many years I have enjoyed the CD reissue of tracks drawn from the two LPs. But it was upon digitizing both LPs this morning that I compared the track lists, and discovered that out of 26 songs on the two LPs, there were 14 songs were on the LPs that were not reissued on the CD, and the final track on the CD, “At the Copacabana,” was not included on either LP. So here is an accounting of the 1980s LPs as compared to the 1998 CD.

A single asterisk identifies songs from the 1982 LP that appeared on the CD; a double asterisk identifies songs from the 1986 LP that appeared on the CD. The songwriting credits are as reported on the LP labels and in the CD liner notes.

1982: One Little Dream of You (Puamana Productions PP-001)

1. * “One Little Dream of You” written by Nane & Irmgard Aluli
2. * “Maui” written by Mary Pukui and Irmgard Aluli
3. * “Kūmū Kalidadidi” written by Irmgard Aluli
4. “Puamōhala i ka Wēkiu” written by Frank Kahala and Irmgard Aluli
5. * “No Hilahila” Written by Ed Halloway, Jr. and Irmgard Aluli
6. * “Maunawili at Sundown” written by Irmgard Aluli
7. “Sun and Sand” written by Mary Pukui and Irmgard Aluli
8. * “E Maliu Mai” written by Irmgard Aluli
9. * “You Taught Me How to Love You” written by Irmgard Aluli
10. * “Kulaiapahia” written by Larry Kimura and Irmgard Aluli
11. * “Ka Waimea Swing” written by Thelma Bugbee and Irmgard Aluli
12. “Soft Hawaiian Eyes” written by Irmgard Aluli
13. * “For a Peaceful World” written by Napua Stevens and Irmgard Aluli

1986:  Have A Smile (Puamana Productions PP-002)

1. ** “Puamana” written by Irmgard Farden Alley
2. “Kahukiaialo” written by Irmgard Farden Aluli
3. “Ginger Memories” written by Edna Farden Bekeart
4. “Nā Hoa He‘e Nalu” written by Irmgard Farden Aluli
5. “Halona” / “Roselani” (written by W. J. Coelho / J. Elia  © Charles E King)
6. “Kaho‘olawe” written by Irmgard Farden Aluli, Pilahi Paki, Inez Ashdown and Napua Stevens
7. “Maui Moon” written by Andy Iona
8. “Old Plantation,” written by David Nape © Charles E. King
9. “Maui Girl” written by Ignacio Libornio
10. “Hana By the Sea” written by Aima Aluli McManus
11. “Ulupalakua” written by Emma Farden Sharpe
12. “Lei Aloha, Lei of Love” written by Irmgard Farden Aluli
13. ** “One More Round” written by Liberty Helenihi Belfast and Irmgard Farden Aluli

1998: From Irmgard With Love (Mountain Apple MACD-2049)

1. ** “Puamana” Music by Irmgard Aluli, Words by Charles Kekua Farden
2. * “You Taught Me How to Love You” Music & Words by Irmgard Aluli
3. * “Kūmū Kalidadidi” Music & Words by Irmgard Aluli
4. * “Kūla‘iapāhia” By Irmgard Aluli & Larry Lindsey Kimura
5. * “No Hilahila” Words by Irmgard Aluli, Music by Ed Halloway
6. * “One Little Dream of  You” By Irmgard Aluli (3rd verse words by Nane Aluli)
7. * “E Maliu Mai” Music & Words by Irmgard Aluli; English lyrics by Nane Aluli
8. * “Ka Waimea Swing” Music by Irmgard Aluli; Words by Thelma Bugbee
9. * “Maunawili at Sundown” Music & Words by Irmgard Aluli
10. ** “One More Round” Music by Liberty Helenihi Belfast; Words by Irmgard Aluli & Liberty Helenihi Belfast
11. * “Maui” Music by Irmgard Aluli, Words by Mary Kawena Pukui
12. “For a Peaceful World” Music by Irmgard Aluli, Words by Napua Stevens-Poire
13. “At the Copacabana” Music & Words by Irmgard Aluli

Was 2011 a good year? It was certainly a busy year. I began my second semester of guest teaching at University of Hawai’i, and produced a series of five public events on “The Present & Future of Hawaiian Music,” held at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Reflections on the first two of those programs were blogged here; and at some point I owe it to many folks to post reflections from the other three programs. The fifth program was the focus of intense interest, as I had the opportunity to bring my collaborators Daniel Ho and Tia Carrere to Honolulu for a performance and panel discussion. It drew an overflow audience to UH that balmy April evening.

Other activities? I attended the Hawai‘i Music Awards, where the chant CD Lili‘uokalani (produced with Kūlia i ka Pūnāwai Kumu Hula Association of Southern California) was honored for Liner Notes. I also attended the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards in May, where the chant CD Ancient Hula Hawaiian Style Vol. 1 Hula Kahiko was nominated for liner notes. It was bested by Kupaoaʻs mellifluous English Rose, liner notes co-written by Līhau Hannahs-Paik, Kellen Paik, and Puakea Nogelmeier. In their acceptance remarks, we were treated to Puakeaʻs uniquely singular (and singularly unique) perspective: “Iʻm so glad you folks are still reading liner notes!!” Indeed. ʻa ʻoia!

I also attended the 2 days of workshops organized by HARA the weakend of the Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards. So much valuable experience, insight and information was gathered at the Hawai‘i Convention Center, on aspects of the music industry, music instruments and gear, and an entire track of sessions devoted to haku mele, with at least one of them conducted entirely in ‘ōlelo. E ola ka ‘ōlelo!

This is the year that Aaron Sala completed a masterʻs thesis in ethnomusicology, on the aesthetics of Hawaiian-style piano playing, with some very 21st-century digital analysis. This is also the year that Keola Donaghy completed his Ph.D. dissertation, also in ethnomusicology, on an aesthetics of language and poetry in Hawaiian music.

This was the year that the contentiousness around the Grammy award in Hawaiian music . . . imploded, as The Recording Category collapsed us, along with numerous other diverse ethnic traditions like Cajun, zydeco, polka, and the spectrum of Native American musics into one category to be called “Best Regional Roots Music.” Congratulations to Uncle George Kahumoku, Jr., for his Wao Akua CD garnering one of the nominations in the new category. It is extremely problematic, however, that no musics of the United Statesʻ aboriginal settlers were recognized with a nomination in that category. Hmm, a roots music category that is entirely emptied out of the continentʻs first nations peoples.

And speaking of Uncle George, he is shepherding the exciting new Institute of Hawaiian Music and the University of Hawai’i Maui College, which makes valuable music industry training accessible beyond Honolulu. The first cohort of students have prevailed in auditions, and will enter a program directed by a Grammy award-winning producer!

The closing of Borders Books and Music nationally has had a major impact on Hawaiian music, because the Hawai‘i stores were particularly well stocked with Hawaiian music inventory, and supportive of new releases. The loss of Borders, along with continued growth in online music distribution, has left Hawaiian music fans with new challenges to continue learning about and acquiring new Hawaiian music releases. Artists and groups have been strengthening their use of social media like Facebook to get words out to their fans. Yet traditional outlets for music retailing, including Barnes & Noble, and online veteran Hawaiian Music Island (www.mele.com), and indie bookstores Native Books (Honolulu) and Basically Books (Hilo) –uh, sorry, I just donʻt know what exists on Maui or Kauaʻi or Molokaʻi–these retailers are showing signs that no one outlet is successfully staying on top of the production activity outside of the main distribution channels like Mountain Apple and Booklines.

On the positive side, venues for live music performance continue to materialize. In addition to Kani Ka Pila Grille at Outrigger Reef Hotel, regular events at Royal Hawaiian Center and Embassy Suites Beach Walk, the city-run series at Kuhio Beach, and a smattering of other venues, Ilikai Bar and Grille came online with a roster of younger groups, and chef Mitch Ueno has also extended his sponsorship of Hawaiian music to his Kapahulu eatery The Corner. Ku‘uipo Kumukahi has also taken up lunchtime serenading at Hailiʻs Kapahulu Ave. restaurant as well. Where thereʻs a will, hopefully there will be even more establishments willing to consider supporting Hawaiian music and musicians!!

The November premier of the feature film The Descendants drew critical notice, not only for George Clooneyʻs Oscar-worthy performance, but also for the filmʻs sountrack, which consists entirely of kī hō’alu slack key guitar music. Mainland critics have suggested that The Descendants may do for slack key music what films like Oh Brother Where Are Thou? did for “roots” music.

What have I got to show for 2011? Well, I continue to plug away at my book projects. I did complete a major encyclopedia article. And I dove headlong into digitizing LPs so that I could finally access the music. Nephew Nate did a tremendous amount of digitizing several years ago, which jumpstarted my own efforts . . . and I am very appreciative of the support of U.K.-based producer, steel guitarist and record collector Basil Henriques who introduced me to the venerable John Marsden.  I look forward to tapping their wellsprings of knowledge and experience!!

Where will 2012 take us? Ah, I am not clairvoyant. We shall see where 2012 takes us. Iʻve been writing this blog for nearly 2-1/2 years now. So allow me to express my appreciation to you all, dear readers, for walking along this path with me. I have lots of ideas for 2012, and I hope that you all will continue in our shared passion for Hawaiian Music for our listening pleasure!!

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou iā ‘oukou ā pau!!

The web has been a-buzz over the Grammy nominations, which were announced last Wednesday Nov. 30. Many folks–fans and industry professionals alike–were curious to see what things were going to look like in the wake of last Aprilʻs radical restructuring of all of the categories. Hawaiian music was one of those categories collapsed into the broader category named “Best Regional Roots Album” within the field named “American Roots,” and this year is competing with other musics like polka, Cajun, Zydeco, Native American, and others that apparently do not fall into any other more specific category like “blues.”

The nominees in the “Best Regional Roots Music Album” are:

1. C. J. Chenier, Canʻt Sit Down.
2. George Kahumoku, Jr, Wao Akua – The Forest of the Gods.
3. Rebirth Brass Band, Rebirth of New Orleans.
4. Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, Grand Isle.
5. Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra, Not Just Another Polka.

First observations:

1. Hawaiian music was not completely shut out of nominations.
2. Native American music submissions failed to garner any nominations.
3. Three of the five submissions are musics whose geographic center is New Orleans.

Congratulations to George Kahumoku, Jr. Already a Grammy Award winner as a co-producer of four slack key compilations from the “Slack Key Masters” concert series he produces, this is his first nomination as an artist.

Hawaiian music also made an appearance in another category. In “Best Pop Instrumental Album”–one of the categories in the extremely crowded Pop Music field–is a nomination for Daniel Hoʻs solo piano album, E Kahe Mālie. Because that album contains pianistic interpretations of classic Hawaiian songs, it was originally submitted to the “Best Regional Roots Music” category. At some point in the verification process, it got moved to the “Best Pop Instrumental” category, where it earned its nomination. How about that!! Hawaiian music rises to mainstream recognition in one of the mainstream categories!! Congratulations to Daniel Ho, whose perseverance and commitment to artistry is continuing to take Hawaiian music to new audiences.

As much as there is to celebrate in this news, there is without a doubt many Hawaiian musicians and fans who are pissed off because their favorites have failed once again to garner recognition in this broader national area. So there are comments posted on bulletin boards, blogs, and FaceBook walls again to the effect of insisting that Hawai’iʻs Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards are a true reflection of those who know Hawaiian music. (Many folks do not realize that the requirement of Hawaii residency in many Hōkū categories excludes the work of many artists who work on Hawaiian music outside Hawaiʻi. HARA has instituted one new “international” category that will go into effect this year.)

One has to wonder about The Recording Academyʻs structure that places Hawaiian music in direct competition with polka, Cajun, Zydeco, and funk-jazz brass band musics, AND mainstream pop music.

Personally, I marvel at the fact that Hawaiian music has not disappeared entirely off the Grammy radar, even without a dedicated category. Naysayers will certainly trumpet up assertions that the Grammy nominations and awards are about popularity, marketing, and networking. Such charges are ill-informed and even disrespectful of many voting members in the Recording Academy, whose votes do represent the assessment of artistic and technical merit by professional peers in the music industry.

Disclaimer:  I am a voting member of both the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (“The Recording Academy”), and the Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts (“HARA”). My eligibility for membership is based on production, co-production, and liner notes credits for eight recordings on three different record labels.)

The call for submission of eligible products is issued mid-summer, and all recordings whose eligibility is verified by The Recording Academy go onto a Preliminary Ballot. The top 5 vote-getters within each category are designated “GRAMMY Nominees.” A second voting period takes place, out of which the winners are announced at the February awards program.

The results of the preliminary voting will be announced this week. For those curious, there were 55 albums in the “Best Regional Roots Music” category. The following 13 were the Hawaiian music albums included on the preliminary ballot:

1. Ahumanu, No Ku‘uipo
2. Kawika Alfiche, Kale‘a
3. Robert Cazimero, Hula
4. Hi‘ikua, Aia i Hi‘ialo
5. Kuana Torres Kahele, Kaunaloa 
6. George Kahumoku, Jr., Wao Akua — The Forest of the Gods
7. John Keawe, Play With Me Papa
8. Mailani, ‘Aina”   [e kala mai the absence of kahakō over the capital "A"]
9. Kenneth Makuakane, Kawaipono
10. Doug & Sandy McMaster, In My Heart
11. Various Artists, A Tribute to Nā Lani ‘Ehā
12. Various Artists, Nā Haku Mele o Hawai‘i 
13. Various Artists, Wahine

Collectively this is a strong set of products. There is a mixture here of CDs that focus on new versions of old songs, as well as CDs that introduce newly-written material. Three CDs have prominent kī hō‘alu slack key content. All vocal CDs contain predominantly Hawaiian-language songs. Happily the 13 submissions span four islands–Hawai‘i, Kaua‘i, Maui and O‘ahu–as well as San Francsisco. E ō!

WAIPUNAʻs new CD E Ho‘i Mai arrived in my mailbox about a week ago, thanks to Lynn at Me Ke Aloha Online Hawaiian Store.

WAIPUNA is Kale Hannahs and Matt Sproat.  E Ho‘i Mai is their 2nd CD. Visit Waipunaʻs website, then drop in on their blog waipunamusic on Facebook.

You must absolutely listen to the track “Kamehameha Trilogy.” This, dear readers, is the past brought fearlessly into the future. In the liner notes, Neil Hannahs (Kale’s father) writes, “it is doubtful that anyone ever anticipated this upbeat interpretation performed in collaboration with Kumu Hula Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu.” Clearly this is not your grandmotherʻs recollection of “Hole Waimea.” (For the classic rendition of the mele hula ‘āla‘apapa, Lokalia Montgomeryʻs 1960 recording on Waikiki Records was finally reissued by HanaOla Records / Cord International last year on the CD Ancient Hula Hawaiian Style.)

The track begins with a rainstorm soundtrack into which ipu rhythms enter, suggesting “Hole Waimea” the chant. A startling interruption by the bass ushers in rhythmic guitar strumming, and we are off instead into “Hole Waimea” the song. Just as Waipuna reaches the end of the first verse, Mark Ho‘omalu calls his dancers to attention, and they launch seamlessly into “Hole Waimea” the chant, offered in Markʻs signature melodic treatment. Waipuna returns with the chorus of “Hole Waimea” the song. Then, equally seamlessly, the track heads into “Waikā” in a give-and-take between Mark and Waipuna. Anyone who knows the mele “Hole Waimea” knows that the song “Waikā” is a 20th-century setting of the second paukū of “Hole Waimea” the chant. Waipuna acknowledges this genealogy of the mele “Waikā” by returning to the chorus of the song “Hole Waimea,” wrapping “Waikā” back into its roots. Then Mark and dancers return with “Hoe Puna,” followed, again, by Waipuna singing the chorus of the song “Hole Waimea.” The track ends with a triumphant kāhea of a phrase attributed to Kamehameha I that has become an ‘ōlelo no‘eau–”Imua e nā pōki‘i!!” The track clocks in at 5:03, but it blitzes by in a flash, grounded throughout by the steady driving combination of ipu and rhythm guitar.

Many hula students know that the two mele “Hole Waimea” and “Hoe Puna” both appear in Nathaniel Emerson’s 1909 study Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, in the same chapter on “Hula Alaapapa.” What is less well known is that both mele appeared in the newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in October, 1866, as part of the same set of mele inoa dedicated to Kamehameha II. “Hole Waimea” was the first mele hula, and “Hoe Puna” is the sixth mele hula in the very same set.

Waipuna’s treatment is historically respectful, poetically speaking. The distinct homage, from my perspective, is located in their rhythmic approach. The rhythmic element is what adds musical sparkle for 21st-century listeners now experienced in hip hop, techno, world music, jazz, and other varieties of music available on the internet for our discovery and pleasure. Far from taking old mele and simply dressing them up in new threads, the three artists have taken old mele and woven them into a new fabric that places four settings of two original mele in dialogue.

What I would have given to have seen Waipuna on their Northern California CD release tour just before the CD was released in Hawai‘i. What I would have given to see “Kamehameha Trilogy” performed live with Mark Ho‘omalu! But thanks to recording technology, I can at least listen to this remarkable track that brings the poetic past and the musical future alive in the present.

Lovely hula hands, graceful as a bird in motion
And the swirling winds over the pali, lovely hula hands, kou lima nani e.

Lovely hula hands, telling of the rain in the valley,
Say to me again “I love you,” lovely hula hands, kou lima nani e.

I can feel your soft caresses of your hula hands, your lovely hula hands.
Every little move expresses so I’ll understand all the tender meanings

Of your hula hands, fingertips that say aloha
Say to me again “I love you,” lovely hula hands, kou lima nani e.

If you simply look at the text with no reference at all to the tune, it looks like there are four stanzas.

But if you sing the tune, youʻll know that the first and second “stanzas” have the same tune; the third “stanza” is a different tune, and the fourth “stanza” returns to the tune of the first and second “stanzas.” Some musicians would say “verse-verse-chorus-verse” or “verse-verse-bridge-verse.” Music analysts will often use alphabets to represent each different section of tune; this format would then be represented as “A-A-B-A.” Each “stanza” often has the same length, and that length is most often of 8 measures, and the entire tune would be 32 measures long. This 32-measure “AABA” format is used extensively in American popular music of the 1910s and thereafter, and musicologists often refer to it as “popular song form” or “32-measure AABA popular song form.”

The overwhelming majority of hapa haole songs by R. Alex Anderson, Harry Owens, Don McDiarmid, Tony Todaro, Sol Bright, and others conform to this 32-measure AABA popular song form. (There are exceptions, which is why I wrote “the overwhelming majority of hapa haole songs”.) This song form comes straight from the American popular music publishing industry that flourished in New York City in the late 19th- and early 20th centuries. Now marked by a plaque at West 28th between Broadway and Sixth Ave., the district earned the nickname “Tin Pan Alley” from the sounds of songwriters and jobbers at work drifting out the windows of the concentration of publishers within a one- or two-block area.

The 32-measure popular song form dominates in the work of Tin Pan Alley songwriters the likes of Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, George and Ira Gershwin , Gus Kahn, and Harry Von Tilzer, among many others. After the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, when Hawaiian music took off on national popularity, Tin Pan Alley songwriters churned out Hawaiian-themed songs filled with gibberish pseudo-Hawaiian lyrics and maudlin stereotypes–songs like “Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula,” “My Isle of Golden Dreams,” “Ukulele Lady,” “Honolulu Iʻm Coming Back Again” and “Oh How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo.” (!)

Many contemporary Hawaiian would like to bury this chapter of Hawaiian music history. But here are two reasons why this part of history cannot be cut off like a dead branch:

1. Many of these songs were recorded by revered Hawaiian musicians. No less than Alfred Apaka recorded “Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula.” And Robert Cazimero teamed up with the The Makaha Sons to sing the most unforgettable rendition of “My Isles of Golden Dreams” wrapped sublimely around Helen Desha Beamerʻs “Pua Malihini.”
2. The 32-measure popular song form from Tin Pan Alley was taken up by Honolulu-based songwriters of hapa haole songs like R. Alex Anderson (who wrote “Lovely Hula Hands” above), Sol Bright, Harry Owens, Jack Pitman–whose song “Beyond the Reef” practically defines the category of hapa haole song), and Tony Todaro, among others.

So the 32-measure popular song form in hapa haole songs has its roots in Tin Pan Alley songwriting. BUT . . . if we look earlier than 1915, the hapa haole songs written by Hawaiian songwriters that have endeared themselves are not in the popular song form. Get ready for this:  the iconic hapa haole songs of Sonny Cunha are in the format of hula ku‘i songs!! So is the song that fueled the Hawaiian music craze after its introduction at the Panama Pacific Exposition:  ”On the Beach at Waikiki.” Hum this to your self:

1. “Honi kāua wikiwiki” sweet brown maiden said to me
   As she gave me language lessons on the beach at Waikiki.
2. “Honi kāua wikiwiki” she then said and smiled in glee
   But she would not translate for me on the beach at Waikiki.
3. “Honi kāua wikiwiki” she repeated playfully
   Oh those lips were so inviting on the beach at Waikiki.
4. “Honi kāua wikiwiki” she was surely teasing me
   So I caught that maid and kissed her on the beach at Waikiki.
5. “Honi kāua wikiwiki” you have learned it perfectly
   “Donʻt forget what I have taught,” said the maid at Waikiki.

Every stanza has the same tune. Just like hula ku‘i songs. Back up further to Sonny Cunhaʻs “My Honolulu Tomboy” of 1905, and the songʻs last verse is “Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana / She is my dear little sweet little Honolulu Tomboy” and every verse is followed by a “vamp.” These early pre-Tin Pan Alley hapa haole songs, written by Hawaiian songwriters, were distinguished from hula ku‘i songs solely by language. 

Just to be clear: I am NOT saying that all hapa haole songs after Tin Pan Alley are in 32-measure popular song form. I am also NOT saying that all hapa haole songs before Tin Pan Alley are in the format of hula ku‘i songs. What I AM saying is that the category of “hapa haole song” has evolved, from an early pre-Tin Pan Alley use of hula ku‘i format among many songs, to a post-Tin Pan Alley use of 32-measure popular song form among MANY songs.

• There is an excellent website called “Hapa Haole Songs: Lyrics to Hawaiian songs written in English, 1916-1978.” This informative archive has lyrics and historical notes, and is also richly illustrated.
• For an even more comprehensive view of sheet music covers, especially the drivel emanating out of Tin Pan Alley, see the amazing “Hawaiian and Tropical Vintage Sheet Music Image Archive” at www.hulapages.com .

In my course this term on “Critical Genealogies of American Music,” students were assigned to read the work of cultural critic Greil Marcus, specifically his book The Old Weird America (originally published under the title Invisible Republic) about Bob Dylanʻs Basement Tapes recording sessions in 1967. Greil Marcus is a prolific commentator on popular culture and popular music; his book Mystery Train: Images of American in Rock ʻnʻ Roll Music has set the standard for rock music commentary, and Time magazine named it among the Top 100 nonfiction books. Marcus was one of the original writers for Rolling Stone magazine, and his work has also appeared in The Village Voice, Creem, and on various influential blogs on music and contemporary culture. His writing goes far beyond mere description, digging deep into the psyche of musicians and songwriters, and drawing connections between songs and contemporary culture.

The kind of commentary that Marcus writes goes far beyond descriptive journalism. It digs into the workings of the music–how singersʻ voices channel singers of generations before, how songs capture the ethos of places that have been irreversibly transformed, how singers trick listeners into seeing themselves displaced and unsettled, how singers are capable of convincing us that the world around us is not as it seems to be. Marcus is brilliant at capturing moments of time-shifting and shape-shifting.

And one more thing goes onto my bucket list–to cultivate public conversation about Hawaiian music that engages with the music qua music, conversation that rises far above the “I know what I like” level. Think about it–we pretty much have nothing between the newspaper journalism of John Berger and Wayne Harada and the academic scholarship of folks like me.

Go to Amazon.com and check out Greil Marcusʻs books and reviews posted about them. For a lot of really really concise and intelligent commentary on music, the NPR (National Public Radio) website on Music  (www.npr.org/music) has a range of blogs on different aspects of music ranging from pop to jazz to classical. PBS Hawaii President and CEO Leslie Wilcox has interviewed many Hawaiian entertainers on her show “Long Story Short” and many can be heard on the showʻs website. There are so many possible models for raising the bar on discussion of Hawaiian music.

Itʻs been nearly a month since my last post. You must have surmised by now that I am back in Michigan, having completed an eventful year as a visiting prof at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. My silence here can also be blamed on getting through the first two weeks of a new semester at University of Michigan. Go Blue.

When I returned to Michigan in midsummer, I immersed myself in digitizing my LPs so that I could actually consult and study the music being produced, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. And goodness, have I ever learned so so so very much. Many of my presumptions were blown out of the water. Many!! Like, uku paila !!

Aug 19, 2011. Purple & pink stickies are whatʻs left to digitize. But I had already reduced the purples significantly by then.

As I worked through my LP collection, of course I began with the LPs that were part of my soundscape growing up that have not appeared on CD reissues. And guess what I avoided like the plague? Those cheesy budget LPs. I knew it was something I needed to face, but . . . I thought, “ugh.” When I could finally avoid them no longer, I figured might as well bite the bullet.

What a humbling and eye-opening experience I had no idea I was in for. The biggest lesson, which I learned long ago as a student, came back to me full force:  There is absolutely no substitution for actually engaging with the material–also known as getting oneʻs hands dirty, or getting dirt under the fingernails. Handling the physical objects, examining the jackets front & back for little telltale signs that make “connecting-the-dots” exercises possible, like which budget labels are divisions of major labels, and which budget labels are proliferating a very small set of tracks under different titles. Finding LPs whose track lists on the disc label do not match the track lists on the jackets.

The biggest find for me came in having to listen to each and every LP as they were being digitized. [Putting the track markers in on the fly is much easier than trying to find them out of one 20-minute track. Surface noise on the LPs pretty much guarantees that automatic tracking features in software will not work correctly 99% of the time.]

Because this is what I discovered: quite a few budget LPs contain the work of first-rate musicians who ARE seasoned professional Hawaiian players, but who are being marketed under pseudonymns like “National Hawaiian Orchestra” or “Harry Hoomele and His Hawaiians.”

Make no mistake, there is a lot of gawdawful rubbish in the lot of what has been marketed in the past as “Hawaiian music.” But there are also lots of gems and the work of revered Hawaiian musicians going unacknowledged. And we would be depriving ourselves of a valuable opportunity to refine our understanding of a much-maligned period of Hawaiian music production if we simply dismiss all budget LPs as garbage.

Sept 17, 2011. Only 17 pink stickies left !!!!

© 2011 Amy Ku‘uleialoha Stillman

When I was growing up, Kingʻs Blue Book and the Green Book enjoyed the status of “bibles” of Hawaiian music. One or both volumes could be found in many a piano bench across the islands. Seekers of songs were often directed to those venerable volumes.

When I began pursuing research, I discovered that these two volumes were but the tip of an iceberg. Charles E. King was a prolific publisher. There were quite a few other volumes in his catalog, as well as sheet music. Mr. King was a prolific and important songwriter, and his publishing enterprise was an outlet for his work.

There was, by the 1960s, a widespread perception circulating in Hawaiian music circles that many of the songs published by Mr. King in his songbooks were songs that he had stolen from other songwriters, and that in his songbooks, he put his name on these songs as if they were all his. He would publish songs and put his name on them, when in fact other songwriters had written those songs, and were not getting credit.

Charles E. Kingʻs Book of Hawaiian Melodies–what continues to be popularly called “Kingʻs Blue Book” because of its original blue-colored cover–was my gateway into a publishing maze. I started at the University of Hawai‘i’s Hawaiian collection. Back in the 1970s they had several copies of the Blue Book, published in different years. I noted the years, but presumed, like so many others at that time, that the contents of those volumes was the same. We did not have any reason to suspect otherwise. Ah, presumptions–they certainly can get in the way of seeing things for what they are, rather than what we want them to be.

During my student days at UH, I struck up an acquaintance with Dennis Ladd, a staff member in the A/V library. Originally from the Washington DC area, Dennis would visit the Library of Congress on his visits to family. He very kindly shared with me xeroxes of Hawaiian music items he was finding there. Among those items was a xerox of a book whose cover was lost, but the title page said “The Latest Hawaiian Hulas” and it was published in 1917. Note to self–I sure hoped that someday I might get to Library of Congress to see this myself, because there sure wasnʻt anything like it in Honolulu at that time.

Several years later, after I had moved to Harvard for doctoral studies, I got to the Library of Congress, and continued my odyssey of documenting Hawaiian music. The Library of Congress collections were rich with Hawaiian music. And no wonder–the U.S. Copyright Office is located in the Library. Applicants would submit works. And after the Copyright Office registered these works, the works were then sent on to the Music Division

Kingʻs Book of Hawaiian Melodies first appeared in 1916, and the copy at Library of Congress was at that time the only known copy in a public collection. The last volume of the Book of Hawaiian Melodies was published in 1948. The Library of Congress card catalog reported, too, that the 1948 volume was “the twenty-second edition.” The big finding: between the 1916 and 1948 volumes, there were 20 more editions to locate. And more: In addition to the “Blue Book” and “The Latest Hawaiian Hulas,” there were several more discoveries. The so-called “Green Book,” properly titled Songs of Hawaii, first appeared in 1942, and the second and final edition is the 1950 volume that is familiar to many of us. In 1925 Charles E. King produced an operetta titled “Prince of Hawaii.” The musical selections were published in a volume of the same title in that year, and reprinted the following year. And finally, there is one other volume, Songs of Honolulu, published in 1917.