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50 Greatest Hawaii Albums
Bolante, Ronna and Michael Keany, The 50 Greatest Hawaii Albums. Honolulu: Watermark Publishing (1088 Bishop Street, Suite 310, Honolulu, HI 96813), 2004. 152p. ISBN 0-9753740-1-X (hc), $29.95. Index. Illus (color).
This is not a coffee table book. Although beautifully adorned with more than 150 photographs and printed on slick, high-grade paper, The 50 Greatest Hawaii Albums has a far more serious purpose than merely starting a conversation or passing idle time. Ronna Bolante and Michael Keany are senior staff writers for Honolulu Magazine and Hawaii Business News who have won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for industry or trade reporting and government reporting. They have compiled a truly important resource for students of Hawaiian music.
This book is a highly evaluated and ranked list of the best albums from Hawaii from the early 1950s to 2004. It features beautiful photographs of the albums and the artists who created them, a comprehensive list of song titles and brief, well-written anecdotes. In one of these, music producer Jon DeMello tells the story about a recording session with 600 pound Hawaiian music legend Israel Kamakawiwoole. “He was on oxygen and couldn’t sleep well. So about two in the morning he calls me up and says, ‘I want to record.’ That night he did four or five songs. First takes,” DeMello remembers recording everything, from the moment Iz entered the studio. Many of the spoken segments from songs like “Hawaii 78” were taken from theses “off time” recordings and were not scripted sentiments.
The book is based on the Honolulu Magazine article “The 50 Greatest Hawaii Albums of All Time” published in June of 2004. Authors Bolante and Keany compiled the votes of twelve industry experts to come up with the list of the fifty albums. The panelists included singer-songwriters Robert Cazimero and Kapono Beamer, veteran radio personalities Tom Moffatt and Jacqueline “Skylark” Rossetti, Hawaiian music historians Harry B. Soria and Alan Yoshioka and musician Jake Shimabukuro. Their experiences in the recording and promotion of Hawaiian music span fifty years; few would dare question their authority to make these evaluations.
The albums comprise a truly diverse collection from a vast landscape of styles and influences. The pop influenced music of the 70s exemplified by the Beamer Brothers, Kalapana, Cecilio & Kapono and Country Comfort dominates the list. The pop-Hawaiian fusion music of artists like Don Ho, the Brothers Cazimero, Israel Kamakawiwoole, Sunday Manoa, the Makaha Sons of Niihau and Kealii Reichel also rank highly. Traditional Hawaiian music, in the Hawaiian language, is also represented significantly in the list with great artists like ukulele virtuoso Gabby Pahinui, falsettos Genoa Keawe and Mahi Beamer and orchestra leaders Martin Denny, Jack DeMello, and Arthur Lyman.
The greatest strength of this book is also its greatest liability. The subjectivity allowed in the selection process has resulted in a list that is not only broad and diverse, but one that is also eminently challengeable, especially in terms of where an album ranks. For example, the list gives short shrift to Cecilio & Kapono’s self-titled debut album from 1974, ranking it at number 19. Arguably, the style of this folk/rock duo has influenced many Hawaii based artists in the decades since. All nine songs from the album are still played on radio stations today. The collective subjectivity of the panelists is also evident in the placement of Nina Kealiiwahamana’s self-titled 1978 album before Emma Veary’s The Best of Emma compilation from 1975. Both singers are exquisite vocalists who have almost identical singing styles and vocal qualities, and both specialize in songs from the monarchy era. It is difficult to determine why one would be ranked at 18 and the other at 38.
Other resources on Hawaiian music do exist. The Aloha Collection of Hawaiian Songs by Ron Middlebrook and The Complete Hawaiian Music Collection by Jim Armstrong provide lyrics from Hawaiian songs composed in the early 20th century. There is also a more general reference book on Hawaiian music called The Island Music Source Book compiled by Brett Ortone. These books, however, do not contain critical analyses or historical content. And none is quite as readable and enjoyable as this attractive and well-crafted book.
For those new to Hawaiian music, this book is the ultimate primer. For those of us who have lived through this musical renaissance, this is a reminder of the enduring talent and the beautiful spirit that infuses the music of the islands. It should be part of the Hawaiiana collection of every public library in Hawaii and anywhere else this music is appreciated.
This is not a coffee table book. Although beautifully adorned with more than 150 photographs and printed on slick, high-grade paper, The 50 Greatest Hawaii Albums has a far more serious purpose than merely starting a conversation or passing idle time. Ronna Bolante and Michael Keany are senior staff writers for Honolulu Magazine and Hawaii Business News who have won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for industry or trade reporting and government reporting. They have compiled a truly important resource for students of Hawaiian music.
This book is a highly evaluated and ranked list of the best albums from Hawaii from the early 1950s to 2004. It features beautiful photographs of the albums and the artists who created them, a comprehensive list of song titles and brief, well-written anecdotes. In one of these, music producer Jon DeMello tells the story about a recording session with 600 pound Hawaiian music legend Israel Kamakawiwoole. “He was on oxygen and couldn’t sleep well. So about two in the morning he calls me up and says, ‘I want to record.’ That night he did four or five songs. First takes,” DeMello remembers recording everything, from the moment Iz entered the studio. Many of the spoken segments from songs like “Hawaii 78” were taken from theses “off time” recordings and were not scripted sentiments.
The book is based on the Honolulu Magazine article “The 50 Greatest Hawaii Albums of All Time” published in June of 2004. Authors Bolante and Keany compiled the votes of twelve industry experts to come up with the list of the fifty albums. The panelists included singer-songwriters Robert Cazimero and Kapono Beamer, veteran radio personalities Tom Moffatt and Jacqueline “Skylark” Rossetti, Hawaiian music historians Harry B. Soria and Alan Yoshioka and musician Jake Shimabukuro. Their experiences in the recording and promotion of Hawaiian music span fifty years; few would dare question their authority to make these evaluations.
The albums comprise a truly diverse collection from a vast landscape of styles and influences. The pop influenced music of the 70s exemplified by the Beamer Brothers, Kalapana, Cecilio & Kapono and Country Comfort dominates the list. The pop-Hawaiian fusion music of artists like Don Ho, the Brothers Cazimero, Israel Kamakawiwoole, Sunday Manoa, the Makaha Sons of Niihau and Kealii Reichel also rank highly. Traditional Hawaiian music, in the Hawaiian language, is also represented significantly in the list with great artists like ukulele virtuoso Gabby Pahinui, falsettos Genoa Keawe and Mahi Beamer and orchestra leaders Martin Denny, Jack DeMello, and Arthur Lyman.
The greatest strength of this book is also its greatest liability. The subjectivity allowed in the selection process has resulted in a list that is not only broad and diverse, but one that is also eminently challengeable, especially in terms of where an album ranks. For example, the list gives short shrift to Cecilio & Kapono’s self-titled debut album from 1974, ranking it at number 19. Arguably, the style of this folk/rock duo has influenced many Hawaii based artists in the decades since. All nine songs from the album are still played on radio stations today. The collective subjectivity of the panelists is also evident in the placement of Nina Kealiiwahamana’s self-titled 1978 album before Emma Veary’s The Best of Emma compilation from 1975. Both singers are exquisite vocalists who have almost identical singing styles and vocal qualities, and both specialize in songs from the monarchy era. It is difficult to determine why one would be ranked at 18 and the other at 38.
Other resources on Hawaiian music do exist. The Aloha Collection of Hawaiian Songs by Ron Middlebrook and The Complete Hawaiian Music Collection by Jim Armstrong provide lyrics from Hawaiian songs composed in the early 20th century. There is also a more general reference book on Hawaiian music called The Island Music Source Book compiled by Brett Ortone. These books, however, do not contain critical analyses or historical content. And none is quite as readable and enjoyable as this attractive and well-crafted book.
For those new to Hawaiian music, this book is the ultimate primer. For those of us who have lived through this musical renaissance, this is a reminder of the enduring talent and the beautiful spirit that infuses the music of the islands. It should be part of the Hawaiiana collection of every public library in Hawaii and anywhere else this music is appreciated.
Reviewed by Baron Baroza, LIS student, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Review submitted in April 2007.
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