Kanekoa rooted in love
The Gift of Love: By Wanda Kanekoa, Neos Productions
IT'S a shame the membership of the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts ignored Wanda Kanekoa in the preliminary balloting for the Hoku Awards. She is a straight-forward writer and performer whose lack of pretense deserves respect. You want a grassroots look at the life and times of a contemporary Hawaiian? Here it is!
Kanekoa tells of her love for kupuna who have passed on and her feeling that they still watch over her. She shares the pain of watching a lover die, of being separated from her mother (for reasons not mentioned), and of the evictions of now homeless Hawaiians from their encampment at Makua. A single pop chart remake -- Sue Thompson's 1961 hit, "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)" -- isn't much cheerier.
Two island standards, "Green Lantern Hula" and "Makalapua," give Kanekoa and producer/musician Bob St. John-Payne a chance to stretch out and lighten up a bit. A pair of original Christian songs add testaments of optimism and the spiritual faith that sustains her.
The Arrival: By Christopher, J&M Records, CD and singleCHRISTOPHER and his producer, James Hill II, introduce themselves with three different versions of "Baby I Got Your Back (Everything is Alright)."
The seductive "slow jam" is an original from his upcoming album. It is as commercial and mainstream as any number of romantically explicit songs already getting play on urban music outlets. (Christopher explains how he is going give the object of his intentions a romantic night like none other, couching his proposition in PG-13 vocabulary.)
Give these guys credit for arrangements that are stronger than most local efforts at going urban. Christopher and his production team have a solid sound.
Pacific Tunings: By Na Pali, Awapuhi Records
NA Pali first surfaced 10 years ago when this album was released on vinyl as a celebration of slack-key music and as a vehicle for composer/musicians Carlos Andrade and Patrick Cockett. Two of the songs , "Moonlight Lady" and "Hula Lady," were already island favorites. The album has aged well in the interim.
Several arrangements echo the vocal style of the Brothers Cazimero or Keola & Kapono Beamer. Others reflect the influence of David "Feet" Rogers and the Sons of Hawaii. Still others are original, straight-forward, slack-key pop. Andrade's "Pau Hana Blues" eloquently expresses the search for tranquility in modern Hawaii. So does Cockett's "Sinking Into the Blue."
Slack-key tunings for each song are included in the annotation. Fred Lunt (steel guitar) and Pancho Graham (guitar/bass) were the other members of the quartet; Taj Mahal (harmonica/guitar) and "Big" Ed Roy (percussion) are among the guests who sat in.
Da Krank: By Da Krank, Shock Therapy Records
THIS album will appeal to anyone who thinks the Jerky Boys were the greatest act in the history of entertainment, and finds redeeming social value in making anonymous sewer-mouth telephone calls.
The creators of this album do not identify themselves. Why did they even bother making the record? Who would spend money on an album of toxic "humor"?
John Berger, who has covered the local entertainment scene since 1972, writes reviews of recordings produced by Hawaii artists. See the Star-Bulletin's Home Zone section on Fridays for the latest reviews.
See Record Reviews for some of John Berger's past reviews.
