Aloha mai!Hope you all had a splendid New Year's celebration! I did, and then promptly came down with that nasty cold that's going around town ... aggravated in part, I am sure, by the copious amount of fireworks and the prodigious amount of firecrackers, but hey -- the counter only turns over all four digits once in a millenium, right? [g]
Speaking of millenial events, check out the Lunalilo Home benefit concert below. Excellent value, wonderful musicians, great cause! If you go to only one concert in January, make it that one!
The new Melelana CD is an enhanced one, running on both Macs and PCs and providing additional content. The preview CD thatI received of Melelana was audio only, so I recruited a long-time Hawaiian music fan who got one of the first off-the-press versions of the CD to give me a commentary on the enhanced aspect:
Unlike "Pride of Punahele", which offered not only video of Keali'i and company, as well as browsers and links for the net impaired [but which did not run on a Mac at all, ed. note], "Melelana" runs leaner and nicer. Unless Quicktime isn't present, the cd does not require the listener/audience to install any other programs on the computer to run. One need only figure out which file to launch (depending upon whether a pc or a Mac) is being used, and up pops a nice mini-Keali'i special. Each song has its own set of pictures (different from those in the notes), with text from the liner notes.
In the opening, Keali'i welcomes the audience (listener isn't adequate with the enchanced version), and a menu is presented. If you can tear your eyes from Keali'i's floating head and the sweet strains of "Melelana", the "user" can pick from Melelana's musical offerings, a choice of two performance videos ("Maunaleo" and "The Road That Never Ends"), a scrapbook/photoalbum or -- treasures among treasures -- short expository videos with song composers 'Iliahi (Brandon) Paredes, Puakea Nogelmeier and Kahikina De Silva. The latter two did their expositions totally in Hawaiian, but translations are thoughtfully provided. I noted that the clarity of the video portions differed. Keali'i's introductions to the songs were pretty good, while the composers' videos seemed grainy. Whether this is a media or personal computing device issue is unclear, although there is a warning in the "readme" that pcs may experience darker graphic output than Macs. Whatever the problems, they aren't great enough to make me crazy, and I truly appreciated the mana'o offered by the inclusion of these video interludes.
I especially enjoyed the performance video of "Maunaleo", a song which I enjoy just for its own sake, but made even more special by seeing Keali'i and halau dance it. The effects of the stage lighting, while impeding resolution, actually offered a kind of luminosity to the dancers and Keali'i, a tolerable effect as long as you don't "click video to view in full screen"
... mahalo, Tita 'Apala Palani, for your mana'o!
Hui Aloha is probably breaking every known Hawaiia music record by traveling to a record number of states this month! Ohio, Georgia, Delaware, Massachusetts -- look out and listen up!
I've been getting a number of requests for "concerts by the Ka'au Crater Boys." The duo of Troy Fernandes and Ernie Cruz Jr. broke up quite a while ago. Ernie sometimes appears with his brothers but doesn't have a regualr gig or band that I know of, and Troy has cut a few CDs with his buddies under the name of Palolo.
Speaking of breakups, the trio of Pure Heart (John, Jake, and Lopaka) has lost John, who is planning to devote his attnetion to college. Younger Cruz brother Guy has stepped in to take his place.
Due to my job, there may not be a mid-January page, but if not I sure will be back in February once I've caught up on my sleep.
On to the music!
Recordings
Keali'i Reichel, Melelana (Punahele Records). As previewed last page, Keali'i has released his fourth and perhaps smoothest CD. This CD poses a retreat from the boundaries he pushed in E O Mai and is a CD of love songs, pure and simple. The feisty and adorable Ipo Lei Momi (with help from Pure Heart) is a standout, as is the moody E Ala E. Keali'i is in fine voice, and the production values are crystal clear and perfect: few Hawaiian CDs can compare in quality. Puakea Nogelmeier chants, the nose flutes wail, the ipu throb -- what are you waiting for? Songs include "No Ka Moku Kiakahi Ke Aloha," :Mele a ka Pu'uwai," "I Will Be Here," "Melelana," and "Maunaleo" (supposedly a remake, but very close to the Pride of Punahele version). This is the ehanced CD referred to in my opening. Here is a medley of five songs in RealAudio format.
Darlene Ahuna, That's the Hawaiian in Me (Hula Records CDHS 609) Darlene Ahuna has matured as an artist with this interesting and lively showcase. I had always classified her as the pure-throated songbird type, but she shows more sass and guts on this CD than on her previous outings. It's my favorite of hers to date due to its multifaceted offerings. The songbird is still there, it's just that there's a lot more there there. Songs include "Kaua'i Beauty," "He Aloha No Honolulu," "Could I Have This Dance" (the only song that mars this CD with its tinny synthesizers), "Meleana E," "Mai LohiLohi Mai 'Oe," (a tribute that Lena Machado would enjoy), and "Holoholo Ka'a."
See you soon - a hui hou!
--Susan
susanj@lava.net
Interpacific Networks | |
 This page was last built on 5/1/00 by ![[MAILTO]](../../images/mailto.gif){kind=small} keola@nahenahe.net
|
since 6/5/97. |