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SundiegoJC
Aloha
USA
3 Posts |
 Posted - 09/25/2020 : 7:21:26 PM
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Can anyone here define the provenance of the tracks on this album/collection/CD?
When were they recorded, who played on the recordings, and where were they originally released?
I have the 2007 Waikiki Records CD release, which has no such details.
E.G., the Gabby Pahinui version of Hi'ilawe on this collection doesn't seem to correlate to any of the 5-6 other Gabby versions of the song that I have.
The level of documentation for this (and any other music from people of color here in the US) is at best, sketchy. (try and find definitive recording history for African-American delta blues guitarists, or lyrics for non "traditional" Hawaiian artists who write their own material, like Dennis Kamakahi or George Kahumoku, Jr.).
Any insights that may be provided are greatly appreciated.
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Dancing Cat and Cord International - Blessings and Peace be upon them! |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2020 : 08:19:59 AM
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| Gabby first recorded the song back in the late 1940s. Many Hawaiian mele and tunings were originally viewed as "waiwai 'ohana - family property. Many tunes had multiple songs sung to them. Ask Peter Medeiros here in da 'patch. He teaches at UHManoa. |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2020 : 06:54:58 AM
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Quite a while back, I took a pass at establishing the sequence of Gabby's "Hi`ilawe" recordings and came to these conclusions:
1. The Aloha 78 of c. 1946, which also supplied the opening excerpt on the first track of the 1972 Brown Gabby LP; eventually re-issued in its entirety on the Hana Ola "History of Slack Key Guitar" CD.
2. The Bell 78, c. 1947 or 1949. (There is still uncertainty about precise dating and which sessions came first, Aloha or Bell. Last time I reviewed the issue, this sequence seemed the likeliest, but the question remains open.)
3. Waikiki single 45-558, perhaps recorded in 1955, though often dated to 1958, when the label was founded (Malcolm Rockwell, Hawaiian & Hawaiian Guitar Records 1891-1960). Peter Medeiros told me that he recalls hearing the record around 1955. Re-issued on the "Best of Hawaiian Slack Key" CD, which included several tracks by Gabby as a member of Andy Cummings and His Hawaiian Serenaders, all probably 1950s recordings.
4. The "Pure Gabby" LP, recorded in 1961 but not released until 1979.
5. Full rendition on the Brown Gabby LP, 1972, played on 12-string (and recorded on Gabby's 51st birthday).
6. With the Gabby Band on the "Waimea Music Festival" live album.
7. At the end of the video documentary (recorded in 1979 and released in 1994) of "Gabby Pahinui, Family, & Friends/The Pahinui Bros."
As far as I can tell from my research and communication with Peter Medeiros and Malcolm Rockwell, the track on the "Best" collection is #3.
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Edited by - Russell Letson on 09/27/2020 06:56:29 AM |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2020 : 07:37:10 AM
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| Big mahalo, Russell! |
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SundiegoJC
Aloha
USA
3 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2020 : 5:37:25 PM
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Mahalo nui to all respondents.
I admit to being dumbfounded by the number of unknown release dates (at least on Discogs and 45Cat)for so many mid-century Hawaiian label releases (Hula, Waikiki, Bell, United Artist, etc.).
A love for traditional Hawaiian music and the details, stories, and lyrics is trying at times (especially as non-Hawaiian speaking obsessive trying to correlate Gabby's song structures and lyrics to those on huapala.org). My bass player band mate is Portuguese-American (and fluent in Portuguese). Sonny Chillingworth's faux Portuguese lyrics had him in hysterics (but he loved the music).
I only fell in love with the music in the last few years, after so many of the the primary architects (and in many cases,their offspring) have passed on. Thank the gods for living resources like George Kahumoku, Jr.(and Nancy!) and the TaroPatch.
"...we’re haole as sh*t and we go to private schools and clubs and we can hardly speak Pidgin let alone Hawaiian." George Clooney in The Descendants 2011
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Dancing Cat and Cord International - Blessings and Peace be upon them! |
Edited by - SundiegoJC on 09/27/2020 5:43:26 PM |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2020 : 05:49:05 AM
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Precise information on the business end of Hawaiian music is hard to come by--the information in my post was compiled from a range of sources: the Kanahele encyclopedia; Malcolm Rockwell's discography; liner notes and website materials by by George Winston, Jay Junker, and Harry B. Soria; interviews with folks such as Peter Medeiros and Noelani Mahoe (and many others); and runs of Hai`alono Mele (preserved on-line). The Rockwell discography (on CD-ROM) is the single most comprehensive item for finding record-label information, though The Island Music Source Book (an actual book) is my primary tool for finding individual songs or tracking artists. Rockwell's website is still up, though it does not seem to be very active:
https://78data.com/
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2020 : 09:55:44 AM
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| Good thing to remember that Gabby only sang Hawaiian, not being fluent in it. Many kupuna got a kick out of how the language was "different kine", but the music was ono. |
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Earl
`Olu`olu
USA
523 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2020 : 11:32:24 AM
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| I guess it isn't surprising that discography information was not a priority. There are plenty of instances in folk music where knowledge and history was lost. Maybe there was someone comparable to Alan Lomax who recorded, documented, and compiled the musicology of the deep south and Appalachians on behalf of the Smithsonian. I wonder if there was some U-H music or history grad student who did a thesis or dissertation on ki ho'alu along the way? |
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Earl
`Olu`olu
USA
523 Posts |
Posted - 09/28/2020 : 11:36:10 AM
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| My understanding is that slack-key was a closely guarded thing, and was not widely shared. I have heard plenny stories that if I were playing on the lanai and you came along, but were not of my ohana, I would stop to keep from stealing my tunings and my style. It nearly disappeared entirely until Gabby came along and recorded some, then younger musicians built on that. |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2020 : 06:05:14 AM
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It's a bit more complicated. I heard versions of the family-secrets story from nearly every one of my interviewees born before, say, 1950 or so. First one to mention it to me was Ray Kane, who, interestingly enough, got his start from a non-family member (the bribing-with-fish story), as did Gabby. Keola Beamer and George Kahumoku talked about keeping it in the family as well.
But part of the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance movement, which got rolling in the 1960s, was the opening-out of slack key playing (the Sons of Hawai`i formed in 1960), and by 1970s Auntie Alice was teaching (Keola was one of her students, as was George Kuo), Peter Medeiros was teaching slack key classes at UH, Leonard Kwan included his tunings as part of the liner notes of his "The Old Way" LP, Mike McClellan categorized 33 tunings in the notes for his "`Auhea `Oe Sanoe" LP, Keola was giving lessons at Harry's Music, and two instruction/tab books were available (Keola's "First Method" book and a collection of Ray Kane's arrangements).
Then there was the post-war public-performance environment--a good bit of Gabby's early recorded repertory comes out of what he was playing with, say, Andy Cummings' band, and Henry Kaalekahi and Tommy Solomon were signed to record after the label owner heard them playing in a Waikiki bar (this by 1950). So slack key was not exclusively private music even in the late 1940s. Gabby's early recordings certainly affected local folk, but the tourists in the bars were probably not buying many of them.
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Edited by - Russell Letson on 09/29/2020 06:06:26 AM |
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Gabby Pahinui - The Best of Hawaiian Slack Key
