A friend sent me a CD which he made from an LP, of the great David Keli'i. I hadn't heard much of his playing before, and now I know what I've missed all these years! Exquisite playning for sure. Three of the tracks have Nina Keali'ilwahamana's voice also. A couple of the tunes are on a long-scale frypan obviously, and really beautiful David is of course from the golden era of Hawaii Calls radio shows.
Those tracks are probably from "Hawaii's Own/Sweet, Sweet Steel Guitar Series Vol 4" LP. You can also find David Keli'i on recordings from the www.cumquat.au website particularly the ones featuring Al Kealoha Perry and The Singing Surfriders. If you go to www.mele.com you can also find a CD remake of a vintage LP, "Joe Keawe-Hawai'i's Falsetto Returns" with David Keli'i doing the steel work. I also have an LP in my collection called "Sonny" not to be confused with the CD that was done years later with the same name. The original LP had Sonny Chillingworth with David Keli'i on steel along with a very young Peter Medeiros and Ozzie Kotani among others.
According to steel guitar player Fred Lunt who was a friend of the late great David "Feet" Rogers, Feet was greatly influenced by David Keli'i and his style of playing.
It would be nice if Bill Wynne would add more examples of David Keli'i recordings that may be out there, if he knows of them.
"The music of the Hawaiians, the most fascinating in the world, is still in my ears and haunts me sleeping and waking." Mark Twain
listening to David Keli'i
Posted - 11/04/2010 : 2:47:34 PM
