Billy V will emcee at this event which is intended to educate our legislators about the importance of the Hawai‘i music industry to both the culture and economy of Hawai‘i. It runs from 11AM-1PM, and will feature music by Natalie Ai Kamau‘u, Nā Kama and Pacific Heights.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 28, 2007
Cody Pueo Pata and dancers of Halau Hula Ka Malama Mahilani will be performing on the Outrigger Beach Walk stage at 4 PM on Tuesday, February 27. It is the inaugural performance on the stage and celebrates the release of Pueo’s new CD “He Aloha . . .” The stage/fountain is located on Lewers Street in Waikiki.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 26, 2007
It’s been over 10 years since Hāna’s Pekelo, who was born and raised in Hana, Maui, released his last CD. Inspired by the kī hō‘alu guitar style of Albert Kapunanui, a blind man called Tutu Apaa, Gabby Pahinui, and Eddie Kamae, he combined those style with the grass roots music of his Hāna family. His new release, “Hāna By The Sea”, is reviewed by John Berger in his Island Mele feature this week.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 24, 2007
Keahiwai, Kawao, Opihi Pickers and Kaipo will perform at the Backyard Jam, noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow at Kapi’olani Park and bandstand. The event is free.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 24, 2007
The Star-Bulletin’s Gary Chun and Daniel Ho will be the lead segment on WNYC’s music talk show Soundcheck, which starts tomorrow at 9 a.m. Hawai‘i time.
Update: I missed the show, however, it is podcast. Gary mentioned my name and our discussions, but I don’t think he was very clear in his characterization of our discussion, and got cut off before he could complete the thought. Otherwise it was quite well done, and both sides presented their opinions well and respectfully.
Posted in Grammy News.
By keola
– February 20, 2007
The festival name honors La‘amaikahiki, the priest who took from Tahiti the first temple drum to Hawaii. Hula Halau from around the world vie for top honors in ancient and modern hula on Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11. Cultural workshops are being offered Monday thru Wednesday, March 12-14, 2007. The Hōʻike welcomes Hula Halau, Tahitian and performing arts groups from around the world on Wednesday, and the festival culminates with the Ho`olaulea Celebration, bringing together the rich cultures of Hawaii and Tahiti on Thursday, March 15, 2007.
Mahalo to Bryan Tolentino, who will be performing, for the heads-up. Sounds like an amazing event.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 19, 2007
KGMB will air Romance in Hawai‘i tomorrow at 9 p.m. It serves as a prelude to the Matt Catingub Orchestra of Hawaii’s March 1-11 “Return to Romance” music festival.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 19, 2007
“Ho’ike Hapa Haole,” featuring The Brothers Cazimero, will be the next Hawaiian music Hana Hou concert at the Hawai’i Theatre, at 8 p.m. March 9. Tickets are $33, available at the box office, 528-0506. Online reservations are taken at www.hawaiitheatre.com.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 19, 2007
Mary Kaye, born Mary Ka‘aihue, was a legend in Las Vegas. She passed away yesterday at the age of 83. See this obit in the Advertiser to learn more about her extraordinary life. She was featured in Guitar Player Magazine a few months ago as well; I’ll dig and see if I can find my copy and find out what month it was.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 18, 2007
My apologies for the lardiness of this post, but the annual Ho‘omau Concert will be held at the Waikiki Shell this evening, Sunday, February 18, 2007. The concert is to benefit Pūnana Leo O Honolulu. Kenneth Makuakāne is one of the performers, but unfortunately I don’t have a complete list.
I’m the substitute DJ on Alana I Kai Hikina on KWXX in Hilo this evening, so feel free to tune in if you can catch the program. Unfortunately the station is not streamed.
Posted in E Ola Ka 'Olelo Hawai'i.
By keola
– February 18, 2007
Hana Hou Magazine has a wonderful feature on haku mele, scholar and all-around great guy Puakea Nogelmeier. If you only know the name because of his contributions to Keali‘i Reichel’s CDs, read the article and learn the whole story.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 18, 2007
Derek Paiva’s feature on the Hawaiian Grammy came out this morning in the Advertiser, as did my first column in Kauakūkalahale. While Derek did his usual outstanding job and gave fair coverage to both sides of the issue, it did not touch on the issue of producers and not artists receiving the Grammy, but I understand the constraints on article length. I would like to make one thing perfectly clear that wasn’t in the feature – I don’t favor elimination of the Grammy at all, but if NARAS refuses to talk with us about clarifying the category’s criteria and selection process I would favor it. No fault on Derek’s part, I looked at my email to him and I forgot to explicity state that position.
In the spirit of moving on, I’ve closed the poll that asked for reader responses to the Hawaiian Grammy issue, and won’t do any more on the topic.
Posted in Grammy News.
By keola
– February 18, 2007
The third Hawaiian Grammy was awarded last weekend, and once again the flames are raging. I’ve become privy to a number of email exchanges among members of the industry, the press, fans and even some of the winners of the award. It is pretty clear that maintaining the status quo is going continue to cause division and hard feeling among members of the industry and fans alike.
I wrote an two part article for Kauakūkalahale, the Hawaiian language column that appears in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin every Sunday. The first part will appear tomorrow. In it I discuss the history of the award’s establishment, and how that contributed to the current issues. Next weekend’s installment will discuss what has happened since the inaugural Hawaiian Grammy was awarded, and what can be done to quell the controversy. I was also interviewed (along with many others) by Derek Paiva of the Honolulu Advertiser, and these comments will appear in an Advertiser feature soon. I also composed my final public thoughts on the Hawaiian Grammy issue. From this point on I will avoid making further public comment, but will restrict my comments to those in the industry in the hopes that NARAS will reopen discussion with us on the criteria for the award.
Posted in Grammy News.
By keola
– February 17, 2007
I’ve been playing around a bit with Last.fm, and it looks like a potentially valuable tool for artists and supporters to get music heard. It has an application that works in conjunction with your music player (such as iTunes), and uploads your playlist along with tags and recommendations to their site. People can view what you are listening to, see your thoughts. You can even add artist bios for people, and they are using a Wiki technology to allow for group editing. I did one for Kenneth here. It has some MySpace-like functionality, but the real focus here is on the music and building a social community of listeners. Artists can also get their music into the Last.fm radio stations which you can also listen to, and Kenneth has set up a page where listeners can hear his music, too.
Pretty cool technology with a lot of potential if it gains popularity. I would love to see them work with Apple to get this kind of of technology built right into iTunes. Then a million flowers would start to bloom, as Dave Winer is fond of saying. What Last.fm does is very similar to a project he did many years ago on MyFavoriteSongs.com, however, it used one of his programs, RadioUserland, which I used to use but had too many geek-oriented underpinnings to gain mainstream popularity. Last.fm is much more user friendly.
Posted in Falling Bits and Bytes.
By keola
– February 17, 2007
Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) invites you to 1st Annual Golf Tournament on March 23, 2007 at the Klipper Golf Course. See the HARA news page for more information. Unfortunately I don’t golf. Maybe I can caddie for Kenneth 
Posted in Na Hoku Hanohano.
By keola
– February 15, 2007
Presale tickets for Jack Johnson’s Kōkua Festival will go on sale tomorrow (Friday). Check the festival’s MySpace site for details.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 15, 2007
Henry Kapono’s website has gotten a new facelift and it includes a blog. Very nice.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 14, 2007
Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) invites you to join us in honoring this year’s recipients of the Lifetime Achivement Awards – Gabe Baltazar, Loyal Garner, Rene Paulo, Society of Seven and the Surfers – at this year’s luncheon.
Posted in Na Hoku Hanohano.
By keola
– February 14, 2007
Posted in Hawai'i Music Awards.
By keola
– February 14, 2007
According to KITV News, Keali‘i Reichel‘s debut CD, Kawaipunahele, has been certified Gold (sales of 500,000 units) by the Recording Industry Association of America. I was not able to find a corresponding link on the KITV website or elsewhere on the web to point to. Ho‘omaika‘i iā ‘oe e ke hoa!
Update: There is now an update with a picture on Keali‘i’s webstite. Mahalo to Fred Krauss for the link!
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 12, 2007
Check this breaking news feature from the Advertiser from the Honolulu Advertiser if you want to see who won the 2007 Hawaiian Grammy.
I have a prediction: within two years we are going to see a) a redefinition of the criteria for eligibility for the Hawaiian Grammy or b) elimination of the category altogether. Personally, I believe option B is more likely.
Congratulations to part-time Maui resident George Benson for his win in the Pop Instrumental category and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance along with Al Jarreau.
Posted in Grammy News.
By keola
– February 11, 2007
As I mentioned earlier, I have three copies of Keola Beamer’s latest CD, Ka Hikina O Ka Hau, to give away. Listen to my last podcast or check the podcast notes in the right hand column for the question you must answer in order to qualify for one of the CDs. I have five correct entries so far, and the deadline for entries is noon Hawai‘i time tomorrow. Use the contact form (also in the right hand column) to send me your answer.
Posted in Misc..
By keola
– February 10, 2007
Voting for the Hawai‘i Music Awards ends at 12 midnight on February 12, so if you haven’t cast your vote yet, please do. I’d like to ask your consideration for two releases that I had a hand in, Kenneth Makuakāne’s release “Makuakāne” (in the “Traditional Hawaiian” category) and Keali‘i Reichel’s “Maluhia” (in the “Seasonal” category). There are many worthy releases in many categories, so I’m sure you won’t have problem finding a lot of releases to cast your ballot for.
Posted in Hawai'i Music Awards.
By keola
– February 8, 2007
Henry talks about his release “The Wild Hawaiian” its reception in the Hawaiian community, and the upcoming Grammy Awards in this feature from today’s New York Times.
Posted in Grammy News.
By keola
– February 7, 2007
The Pūnana Leo O Hilo and Ke Kula ‘O Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u are holding their annual fundraising concert and craft fair, Pūlama Mauli Ola, on the Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u campus in Kea‘au on Hawai‘i island (across from the animal shelter on the Kea‘au-Pāhoa Highway). Admission is free, but here will be food, crafts, and t-shirts available for sale as well as a rummage sale. Entertainers include the students of the schools, UH-Hilo student Bryson Embernate (an amazing falsetto singer), Bruddah Walta, Darlene Ahuna, Pure Pleasure and Kepana Boys.
Posted in E Ola Ka 'Olelo Hawai'i.
By keola
– February 7, 2007
