DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Jon DeMello goes forward with three new DVDs that Mountain Apple will be distributing.

Mountain Apple favors DVDs as it releases
IZ and Cazimeros collections

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By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

The 78-rpm record, the prerecorded reel-to-reel tape and the 8-track cartridge. All were once thought of as cutting-edge technology -- and all have but vanished from today's music industry.

Locally, the Mountain Apple Co. stopped selling cassettes in 2001, and company CEO Jon de Mello expects that the familiar audio-only compact disc will probably disappear within "a few years."

"But the consumer will hardly notice the difference," he said, explaining that the shift won't leave CD owners stranded.

"Right now, DVD players play CDs and vice versa ... and it's just a logical extension. The sound of a DVD is so much better, the quality of DVDs is so great, and with just a little care, you'll be able to hand a DVD down to your great-grandchildren."

De Mello has been an avid champion of new technology for years. His company "migrated" from vinyl albums to the CD format "around 1983 or 1984" and has moved on to DVD production while distributing titles with a Hawaiian connection, like "Hawaii Songs of Aloha," which was produced by Steven Reed for PBS, and a director's-cut version of "Sunny Dayz: A West Side Story," a documentary on the life of world champion surfer Sunny Garcia. (Mountain Apple is also distributing the immensely popular DVD reissues of "Kikaida" for JN Productions.)

As of today, three classic performances by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole are being re-released on DVD: "Hot Hawaiian Nights" contains footage of his performances on the old KHNL/K5 television show from 1993 and '95, and "IZ: The Man and His Music" is the 1995 KGMB television special of the same name.

"He was a great live performer," de Mello said. "He communicated with the audience. ... He only did a couple of these television shows with me directly, and now all three of them are going to be available to the public for them to see and feel what he was like.

"It's supply and demand -- people want to see more of Israel."

De Mello is taking Hawaiian music another step forward with the future release of the Brothers Cazimero's 25th annual May Day concert. That project will be released on Dec. 10 only on the DVD format for the time being.

"It really is the best of the Cazimeros. It's like a best-of album in that it has all their hit songs, but now you can see them in performance. It's what you never see when you hear the albums, and the Cazimero May Day performance this year, in my opinion, was one of the best we've had over the 25.

"Robert and Roland and I sat down and collectively thought about the best things that have happened over the years and tried to build it back into the show. There's 28 songs -- 2 1/2 hours of music and visuals going on. I think we pulled off a real nice show -- and now you can see it."

De Mello said it would take three audio-only CDs to hold that much music.

"Mountain Apple Co. is a multimedia company. We try to do our best in island music, but visual and things that go along with music are what we are all about. We do performances and concerts and staging. Now we have a way of actually preserving it."

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