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BRETT Ortone wanted to find a general reference book on Hawaiian music to take home with him when he visited Hawaii in 1993. Having worked in record retailing since the age of 14, the Los Angeles native was sent to Honolulu by his employer, a record distribution company, to check on its local holdings. He never did find the book he was looking for, but after two weeks he and his boss decided he would stay.
Five years passed, his employer sold its interest in the Jelly's/Tempo Music/House of Music chain and Ortone launched a business of his own, Olinda Road Distribution.
He still couldn't find the reference book he was looking for, so he decided he'd research the information himself.
The result, "The Island Music Source Book," compiled by Brett C. Ortone, was released last month.
"The Island Music Source Book"
Compiled by Brett C. Ortone
(Olinda Road Distribution), 737 pages, $24.95
"It's a collection of currently in-print and out-of-print titles. (through about October 1999). It took a little over a year to compile and I can't believe I finished it," he says.
The thick softbound book is an impressive basic reference on modern local music. The core of the book comprises 737 pages of alphabetical listings in small, but readable type. The first half of the book lists songs and every local artist known to have recorded them. The second half lists local artists and all the songs they are known to have released.
It only takes a moment to find out "Blue Darling" (or "Blue Darlin' ") has been released at least 12 times, and find out which local artist has released it more than once (Kapena). Most of the listings include the record label and serial number.
Ortone started the undertaking by spending weekends going through everything in the Olinda Road warehouse. ("We also stock all the other distributors titles," he explains.)
He was able to add a mix of out-of-print titles by inspecting the used record bins at Jelly's and going through a hoard of out-of-print vinyl promotional albums at House of Music. Ortone also discovered the store had saved old in-house record catalogs and they were added to the data base.
Ortone found so much information he scrapped the book's original design and pushed back the printing date so he could add another 120 pages of listings.
He warns the immediate purpose of the book is to make it easy to find what may be out there now. It isn't intended to be a comprehensive discography of every recording. The forward of the book includes several web addresses geared toward readers outside Hawaii who often can't get Hawaiian music through their local record stores.
Ortone adds the book is not intended to present critical analyses of the artists and their work.
"That's an entirely different type of task. It's easy for me to gather this kind of information. Doing the other kind of book or writing biographies is much more difficult. Even with this book I know that there's a lot more information out there but I wanted to keep it under $25.
"I've always been a bit of an information freak -- especially when it comes to music -- but a book has to be affordable."
Ortone is updating his data base with new releases and hopes to add information on older titles as well. He isn't sure when he'll publish a second edition, or attempt a discography on Territorial Era recordings, but he looks forward to exchanging information with collectors and researchers. He invites anyone who wants to add titles to contact him with the artist's name, album title, song titles, record label and catalog number at Olinda Road, 837-7800 (phone), 837-7703 (fax) or olindaroad@olindaroad.com. The company's Web site is http://www.olindaroad.com.
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