Island Mele
Friday, August 24, 2001
Hoku Award-winner Teresa Bright follows last year's beautiful Christmas album, "A Christmas Season's Delight With Teresa Bright," with this equally impressive collection. Bright reaffirms her appeal with an eclectic set of Hawaiian and hapa-haole standards. "How High the Moon" is a delightful peek at her American pop repertoire. "Lei Ana"
Teresa Bright Pumehana
(PSCD 4933)Bright chose to be her own producer/arranger and is adept in those areas as well. Her use of acoustic bass and a live string section where some local producers would opt for cost-cutting synth tracks enhances the natural beauty of her voice. Lea Uehara's annotation adds the final piece in this perfect portrait of Bright and the music she loves.
The one oddity is a redundant "bonus track" version of "The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai" with Frank B. Shaner adding comic voices. Far better had Shaner used his fine falsetto to harmonize with Bright.
Mpeg Audio Clips:
Lei Ana Ni'ihau
Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info
Vaihi's third album is an impressive experiment considering the unwritten rules of the contemporary island music scene. Vaihi's album contains no Jawaiian stuff and no Top 40 pop chart remakes. Every song is fresh. Several were written by member Sam Longi, whose high profile as a member of the FM100 All-Star Band and co-host of "Local Kine Grindz" may exempt Vaihi from the usual island music format restrictions. "Vaihi"
Vaihi Puka Pants
(PPR 101)Let's hope so. Vaihi certainly has a unique sound going here. Most of the songs are of the romantic "slow jam" type, but the group's strong, soulful harmonies and meticulously crafted arrangements keep them from sounding languid or enervated.
"With Your Arms Around Me Baby" is more lively and a bit reminiscent of the Drifters' early-'60s hits but also sounds original and promising. Several other songs prove the guys' appeal as romantic balladeers; the "Vaihi Medley Mix" adds memories of their prior albums.
Mpeg Audio Clips:
Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info
Hawaiian music fans fluent in the language and steeped in the culture will get the most out of this compilation. All but two of the 20 songs were recorded on the Big Island. Most are Hawaiian standards such as "Kalama'ula" and "Wailele O 'Akaka." Most have a similar grass-roots acoustic sound. "Mele Hula Volume #3"
Various Artists M&H Hawaii
(MHCD1106)Elmer "Sonny" Lim's version of "Kawika" and Kevin Kealoha's "Kalama'ula" are instantly noteworthy. Mary Ann Lim's rendition of "Ku'u Pua I Paoakalani" is another of the gems here. Unfortunately, producers Michiko Urata and Kazue Kurebayashi provide no information on who these people are or what the songs are about.
The album is also two songs too long. The production values of the songs that were recorded on Oahu, by a different engineer/mixer, are so different from the Big Island recordings, and the style of the group so different from all the other performers, that they simply don't belong on this album.
Mpeg Audio Clips:
Quicktime | RealPlayer | MPEG-3 info
See Record Reviews for some past reviews.
See Aloha Worldwide for locals living away.John Berger, who has covered the local
entertainment scene since 1972, writes reviews of recordings
produced by Hawaii artists. See the Star-Bulletin's Today
section on Fridays for the latest reviews.
