|
Island music If things had gone according to plan, it would have been a record release party like Hawaii had never seen.
becomes family tradition
Several generations compose
and perform Hawaiian musicBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comMihana Souza was finishing work on her first solo album, her daughter's group had a debut album coming out, and there would be a new album by her mother, as well. It would have been the first time that members of three generations of a local family released separate albums at the same time.
"This is what I was going to use for the back cover," Souza said recently as she handed over a pre-production layout of tiny photos -- one for each song on the album and each one chosen for its relevance to a particular song.
"When I showed it to Mom, she said, 'Hana, use that one,'" she said. "Two days later, she died."
Anyone familiar with Hawaiian music knows that "Mom" was famed songwriter/entertainer Irmgard Farden Aluli, one of the most prominent of Charles and Annie Shaw Farden's talented children. Music was already a Farden family tradition by the time Irmgard, the ninth of 13 Farden children, and her husband, Nane Aluli, started a family of their own during the latter years of World War II. Irmgard was one of 11 Farden children to live to adulthood and all of them became known as singers and musicians.
|
Bernard Farden became a member of the Farden-Poepoe Orchestra led by older brother Carl. Diana and Irmgard teamed up with Annie Kerr to form the Annie Kerr Trio in the late 1920s. Irmgard, one of several songwriters in the family, began writing while she was working on Molokai in 1935. She wrote her first hit in 1937, "Puamana," which tells of the Farden family home.Irmgard later chose Puamana as the name of the group she founded in the mid-1960s. The original lineup was Irmgard, her sister Diana and Thelma Anahu. In 1973, she reformed the group with her daughters, Neaulani and Mihana. Neaulani died in 1975 and Puamana was restructured as a quartet featuring Irmgard, her daughters Mihana and Aima, and her niece Luana Farden McKenney (Carl's daughter). The quartet remained intact until Irmgard "retired" (but continued to perform) in 1998 and Luana returned home to Maui in 1999.
Mihana and Aima continued to perform as Puamana, with this relative or that as the third member of the trio, while Mihana also worked on music for her solo album. The title song, "Rust on the Moon," was one of Irmgard's compositions. The others were originals that range in style of modern hapa-haole to light local-style rock to beautiful torch songs.
WHILE ALL THIS was going on, Mihana's daughter, Mahina Souza, had found a writing and performing partner in Kahala Mossman.
Mahina and Kahala perform and record as Kahala Moon -- a name chosen not to commemorate a defunct restaurant but because Kahala's name is Kahala, and Mahina can be translated into English as "moon." The partnership is a union of two families' musician traditions, since Kahala is the daughter of Judge Boyd and Marvalee Kaiaokamaile Mossman, and the granddaughter of composer Bina Mossman. (By coincidence, Bina Mossman and Irmgard Farden Aluli were both inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1998.)
Souza and Mossman had known of each other through family and mutual friends, but their musical partnership began four years ago when they were students at Windward Community College. Souza said she'd been "surrounded by music" from birth but never tapped into it until she started talking music with Mossman.
"One day we picked up a guitar, played a few chords, and the rest was magic. We were amazed," she said.
"The beauty and the bizarreness of it is that I never expected I would be here (as a recording artist). She had always thought she would be here, but for me this is quite a revelation. It's inspiring."
Mossman said they started writing immediately and never seem to lack inspiration.
"It just flows. When we write together, it's collaboration all the way. We wrote that first song together and wrote probably 30 more after that because we knew we could do it."
Souza had been considering a career in radio or broadcast journalism. At first she found public performances a scary experience. Now she enjoys it.
"(Crowd response) is the reason our music has come this far, and the foundation and the root from which both of us have blossomed," she said.
KAHALA MOON was one of the big surprises at Fiji's capacity-plus CD release party at Sam Choy's Breakfast Lunch & Crab last month. They were one of the early acts to perform and rocked the house with a short set of originals that had much stronger acoustic rock textures than evident on their recently released debut album, "Collage."
"We're just going for it, and it's like, our originals, and people just dig 'em," Mossman said. "It's really strong, really womanly. It's a spirit within you that transcends you to a whole other level, and that's where I can say that we're extremely powerful and magical, and it's to share with the crowd."
Mossman's musical upbringing took place within her immediate family. She was still a child when her famous mother died, and, growing up on Maui, had little contact with many of her Mossman relatives.
"But my mom's side is musical too, and they're very good musicians. I never really grew up with my dad's side, but their music runs through my blood and I thank them for that.
Mossman and Souza included one of Irmgard's songs on their first album. They're already working on their next and plan to put at least one Bina Mossman song on it.
Beyond doing a few family songs, they plan to concentrate on writing and recording originals.
"That's what Hawaii needs," Souza said. "We've met more artists who write beautiful music who don't get the air play they should because all the kids ever hear (on the radio) is that (reggae-beat) music."
Mossman said: "There's art in everybody, and they're being denied good music, and that's one way I hope Hawaii changes. We will be true to our own music because that's what makes us different and that's what makes us special."
And, as for the family legacies they're helping to perpetuate, Souza said they know they're lucky to have come so far so fast.
"Music was right in front of me (as a career) and I didn't know it. My mother and grandmother worked years to have that legacy, and the ironic part is that it fell right into my lap.
"One of my two favorite moments when I knew it was my calling was when we were playing for my grandmother's birthday, to see the glow in her eyes, and then when I walked off (stage) it was the first time she told me that we were going to make it."
Mossman said: "She'd always call Mahina to ask if we had any new songs. Our songs weren't her style but she was really happy that we were doing it."
She continued: "This is our life now, so we have to be real business and do it. I know our grandmas are up there just going, 'Go, girls, do whatever you want -- Sing! Share!' They instilled that in us and we're so blessed."