CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Aaron Sala, front, works on a score while Nina Keali'iwahamana, in yellow, rehearses.
Isles in tune The term "ivory tower" is used as a convenient way to describe the chasm that often separates scholarly types who collect and conserve information in an academic environment from the community at large. Three University of Hawaii graduate students are working to narrow that chasm with the new outreach programs of the Mele Hawaii Institute.
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com
"The three aspects of the ... institute (programs) are kanikapila, ho'ike and noi'i (research)," coordinator Aaron Sala said.
Where: Sheraton Moana Surfrider 'Dreams of Old Hawaii'
When: 6 p.m. today
Tickets: $50 (includes Hawaiian buffet and seating on Banyan Veranda) and $25 (includes two drinks with seating in the courtyard)
Call: 922-3111
"The ho'ike aspect is free concerts for the community, where we take groups that play together normally and take a venue in a community where the musicians aren't as far away (from the audience) as they are at the Shell. The noi'i aspect is where we look at older musicians -- Aunty Genoa, Mahi Beamer, Nina Keali'iwahamana, Bill Ka'iwa -- and interview them (about their music and experiences) ... and the third, and most exciting to me, is kanikapila."
Sala explained that the difference between kanikapila and a ho'ike is that at a kanikapila event, everybody is welcome to sit in to add to the musical experience.
"Maybe we'll have the same professional musicians facilitating (a participatory event), but bring your ukulele, your spoons, your guitars, your bass, and let's sit down and sing songs. I'm really excited about the institute, and hopefully it will be taken well by the community."
The Mele Hawaii Institute is sponsored by the Kamehameha Schools, but Sala and his colleagues, Tim Keali'i Ho and kumu hula U'ilani Bobbitt, are working on advanced degrees in ethnomusicology. Sala and Bobbitt are also professional musicians, and Ho, who has undergraduate degrees in music and anthropology, is director of choral music at Kamehameha.
"(Community music-making) was a normal part of Hawaiian society, but with the advent of the recording industry, the community has taken less of a participatory interaction and now we listen, we observe, so we're trying to start spontaneous Hawaiian music-making again in the community," Sala said.
HO'IKE and kanikapila programs are scheduled to start next month, but in the meantime, the institute's first community outreach project is more conventional in scope. Today's presentation of "Dreams of Old Hawaii" at the Sheraton Moana-Surfrider is a multimedia production where performances by musicians, vocalists and hula dancers will be complemented by vintage performance footage of "Hawaii Calls" concerts.
"The (UH) Music Department was gifted with film footage of 'Hawaii Calls,' and they were kind of just sitting in Sinclair Library -- nobody's been borrowing them regularly for a while -- so we thought we'd do something with that," Sala said.
The Sheraton Moana Surfrider, longtime home of the original "Hawaii Calls" radio program, seemed like the natural place to stage a show about some aspect of territorial-era, hapa-haole music. A combination film screening and sheet music exhibit was ruled out after concerns were raised about securing the materials, so Sala, Bobbitt and Ho planned a more conventional show that would add performances by program veterans Nina Keali'iwahamana, Gary Aiko, Mahi Beamer, Iwalani Kahalewai and Beverly Noa.
Several younger entertainers and the Kamehameha Schools Concert Glee Club and Hawaiian Ensemble will perform as well.
Sala's area of responsibility has been putting the show together -- contacting the performers ("asking them if they would work for beans") and taking on the challenge of selecting the film footage -- that involved picking out the key individual performances out of 13 hours' worth of material which will be seen in the one-hour video tonight.
"It was amazing to me to go through all of that (footage) and really see what (creator) Webley Edwards tried to do. He was so before his time!"
Sala has selected representative performances by artists such as Hilo Hattie, Haunani Kahalewai, Ed Kenney, Nalani Olds, Emma Veary, "and we have a duet of Ed Kenney and Melveen Leed -- a serious duet. It's something you wouldn't expect, but it's really, really great.
"Aunty Nina is a great help in that respect. We actually sat down and chose the music together. She helped with the video footage because she knows it so well -- she was a part of the whole thing. I learned a lot about the music. ... (Opinions) are mixed about hapa-haole music, and I still don't have an answer, but it's a great part of Hawaiian music history."
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