FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Buddy Fo plays on at his home at Kahana Bay.
Honors for Fo
Harmonious Invitations
John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comThey come to the Punalu'u Restaurant, acolytes seeking the blessings of the master, young musicians who watch and listen and seek the wisdom of Buddy Fo.
2nd Annual Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards Awards show
Where: Tapa Ballroom, Hilton Hawaiian Village
When: 11 a.m. tomorrow
Tickets: $55 (includes lunch)
Call: 235-9424
And why not? It's been well over 40 years, give or take a few, since Fo put together the Invitations with Sonny Kamaka, Johnny Costello and Clem Low, and brought a new sound to Hawaiian music. Fo describes it as a blending of older styles of Hawaiian music with ideas culled from the American big band and pop music groups he heard at USO concerts during World War II.
"Here you're raised with this Hawaiian music ... and then you hear these other ways that you can go about it. You hear harmonies, orchestration, horn sections doing these parts. Most of the local kids of my age at that time, they don't read music, we just get ear, and we'd try to imitate it on an ukulele or guitar. And then you get people like Mel Torme and the Mel-Tones, singing four-part harmonies, and you think, what if I took 'Roselani' and start using augmented and diminished chords," Fo, an engaging storyteller, said earlier this week, sharing his memories as we talked in his beachfront home adjacent to Kahana Bay.
Fo, who says he is 70 but looks years younger, is one of the few members of his generation still active in local music. He sits in on congas with Don Ho several nights a week in Waikiki, and plays each weekend at Tundaleo's Lounge in the Punalu'u Restaurant.
"I know that I'm getting older but I don't feel (it). Some of my buddies, they don't play anymore, and I don't understand why not. I want to play until I'm dead. I'm just having a great time."
It has been a tremendous odyssey for a local guy who says he started out pretty much as a beach boy-type, self-taught musician and went on to learn the finer points of recording and arranging from some of the best studio musicians and arrangers in the American record business.
Now it's his turn to share his knowledge.
"I feel really honored that they ask me, but I feel good that I can help, too," Fo says of the young musicians who ask him for advice.
"One of the real secrets of the Invitations was rehearsal. You can't get people to rehearse these days ... (but) we used to drive up and down Kalakaua, everybody in the car, hot, roll up the windows so we could hear the harmonies (and) what you do is you learn to blend. When you got separate mikes, you hear the mix coming out of the monitor, but it's nothing like recording together on a single microphone."
Fo's numerous contributions to Hawaii's music will be recognized when he receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) at tomorrow's Lifetime Achievements Awards luncheon at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. HARA will also present awards to steel guitar pioneer Jerry Byrd, Linda Dela Cruz, slack key master Raymond Kane and Lydia Luden.
The five awardees will also be honored with tribute segments during the live telecast of the 26th Annual Na Hoku Hanohano Awards on May 28.
Fo says he was embarrassed at first when he was informed that he'd be one of this year's award recipients.
"I know so many other people that have done so much, and here's me just chugging along. Are you serious? And then I felt elated inside. It's nice of them to choose me."
FO'S PLACE in Hawaiian music history begins with the founding of the original Invitations after he returned home from military service. He says it took a little bit of guile to get the group going. He and Kamaka had decided to start a vocal group that would draw on the musical ideas popularized by the Four Freshmen, the Hi-Los and Richard Kauhi. They agreed that Costello would be a great choice as the bass player, but Kamaka said that Costello wouldn't want to work with him because of the past history between them.
Fo visited Costello, asked him if he'd be interested in forming a group, and mentioned in passing that Kamaka had said how much he missed playing with him. Costello said that if that's how Kamaka felt, he'd bring his bass to a meeting. Fo then told Kamaka that he invited Costello to meet them -- and mentioned in passing that Costello had said how much HE missed playing with Kamaka!
So the two men finally met, quickly resolved their differences and the core of the group was set. Now they needed a fourth vocalist who could also play piano, and recruited Clem Low by driving up to his Kaimuki piano studio, with Costello's bass on the roof. When Low asked what they were doing that was so special, they gave him a quick demonstration with a three-part arrangement of "Kamakani Ka Ili Aloha." That was enough for Low to come on board.
"With the falsetto voice, there's a sweetness that a tenor doesn't have, so when you got three guys that can sing high like Sonny, Johnny and myself -- we all had falsetto voices. Sonny had this wonderful talent of hearing (parts) -- he'd sing the lead until we got to a section where we'd switch and I'd be singing lead and Sonny would be singing down third and Johnny's singing second. That's what we'd do and it brought a sweetness to our music."
THE Invitations got their first job by agreeing to play for free. Fo used the same gambit to get the group a shot at a club in the International Market Place. That, too, paid off and the group moved up to the larger room.
Martin Denny, who was drawing record crowds at Don The Beachcomber's nearby, noticed his new neighbors and liked what he heard. Denny was already established as a national recording artist and arranged for the vocal group to sing at a party for some of the label's higher-ups. The "suits" liked what they heard and the Invitations were signed to a recording contract.
It was while in mainland recording studios that Fo learned the ins and outs of how seasoned professionals record. Everyone was on time, prepared and, with very few exceptions, the studio musicians got everything down perfectly in one take. The Invitations were better prepared than many local musicians would have been (then or now), but Fo says they were awe struck by the proficiency of the musicians and arrangers they were now working with.
"It was an experience everybody should have. It was just overwhelming. The professionalism was unreal. That's one of the secrets: Have your homework all done outside of the studio."
The Invitations were a huge hit, and long after disbanding to pursue other interests, their legendary recordings continue to inspire other Hawaiian and local pop vocal groups. Several groups have been known for their vocal arrangements over the years, but Fo says none have duplicated what the Invitations did during their heyday.
"A third secret is identity. If you sound like some one else, you have no identity. When we started, we had our own sound. It wasn't the Hi-Los, it wasn't the Freshmen ... and everybody's part was the lead.
"Don Ho has identity. When you heard Dick Jensen years ago, you knew it was him. Kui (Lee) had his own sound, (so do) the Cazimeros and Kapena. I tell the kids they gotta find a sound and establish their own identity."
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