COURTESY OF JOHN ALEXANDER
Ryan Char (left), Scott Tomokiyo, Robert Hsia and Chase Tajima of Iolani's Da Isle Tones beam after taking top honors at a regional competition in March.
Beyond the barbershop
It's no secret that Hawaii has plenty of talented teenage entertainers. Jennifer Perri, Jordan Segundo, Anelaikalani, Raiatea Helm and Kapena DeLima are five in particular who have been worth watching lately. Now it's time to discover Da Isle Tones, four Iolani School seniors who eclipsed quartets from three other states and southern Utah to take top honors in a regional high school barbershop quartet competition in March.
Da Isle Tones
The Sounds of Aloha Chorus presents "Barbershop on Broadway"Where: Hawaii Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. today and tomorrow
Tickets: $12 to $25
Call: 528-0506
"We felt confident that we'd practiced our music well, but we didn't expect to win. It's really scary being up there," said Chase Tajima, leader and spokesman.
Tajima's two years of barbershop singing experience makes him the senior member of the group. The others -- Ryan Char, Scott Tomokiyo and Robert Hsia -- are rookies; Hsia, the group's lead voice, signed on only two weeks before their first competition.
Despite the late start, Da Isle Tones prevailed against the best that the other Western states had to offer at the annual convention of the Far Western Division of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (or SPEBSQSA). They sang two barbershop standards, "Coney Island Baby" and "Somebody Steal My Gal."
Ralph Brandt, a member of the local Aloha Chapter, served as their coach, and the organization also paid the costs involved in sending the quartet to the competition.
Since coming home with a trophy, individual plaques and medals, and a free trip to next year's competition to present awards to the 2004 winner, Da Isle Tones have taken first place in last weekend's Reach For The Stars Family Fair Talent Show at their school. They perform as special guests at this weekend's "Barbershop on Broadway" shows at the Hawaii Theatre.
"We have several uniforms -- aloha shirts, T-shirts for casual occasions, and sweaters and slacks, something that's more country clubbish. I guess you know the stereotypes of those red-striped shirts, and the hats and the canes, but we're younger and it didn't really appeal to us," Tajima said, addressing the widely-held perception of barbershop quartets consisting of men in red-and-white striped shirts and sleeve garters, big mustaches, and other early-20th Century accouterments, singing songs like "Down by the Old Mill Stream."
BARBERSHOP singing has distinct rules and structure -- the lead sings the melody while the other three position their harmonies around it, singing one complete chord for each note in the melody -- but barbershop arrangements are no longer limited to the songs of a particular era. Da Isle Tones' repertoire includes "Stand by Me," "In the Still of the Night," "So in Love" and "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," although Tajima says that such modern fare is not allowed in formal competition.
"Most of the traditional songs come from the turn of the (20th) century, to the 1930s or 40s. When we sing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight,' it kind of combines a little bit of barbershop and a little of the song you usually hear."
The term barbershop dates from a time in American history when such shops were seen as wholesome alternatives to bars and poolhalls as places where men and boys of all ages could hang out and socialize, discuss the ever-popular topics of politics, sports, and women, and perhaps do a little social singing. All that was needed in the early days was someone with a good lead voice and a memory for lyrics, and at least three others who could "woodshed" (improvise) the harmonies.
Barbershop singing thrived for several decades before changing times and new styles of music replaced it as mainstream pop entertainment in the 1930s. Two fans of the style founded SPEBSQSA in 1938. Barbershop quartets and choruses were exclusively male by tradition, but a society of female barbershop singers, the Sweet Adelines, was formed in 1945. The two groups have been working together to preserve the popular music tradition of the late-19th and early-20th centuries ever since.
The Aloha Chapter runs a free barbershop clinic each year for teens. Thus far, students from Iolani have dominated the program.
Da Isle Tones will be recording a CD starting next Saturday, and although the young men will be spread out among three mainland universities starting in the fall, Da Isle Tones may not be pau by then.
"You have to be interested in singing, and be willing to put the time into it," Tajima says. "The free trip kind of makes you want to get into it, but when we got the group together, the music was what really interested us."
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