Greatest Hits - Hawaii Calls / Webley Edwards

 

Hiilawe

Webley Edwards Presents

Hawaii Calls

Greatest Hits

Newly Recorded in Honolulu with Al Kealoha Perry

Cover Photo: Bob Greene

Capitol Records ST 1339

1960

FEATURED ARTISTS: Webley Edwards, Al Kealoha Perry, Haunani Kahalewai, Ben Kalama, Jules Keliikuihonua Ah See, Nina Kealiiwahamana, James Kaopuiki, Dan Kaleikini, Donald Paishon, John Kamana, Danny K. Stewart, Lani, Alvin Kalanikau Isaacs, Sam Kapu, Sol Kamahele, Charles Kaipo Miller, Randy Oness, George de la Nux, Norman Kaleimanuia Isaacs, Miriam Punini McWayne, Victoria Ii Rodrigues, Iwalani Kamahele, Iwalani Kahalewai, Kanekolia Rodrigues, Edward Shonk, Tomo Fukui, Leilani Whitmarsh, Puanani Watson.

From the back cover: Fifty thousand people helped select the songs for this album!

And a mighty chorus of Hawaiian voices sings them-the largest group of the best singers ever assembled in the Islands for a recording.

Here are fine old Hawaiian songs, some richly dramatic, some haunting and dreamy – ballads and love songs with all the romance of a moonlit night by a shining ocean, vigorous rhythms of war song and hula, and a touch of the Hawaiians' own quiet comedy.

These are the greatest hits of Hawaiian music, as chosen by an extensive poll of listeners and mainland visitors to Webley Edwards' famous "Hawaii Calls" weekly radio programs from the Beach at Waikiki –– one of the oldest of all nationwide network broadcasts of the United States and Canada, heard on several other continents as well.

The big chorus, instrumentalists, and soloists were all chosen from among the leading entertainment groups along Waikiki Beach. Many of them are recording stars in their own right.

They sang together for many weeks to get a full choral effect in the old authentic Hawaiian style, yet with a new sound. Their delight and enthusiasm during the recording were unusual even in Hawaii, where recording sessions are notable for informality and for the enjoyment that Hawaiians always seem to get from their own singing. Summed up: An unusual Hawaiian chorus, singing unusual new arrangements of authentic Hawaiian song favorites.

SIDE ONE

Blue Hawaii One of the greatest of all Hawaiian ballads, in a fresh new arrangement featuring Haunani Kahalewai (the girl who sings like a baritone) and the steel guitar of Jules Keliikuihonua Ah See.

Hiilawe An authentic Hawaiian rhythm that sounds surprisingly modern, with Hawaiian slack key guitar and the interesting sounds of ipu gourd, split bamboo pu-ili, and pahu drum. James Kaopuiki is the soloist.

Hawaiian Wedding Song (Ke Kali Nei Au -"I Am Waiting for Thee") The number-one all-time favorite Island song, presented in a full-chorus arrangement for the first time. The fresh young voices of Nina Kealiiwa- hamana and Donald Paishon are featured in this great love duet.

Beyond The Reef A modern Hawaiian love song that is so much a part of Hawaiian music it is often mistaken for a folk song. Ben Kalama is the soloist.

The Hukilau Song A favorite of mainland visitors to Hawaii because it is an easy one for "learning to do the hula." The hukilau (literally, "pull the leaves") is a fishing party, often staged by an entire village; leaves are attached to the long net to keep the fish moving shoreward. Dan Kaleikini solos.

Song of The Islands (Na Lei O Hawaii) One of the best-known Hawaiian standards, performed here with the authentic words and music, but in a full choral arrangement that is entirely new.

SIDE TWO

Lovely Hula Hands An unusual blending of love ballad and perfect hula tempo, high on everybody's list of favorite Hawaiian songs. Ben Kalama stars, with assistance from little Nina Kealiiwahamana.

Hawaiian War Chant (Ta-hu-wa-hu-wai) Drums and chanters in solid Hawaiian rhythm, with a surprising variation: the singers at times actually use the off-tempo beat of Polynesian drum style in their sing- ing. Dan Kaleikini and John Kamana have the lead parts.

King's Serenade (Imu Au Ia Oe) The theme motif of the motion picture Bird of Para- dise, this has remained a haunting Hawaiian favorite for many long years. Jules Ah See's steel guitar is featured, against the back- ground sound of the waves of Waikiki.

Mama's Muu-Muu One of the top comedy songs of Hawaii (of which, surprisingly, there are many!). Solo passages are by James Kaopuiki, Ben Kalama, and Jules Ah See.

Sweet Leilani The Island song that never grows old, in an outstanding new arrange- ment for the big Hawaiian chorus, with the solo voice of Nina Kealiiwahamana.

Aloha Oe Hawaii's famous Farewell Song, richly sung by Haunani Kahalewai and a chorus of twenty-four voices.

Gemini - Erroll Garner

 

When A Gypsy Makes His Violin Cry

Gemini 

Erroll Garner

Producer: Martha Glaser

Engineer: Bob Simpson

Cover Design: Bob Vanosa

Mastering: Dom Romeo, Sol Kessler, Garry Latham

Piano by Baldwin

Octave Records STEREO/XPS 617

1972

Erroll Garner - Piano and harpsichord

Jose Mangual - Conga Drummer

Jimmie Smith - Percussion

Ernest McCarty, Jr. - Bass

Gemini and Eldorado composed by Erroll Garner. All material in this album was improvised on the spot, at the recording sessions, with head arrangements by Garner.

Special note about the cover: The original painting from which the cover portrait is derived was done by renowned German painter, Rheinhod W. Timm, and presented to Mr. Garner during his 1971 Berlin appearance, by MPS RECORDS. The sketch of a building at the bottom of the portrait is that of Philharmonie Hall, Berlin.

From the back cover: Admittedly, I'm not much into astrology. But sometimes, the characteristics of a sun sign fit an individual born under it so remarkably well that skepticism must be suspended.

Erroll Garner is a consummate Gemini. This is the sign which emphasizes duality, contrast and unpredictability. Geminis are given to mercurial changes and love adventure and experimentation. They have the capacity to raise the level of those around them.

To begin with, Garner is a twin. He is fully ambidextrous, playing golf or tennis with either hand and giving out both left and right-handed autographs. No performing artist gives more freely of himself than Garner – the master of total and immediate projection and communication. In contrast, the man remains a private person always reserving some secret part of himself. What is revealed is like the tip of an iceberg, his own inner levels still in the process of being explored.

Musically, Garner's duality is complete. His music combines intellect and emotion in perfect balance, moving and involving the listener on many planes, from sheer unreflecting enjoyment to total astonishment. It is at once extroverted and introverted, completely free, yet totally disciplined, virile and lyrical, sentimental and irreverent, playful and moody, complex and simple.

Pursing the dualistic theme, we find that Garner is pianist and composer, balladeer and swinger, an acrobat holding tension and release in delicate equilibrium, a master of contrasting dynamics, a painter and a dancer, an artist given to antithetical musical statements, but, reflecting nature itself, always arriving at a harmonic resolution.

Garner's love of surprise is, of course, reflected in his startling, teasing introductions which keep his audiences and his accompanists in a state of suspense and joyful anticipation – not to mention those many dazzling cliffhangers any Garner improvisation, once the theme has been established, holds in store.

Musically, this process of exploration has continued unabated from the time Garner first exploded on the jazz scene. It is hard to believe that he now is entering his fourth decade as a major musical figure, for he is as youthful, vital and astonishing as ever-if anything, even more so.

In this album, which surely must rank with his all-time best, Garner will astound and enchant even his most dedi. cated fans. For newcomers to Garner, or to jazz, there could be no better introduction.

GEMINI is a portrait of the artist in the process of self-renewal and discovery. In an age of constantly debased superlatives one hesitates to employ them, but nothing less will do for Garner. He is a genius, a sorcerer, a benign monster of music whose inspiration flows as naturally as his breath, bathing the listener in a river of life-restoring sound. He can make you believe there is still hope for our world-the greatest gift an artist can bestow.

HOW HIGH THE MOON is a space-trip a la Garner. In no less than nine superlative choruses, he reinvests a once most familiar tune with new life. The tempo is fast but utterly solid, and as the pithy ideas unfold, each chorus becomes a new experience. From the fifth on, fasten your seat belts, please. The penultimate chorus is a dazzling visit to the land of bop, encompassing some active doubling unlike anything heard from Garner before.

IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU is another transfiguration of a standard theme. The teasing introduction has a gospel flavor. The melody is stated as only Garner can accomplish this seemingly easy yet most challenging of musical feats (i.e., to state a theme clearly and fully, yet make it wholly your own). The second chorus is a demonstration of the meaning of the verb to swing (the tempo seems to accelerate but holds absolutely firm), tension is built and gradually released in a perfectly sculpted performance.

GEMINI, one of the two new Garner originals on this album, is a treat. The theme, a seemingly simple, yet ultra- sophisticated blues (with a bridge which subtly reworks the thematic material of the main stream), is presented with an Afro-Latin flavor.

WHEN A GYPSY MAKES HIS VIOLIN CRY might strike some as an odd vehicle for Garner, but the fact is that he has had a long-time profound affection for Gypsy music. This is not Garner's first excursion into this territory (re- member PLAY, FIDDLE, PLAY, and DARK EYES) but cer- tainly his most fascinating. The abstract introduction is a masterpiece in itself, and as he moves into tempo, Garner states the melody ever so softly and hauntingly, with Gypsy inflections and effects. He builds in volume and intensity, and then, for one of the album's multi-surprises, moves over to the harpsichord, an instrument he hasn't played in some fourteen years, when he first made some experimental recordings on it.

The sounds Garner coaxes from the harpsichord are wholly his own, and here appropriately become reminis cent of the Gypsy instrument, the cimbalom. This acoustical harpsichord excursion is improvisation at its most pure. The ending Garner creates here employs both piano and harpsichord in gem-like interaction.

Side two opens with an almost unbelievable outing on TEA FOR TWO, with its set of changes that has served many a great musician well, but seldom, if ever, better. A rhythm section introduction sets the stage for Garner's harpsichord (sounding like another instrument than on Gypsy by the way) outlining the theme in the ultimate of economy and subtle rhythmic displacement. For his second chorus, Garner glides into the piano, creating monumental swing. Then, without breaking the time or feeling, he re- turns to the harpsichord, invents a riff, sounds like an organ, then a guitar, then returns to the simplicity of the opening. A stunning piece.

SOMETHING, one of the finest pop tunes of recent years, is a flawless introduction and single chorus-just that. One minute and 48 seconds of bliss. This miniature masterpiece resulted from a take that broke down at the end of the first chorus (due to the unfamiliarity of one of the accompanists with the song). Thanks to the producer for letting us in on this rare vignette.

ELDORADO, the second new Garner composition un- veiled here, also is in the very contemporary Afro-Latin vein-a minor blues with a bridge. Again, the performance builds masterfully, from contrapuntal intro to "tag" ending  – with a natural fade effect. The theme, as in so many of Garner's compositions, is instantly captivating. Garner has been into the Afro-Latin vein since the early 50's.

THESE FOOLISH THINGS, a classic standard, gives rise to a classic Garner interpretation. The brief intro leads to a superb paraphrase of the melody in ballad tempo, showing Garner's matchless ability to swing in any tempo. A freely invented rubato passage links this with the next chorus, in easy bounce tempo. What follows is Garner's melodic inventiveness at its loveliest. Until now, Lester Young's and Billie Holiday's versions of this song have occupied a special place of reverence in my collection. Now Garner's join them.

The task of accompanying a musical giant is not an easy one, particularly in improvisations, but Garner's accompanists here rise to exciting levels fed by Garner's challenging on-the-spot creations.

The senior member, Jose Mangual, with Garner for some five years, has an uncanny ability to intuit Garner, though at times Garner even eludes Jose. Unlike many Latin percussionists, he never overplays. His time is im- peccable and complements Garner well.

Drummer Jimmie Smith, a steady, dependable supporter of the common musical cause, has been aboard the Garner spaceship for some three years and rides easily with the ever-changing signals, with deft shadings and great elan.

Bassist Ernest McCarty, Jr., the baby of the group, has been with Garner for two years and makes his first recording appearance with the leader here. He is a fine timekeeper and blessed with a good ear and funky attack.

Garner's unpredictable and glorious travels into the spheres, guided by heart and head, continue to reveal new dimensions. When he first appeared on the scene, Garner already had at his command a new musical language which he had created, and which since has become part of the vocabulary of jazz (and popular) piano expression. But even as others listen and borrow, Garner remains light- years ahead-one of those rare beings in any art who is wholly original and inviolably his own man.

No matter what your birth sign, you'll find this Gemini totally fresh and relevant contemporary music, requiring only open ears and an open heart to receive its life-affirming message. This album is your ticket to Eldorado, and it never will expire. – Dan Morgenstern

How High The Moon

It Could Happen To You

Gemini

When A Gypsy Makes His Violin Cry

Tea For Two

Something

Eldorado 

These Foolish Things