| wcerto |
Posted - 09/02/2009 : 9:48:26 PM
Oh my oh my. Auntie likes this recording. First of all, I am prejudiced toward Uluwehi Guerrero. I love his voice and his hula and what seems to me to be his gentleness. And the film on You Tube of the keiki from his halau dancing "Opae E" while he sings....oh my, that is true chicken skin.
Now this new recording - Uluwehi sings "Na Mele Hula Aloha" - Beloved Hula Songs -- to me it is a masterpiece. If there was one improvement I would make, it would be to put the English translation of the words. Yes, I know I need to study the `olelo more diligently, but still...
One song that is a beautiful standout for me is one of Kumu's original mele, Nani Nakamura. It is a lovely cross between Hawaiian music and Japanese music. So ethereal with the floating, lilting flute music. Then he takes standards such as one of my favorites, Ke Aloha, and dresses them up a bit, elevates them beyond the shabby comforting sweater with the moth holes in it. He dressed it up, spiffed it up and presented his love for the mele to show. When you hear him sing "Pua Ahihi", you cannot help but envision the hula he would be dancing for it. And then I got to hear an interesting curiosity, something I do not hear frequently in Hawaiian music -- being played iin a minor key --in the Ke Anuenue part of the beautifully matched medley of Kukuna o ka La/Ke Anuenue.
I think this is a fine CD to add to your collection -- both for the beuaty of the singing and the song selections and for the variety of hula than can be danced to these songs.
Mahalo nui loa to Uluwehi for sharing this most beautiful music with us. |
