| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Claudia |
Posted - 12/06/2012 : 04:28:17 AM
Hi guys - I've been listening to Gabby's Brown Album lately and I am loving that long acoustic intro to Lei No Ka'iulani. Before I twist myself into knots trying to figure out that intro - does anyone know what tuning that is? He is singing in Bb, so I guess Gabby tuned the guitar down from one of his C tunings, but which one? Just thought I would ask. |
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| hwnmusiclives |
Posted - 01/07/2013 : 10:05:19 AM
Not to be contrary to Bruddah Al, but the other musicians on "Pure Gabby" (which is not the brown album referred to) were legends in the same right as Gabby - Sonny Nicholas and Danny Stewart.
Sonny Nicholas was an old school Hawaiian musician who had been with the Hawaii Calls radio broadcasts since the 1950s as well as on stage around Waikiki and on recordings with Pua Almeida, Hilo Hattie, and Alfred Apaka.
Danny Stewart appeared in more than five dozen movies or TV shows set in Hawai'i - usually as a musician - and was the arranger/orchestrator for numerous albums by Alfred Apaka and George Kainapau as well as the film "Donovan's Reef." Danny was also a fabulous steel player who recorded with Pua Almeida, Barney Isaacs, Jules Ah See, Lani Kai, and the classic Mahi Beamer albums. He was one of the last steel guitar players for the Hawaii Calls radio shows before his untimely passing in 1962.
~ Bill
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| hwnmusiclives |
Posted - 01/07/2013 : 09:53:30 AM
Claudia, it is interesting that you bring up this song and this version of it... This is the song which led me to all discoveries about slack key guitar more than 30 years ago.
Up until I heard this record (I was about 10 years old), I had only played standard tuning. I tried to play along to the intro to this song, and I just couldn't. The sometimes half-tone intervals required a 7-fret stretch. It didn't make sense.
That was when I started reading up on slack key and bought the Beamer book. In no time I was able to conquer that intro in taropatch tuning capoed up three frets to Bb. I still play a solo version of that song - using that intro - to this day.
And, according to a conversation with Cyril many years ago, I believe he arranged the song - both the intro and the beautiful ending. I mean, after all... When you think diminished chords in slack key, don't you think of Cyril?
~ Bill
Check out the new home of the Ho'olohe Hou blog...on Facebook! |
| wcerto |
Posted - 12/22/2012 : 03:51:17 AM
Bla with no "h". He is anything but Blah. |
| Retro |
Posted - 12/08/2012 : 8:15:56 PM
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| Claudia |
Posted - 12/08/2012 : 07:13:07 AM
Mahalo Peter  for the heads-up about which tuning for this particular version of Lei No Ka'iulani! Thank you so much for your swift reply! So now I have started tackling it - its a challenge. I don't have a 12 string guitar - I hope that doesn't trip me up. (if I need those extra 6 strings for the intro for this song, then I might be dead in the water!)
@ Kapila Kane, The Brown Album I was referring to is entitled "Gabby," produced by Steve Siegfried, Witt Shingle and Lawrence Brown in 1972. Its one of my favorite albums of Gabby - its fantastic! |
| noeau |
Posted - 12/07/2012 : 10:06:19 PM
quote:
Originally posted by noeau
The brown album was titled Pure Gabby produced by Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio. It was just Gabby and one uke and one bass played by musicians who were not too well known to the general public. Dave just wanted to record gabby since most of his recordings were with groups. So this one had just one singer, the man himself.He played all the guitar parts too.
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| noeau |
Posted - 12/07/2012 : 10:05:14 PM
The brown album was titled Pure Gabby produced by Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio. It was just Gaby and one uke and one bass played by musicians who were not too well known to the general public. Dave just wanted to record gabby since most of his recordings were with gruops. So thi one just one singer, the man himself.He played all the guitar parts too. |
| guitar yogi |
Posted - 12/07/2012 : 5:25:46 PM
"Gabby" was the official name of the "Brown Album", so nicknamed because of the color of the album cover. "Gabby" was released in 1972 and was the first of the classic Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band albums. They feature Gabby, Cyril, Martin and Bla Pahinui, as well as Atta Isaacs, Joe Gang Kupahu and on the later ones, Sonny Chillingworth and Ry Cooder. All these albums are worth getting and are all real treasures. |
| Kapila Kane |
Posted - 12/07/2012 : 3:11:28 PM
Guess I better fess up, which one is the "brown album"?
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| Peter Medeiros |
Posted - 12/06/2012 : 8:50:45 PM
Hi Claudia,
It's been a while. The Martin 12 string on Lei no Ka‘iulani would be Gabby’s Maunaloa. On Brown Gabby it was tuned to Bb - BbFDFGD. In the key of C this would come out as CGEGAE. The concluding musical statement is Blah playing a classical in standard tuning down a whole step.
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