‘Kahele’
Kuana Torres Kahele
(Kuana Torres Kahele)
The countdown that began in June with the release of a download single will conclude Tuesday with the release of the third full-length solo album by Kuana Torres Kahele.
His first two solo albums were Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winners: "Kaunaloa" in 2012 and "Hilo for the Holidays" this year.
The title of his new album shows the importance of diacritical marks — the okina and kahako — when reading and writing Hawaiian. Kahele spells his family name without the marks, so the dictionary translation of kahele is "adze." Put a kahako over the first "a," as in the title of the album, and the meaning becomes "decorated for a journey as with lei," or, as Kahele writes on the disc: "Take a lei with you wherever you go."
Knowing the album’s true title — no, Kahele didn’t name the album for himself — reveals the significance of the many pictures of Niihau shell lei in the album art. It also reveals the direct link to the "Lei Pupu O Ni‘ihau" calendar Kahele produced and published this summer as a fundraiser for three hula halau.
And then there’s the music. Kahele does not disappoint. He was known for more than a decade as a member of Na Palapalai and as a skilled Hawaiian falsetto singer. "Ku‘u Mea Aloha" displays his falsetto beautifully. On other songs he sings in his lower register with equal effectiveness.
Kahele and co-producer Dave Tucciarone keep the arrangements uncluttered; Kahele’s acoustic guitar is the primary instrument. Other instruments are used sparingly but effectively. A koto player creates an appropriate ambiance on a song written for a Japanese friend. Strings add poignancy and lushness to others.
An accordion suggests the Italian setting that inspired "Aloha Sorrento." Kahele’s use of Hawaiian and Italian lyrics in describing the small Italian town prompts a question: Has he written the first hapa Ikalia (hapa Italian) song?
"E Ku‘u Lei, My Love," his romantic bilingual duet with Maila Gibson, is already a local hit and deservedly so. With good luck and astute promotion it could introduce him to new mainstream audiences outside Hawaii.
The other hapa haole song on the album is also memorable. With steel guitarist Casey Olsen accompanying him on "Makapu‘u Moonlight," Kahele shows that he enjoys old-style hapa haole music as well.
Kahele and his production team — most notably Tucciarone, Marc Turner and graphic designer B. Kanai‘a Nakamura — complete the album with a beautifully illustrated 16-page liner notes booklet. In it, Kahele provides the Hawaiian lyrics, English translations and concise accounts of the people, places and events that inspired him to write each song. Documentation is an essential part of all Hawaiian albums, even those intended for sale only within the Hawaiian-language community. Kahele and Nakamura fulfill that cultural obligation perfectly with "Kahele."
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"Ka’iliauokekoa"
