“Swing Luau”

The Waikiki Leaks

CJRO

The history of Hawaiian music in the past two centuries is a story of a two-way cultural exchange. It begins with Hawaiians adopting and adapting haole (non-­Hawaiian) musical techniques and musical instruments that were brought to the islands — choral singing, vocal harmonies, the guitar, the acoustic “stand-up bass” and the Portuguese instrument now known as the ukulele. It continues from the 1890s onward when Hawaiian musicians went out on tour and introduced other people to the Hawaiian steel guitar and the ukulele — and inspired a new cross-cultural style of music that became known as hapa haole. English-speakers think of hapa haole songs as having English lyrics, but as years passed and Hawaiian music was adopted and adapted by musicians in other parts of the world “hapa” songs were written with lyrics in other languages as the world embraced the music of Hawaii. The Waikiki Leaks are keeping traditional hapa haole alive in Italy with their 11-song calling card, “Swing Luau.”

The Leaks are Francesca Faro (lead vocals), Flavio Pasquetto (steel guitar, vocals, ukulele and glockenspiel), Flippo A. Delogu (guitar), Light Palone (acoustic bass) and Alfredo Romeo (drums/percussion). They do Italy proud with their treatment of several Territorial Era standards. Faro gives a seductive lilt to the lyrics of “Keep Your Eyes on the Hands,” and harmonizes beautifully with Pasquetto on “Some More of Samoa.” Pasquetto’s percussive work on the glockenspiel adds an energetic ear-catching edge to the group’s arrangement of “Little Brown Gal.”

Two songs from outside the hapa haole canon also work well. Duke Ellington’s classic, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” is given a hapa haole ambiance courtesy of Pasquetto’s steel guitar and Romeo’s drums. The other outlier is “Sleep Walk,” but who could blame Pasquetto for taking his best shot at the steel guitar instrumental that topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks in 1959?

“Memories of Ka’anapali,” written by Pasquetto and Faro, adds a romantic contemporary hapa haole original to the collection.

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