“All About Love”
Ben & Maila
(Dream 2872705272)
Ben Vegas and Maila Gibson are not married to each other, but they make beautiful music together as a pair onstage. Their current album was an instant hit on release, and with good reason. It is an engaging and diverse demonstration of their appeal and their range. Some songs are originals; others are island standards and selections from the pop charts. On some they harmonize; on others they sing solo.
They open as a duo with a song titled “Love” that has a nice 1950s rock ’n’ roll feel to it. Vegas is the voice on “Cruisin’ Round the Island” and “E Nani E,” a beautiful hapa haole song he co-wrote with his wife. Gibson revives a pop hit from 1931 with “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” a song known to most people under 75 as a Top 12 hit for “Mama Cass” Elliott in 1968.
The most impressive song in terms of mainland potential is “Love on Each Other.” The lyrics are tight and polished, and it sounds like mainstream country from Nashville, but it isn’t: Gibson wrote it, and she sings it with an appropriate sense of urgent emotion. A major country artist should record it, and bring it to national attention.
Gibson and Vegas display another side of their chemistry together with a hapa haole medley, “Maile Lei”/“Pupu Hinuhinu,” part Hawaiian and just a little bit rock, that’s perfect for any island wedding reception or party.
Visit benandmaila.com.
“Makaha Valley”
Pat Enos
(no label)
At the time of his death, less than a month before what would have been his 104th birthday, Bill Tapia (1908-2011) was the last Hawaii-born entertainer of his generation still alive. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he was known as an ukulele virtuoso, but when he moved to the mainland, he became known as a jazz guitarist. Tapia was long retired when he was “rediscovered” as an ukulele virtuoso, but for the last decade of his life, he enjoyed renewed fame. He never failed to earn the awe and respect of the audiences in the 21st century when he’d introduce one of his signature numbers with the words, “Here’s a song I learned during World War I.”
Tapia lived long enough to see most of his contemporaries — Johnny Noble and Sol Hoopii, to name two — forgotten by subsequent generations. He thought they should be remembered, not forgotten. Pat Enos, Tapia’s friend and caregiver in the final years of his life, says Tapia hoped he would be remembered, too. This recording is Enos’ tribute to his old friend.
Tapia composed the melody before he moved to the mainland but never wrote lyrics for it. Enos wrote the lyrics at Tapia’s home in Makaha Valley “while watching the shadows move quickly on the valley walls.” He recorded it as a solo performance — voice and ukulele — with the help of a friend.
Enos would like to see others record the song and help keep Tapia’s memory alive. His recording is available for now as a free MP3.
Email Enos at 1234pat@gmail.com.
