“Big Knife”

James Daniel “Bla” Pahinui

(Big Knife Productions PABK-1002)

James Daniel “Bla” Pahinui — “Bla” for short — has a lifetime of achievements as a slack-key master and Hawaiian recording artist. Pahinui is left-handed but plays a guitar strung normal style for a right-handed musician — a feat described as playing “upside-down and backwards.” What this means is that when Pahinui strums a chord, he hits the strings in reverse order from the way a standard guitarist does. He has one of the distinctive voices in local music as well.

Due to his family lineage as a son of Gabby Pahinui, the recordings he made with his father in the 1970s and his command of slack-key technique, it can come as a surprise to learn that early in his career Bla played rock ’n’ roll in Waikiki. He still likes to play rock — and blues — but he does it in a way that can be described as “uniquely Bla.” “Big Knife” is his creative partnership with three veteran rock and blues men — Milan Bertosa (bass), James Ganeko (drums) and Byron Lai (electric guitar). They’re a solid team.

They open with an original, “Down and Out Brother,” that is a beautiful example of Bla-style blues. The hint of traditional oli (chant) vocalizing in Pahinui’s singing is unmistakable. Lai plays smooth and mellow on the bridge, and the extended fade-out catches the quartet having fun while they wait for the engineer to signal “pau.”

History has shown that island artists rarely bring new ideas to the table when they record classic Top 40, R&B or country “oldies.” Pahinui proves himself one of the exceptions. For instance, he slows “Jailhouse Rock” down by half and grafts on a verse from Tennessee Ernie Ford’s signature song, “Sixteen Tons,” while Lai’s guitar gives the song a fresh bite. The jailhouse still rocks, but the arrangement owes nothing to Elvis’ definitive 1957 hit version.

There are some songs that are done in the general style of the original hit, but Pahinui’s voice gives them enough freshness to be worth hearing.

Pahinui breaks from the quartet with several selections that he recorded as duets. Saxophonist Todd Yukumoto joins him on “Fools Rush In” and “In the Still of the Night”; guitarist Shoji Ledward is his partner on a relatively conventional arrangement of “Love Me Tender.” And it’s just Pahinui and Bertosa holding it down on “Insha Allah,” “Waimanalo Blues” and “Away in a Manger.”

Pianist Bailey Matsuda joins the quartet on “Nanakuli,” a song that swings like the music Pahinui played in Waikiki 50 years ago. Pahinui acknowledges in the composers’ credits that “Nanakuli” is actually “Kansas City,” the Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller composition best known as a hit for Wilbert Harrison in 1959, with new lyrics. In Pahinui’s version he’s waiting for the bus to Nanakuli and the “awesome local titas” that live there.

Contact bla@pahinui.com.