Ryland Peter Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
The music of Hawaii includes an array of traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop. Styles like slack-key guitar are well known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of Hollywood soundtracks. Hawaii also made a contribution to country music with the introduction of the steel guitar. In addition, the music which began to be played by Puerto Ricans in Hawaii in the early 1900s is called cachi cachi music, on the islands of Hawaii.
Gloria Richetta Jones is an American singer and songwriter who first found success in the United Kingdom, being recognized there as "The Queen of Northern Soul". She recorded the 1965 hit song "Tainted Love" and has worked in multiple genres as a Motown songwriter and recording artist, backing vocalist, and as a performer in musicals such as Hair. In the 1970s, she was a keyboardist and vocalist in Marc Bolan's glam rock band T. Rex. She and Bolan were also in a committed romantic relationship and had a son together.
Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr., better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments, often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.
Philip Kunia Pahinui, known as Gabby Pahinui, was a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music.
Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. This style of guitar playing involves altering the standard tuning on a guitar from E-A-D-G-B-E, which has been used for centuries, so that strumming across the open strings will then sound a harmonious chord, typically an open major. This requires altering or "slacking" certain strings, which is the origin of the term "slack key". The style typically features an alternating-bass pattern, played by the thumb on the lower two or three strings of the guitar, while the melody is played by the fingers on the three or four highest strings. There are as many as fifty tunings that have been used in this style of playing, and tunings were once guarded fiercely and passed down as family secrets. In the early 20th century, the steel guitar and the ukulele gained wide popularity in America, but the slack-key style remained a folk tradition of family entertainment for Hawaiians until about the 1960s and 1970s during the second Hawaiian renaissance.
Carleton Lewis Kealiʻinaniaimokuokalani Reichel popularly known as Kealiʻi Reichel, is a popular and bestselling singer, songwriter, choreographer, dancer, chanter, scholar, teacher, and personality from Hawaiʻi. He has spent his life educating the world about Hawaiian culture through music and dance.
Crossroads is a 1986 American musical drama film inspired by the legend of blues musician Robert Johnson. Starring Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca and Jami Gertz, the film was written by John Fusco and directed by Walter Hill and features an original score by Ry Cooder featuring classical guitar by William Kanengiser and harmonica by Sonny Terry. Steve Vai appears in the film as the devil's virtuosic guitar player in the climactic guitar duel.
Jake Shimabukuro is a Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso and composer known for his fast and complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz, blues, funk, rock, bluegrass, classical, folk, and flamenco. Shimabukuro has written numerous original compositions, including the entire soundtracks to two Japanese films, Hula Girls (2007) and Sideways (2009), the Japanese remake of the same name.
Blue Hawaii is the fourth soundtrack album by the American singer Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2426, on October 20, 1961. It is the soundtrack to the 1961 film of the same name starring Presley. In the United States, the album spent 20 weeks at the number one slot and 39 weeks in the Top 10 on Billboard's Top Pop LPs chart. It was certified Gold on December 21, 1961, Platinum and 2× Platinum on March 27, 1992, and 3× Platinum on July 30, 2002, by the Recording Industry Association of America. On the US Top Pop Albums chart, Blue Hawaii is second only to the soundtrack of West Side Story as the most successful soundtrack album of the 1960s.
The Brothers Cazimero were a Hawaiian musical duo made up of Robert Cazimero on bass and Roland Cazimero on twelve string guitar. Robert also played piano as a solo musician. The Cazimeros got their start during the Hawaiian Renaissance with ukulele and slack-key guitarist Peter Moon's band, The Sunday Manoa, on their first recording, Guava Jam. Since that time, The Brothers Cazimero have released at least 36 recordings and three DVDs. For three decades, the group performed at the annual Lei Day Concert. They made their Carnegie Hall debut in 1989.
"Soft-Hearted Hana" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. In North America, it was also issued as the B-side of the album's lead single, "Blow Away", while in Britain and some other markets it was the B-side of the follow-up, "Love Comes to Everyone". The lyrics recall Harrison's experiences under the hallucinatory effects of magic mushrooms while holidaying on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The song title refers to Hana, a remote town on the island, and is a play on that of the 1920s ragtime tune "Hard Hearted Hannah".
Sandi A. Hohn, professionally known as Sandii, is a Japanese singer and vocalist who was a member of the Japanese band Sandii & the Sunsetz. Hohn is also notable for her work on the Japanese animated television series Lupin III Part II.
"You Can't Stop a Tattler" is a gospel blues song, written by Washington Phillips (1880–1954) and recorded by him for Columbia Records in 1929. The song is in two parts, intended to occupy both sides of a 10-inch 78 rpm record. However, it remained unreleased for many years. Part 2 was included on the 1971 album This Old World's in a Hell of a Fix. Both parts were included on a 1980 compilation album of songs by Phillips, Denomination Blues.
"Auntie" Alice Kuʻuleialohapoʻinaʻole Kanakaoluna Nāmakelua (1892–1987) was a Hawaiian composer and performer. Nāmakelua was also a kumu hula dancer and lei-maker. She was an expert performer of the slack-key guitar and a master of the Hawaiian language. Nāmakelua was a mentor of other musicians and wrote around 180 songs of her own. She was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2011.
The Gentle Soul was a folk band formed in 1966 by singer-songwriters Pamela Polland and Rick Stanley. The band's music contained spiritual influences and an emphasis on creative and elaborate vocal harmonies. Their eponymous album appeared on Epic Records, together with a number of non-LP singles. Columbia Records released one record by the Gentle Soul, which was produced by Terry Melcher. The group consisted of Riley Wildflower, Pamela Polland, Rick Stanley and Sandy Konikoff. For a short time, the group included Jackson Browne. The Gentle Soul recordings have become a coveted classic, and the original vinyl album is now a pricey collector’s item.
Charles Edward King was an educator, Hawaii territorial legislator, and a songwriter who is most widely known as the composer of "Ke Kali Nei Au". King was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1995. Music historian George Kanahele regarded King as the "Dean of Hawaiian Music", although this sobriquet is more associated with John Kameaaloha Almeida.
Haleloke Kahauolopua was a 20th-century Hawaiian singer. She was sometimes billed under just her first name, Haleloke.
Jaye Nāpua Greig-Nakasone, known professionally as Nāpua Greig, is a Hawaiian musician, vocalist, songwriter, record producer, kumu hula, and educator from Maui, Hawaii. Known primarily for her contributions as kumu hula of Hālau Nā Lei Kaumaka O Uka, she arranges traditional Hawaiian music as well, performing and recording with instruments such as ukulele, ipu, and other traditional Hawaiian hula implements. She has released four solo albums, each earning a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award.
