Hawaiian

Recorded in Honolulu and the mainland United States, 1900s–1940s

These sides gather Hawaiian popular recording across a long span of years: 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1940, and 1945. The rights mix is even and plain to state—about as many bulletproof pre-1923 sides as sit in the 1923–46 gray zone, and a few still unclassified. Behind them stand vault rows tagged Hawaiian; only this smaller set has been published so far.

Frank Ferera’s name threads through the early discs in many billings. Helen Louise and Frank Ferera open the run with a 1915 medley of Hawaiian waltzes; Louise and Ferera follow in 1916 with a hula medley, a Hawaii waltz, a medley of Hawaiian airs, and Sonny Cunha’s “Hapa Haole Hula Girl.” Ferera and Franchini appear on “Malanai Anu Ka Makani” and “Three O’Clock in the Morning”; Bernard and Ferera take “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’”; a Frank Ferera Trio surfaces later still.

Other ensembles fill out the shelf. Kane’s Hawaiians offer “Alekoki and Liliu E,” Kalama’s Quartette sings “Aloha Oe (Farewell to Thee),” and Johnny Noble’s Hawaiians contribute two sides, “Maili Lau Liilii” and “Hame Pila.” Dick McIntire’s Harmony Hawaiians, Eddy’s Hawaiian Serenaders with “Down In Waikiki,” the Mid-Pacific Hawaiians, George Kalaluhi’s Hawaiians, and Lani McIntire and his Aloha Islanders in 1945 all take their places. Comic numbers sit beside the airs: Ada Jones and Gene Rogers each record a version of “O’Brien Is Tryin’ To Learn To Talk Hawaiian.”

Title words that recur are simple—orchestra, orch, air, waltz—marking dance and medley sides rather than a single house style. A few of the twenty-nine carry no firm year in the credit line, and the set makes no attempt to hide that unevenness.