A Breath of Fresh Air—Lena Naipo and Kahulanui
By Shirley Stoffer
Aloha, Hawaiian music fans! Remember the excitement you felt the first time you heard the sweet harmonies of the group, Hui ‘Ohana? Or when you first heard the banjo, fiddle, and dobro on Peter Moon’s Sunday Manoa 3 album, or the rousing piano accompaniment on Nā Palapalai’s first album? You were not the same after hearing that music, were you? Well, that is how I felt the first time I heard Lena Naipo’s band, Kahulanui, break out the horn section for their performance of “Rocking Chair Hula.” Pure delight. It was almost impossible to stay in my seat with that “jitter-bugging” beat going on!
It’s not that the genre didn’t exist before. There is a history of the “big band” sound in Hawaiian music, beginning in 1928 when bandleader, Johnny Noble, hired half-Hawaiian vocalist, Ray Kinney, to promote Hawai‘i as a visitor destination. They performed on an hour-long national radio show originating in San Francisco, and recorded a series of 110 singles which are collectors’ items today. The band performed for a year at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel, and in 1936, Noble and Kinney were hired by Decca Records to put out a series of Hawaiian records, which resulted in phenomenal sales for the record company.
Harry Owens, composer of the song “Sweet Leilani,” led an orchestra, with Ray Kinney on vocals, which played at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel’s opening in Waikīkī in 1934. Kinney’s own orchestra played the Hawai‘i Room of New York’s Hotel Lexington from 1938 to 1942 to rave reviews. During a brief trip to Hawai‘i in 1940, Kinney discovered vocalist Alfred Apaka, and hired him as vocalist for the Lexington Hotel’s Hawai‘i Room. That band toured 157 military bases and clubs, and was a favorite of members of Hawai‘i’s 442nd Regiment. Those were the days of the famous “Hawai‘i Calls” radio show, and people were infatuated with “all things Hawai‘i.” In 1949, Ray formed his own Royal Hawaiian Hotel orchestra.
Lena Naipo, bandleader of Kahulanui, was exposed to the “best of the best” of Hawaiian music from a young age. He is originally from Waimanalo, O‘ahu. His grandfather, Robert Kahulanui Naipo, was an alternate bandleader of ‘Iolani Palace‘s Royal Hawaiian Band.
His father, Rodgers Naipo, was a bass player for the legendary Hawaiian falsetto singer, Aunty Genoa Keawe, and had his own band. Lena and his father would often visit Aunty Alice Namakelu, famous for inventing the wahine slack key guitar tuning. She wrote some songs for Rodgers’ band and coached him on his Hawaiian language pronunciation. “My father got plenty of scoldings from her about his ‘olelo!’” Lena laughs.
Lena started playing ‘ukulele when he was about 10 years old. “Bass is my main instrument,” he says. “My father taught me the basics, and my idol, Jesse Kalima, Jr., taught me a lot too.” Lena was like a sponge, soaking up technique from great players. “I would watch Violet of the Liliko‘i Sisters play ‘slap-style’ bass. She ripped!”
Lena learned slap-style himself. Later, he would fill in on bass, backing up Aunty Genoa when his father couldn’t make it. “I play guitar with Kahulanui,” he says, “because guitar is easier to play when you’re singing.”
School was difficult for Lena. Reading and writing was a huge challenge to him. His teachers were very understanding and supportive. “Probably due to a combination of my personality and my music aptitude. I was excused from school to go traveling the world with the Hawaiian Airlines promotional tour when I was 14,” Lena says. “My teachers knew that performing music was what I was going to do with my life. They considered it ‘hands-on’ learning. I played my first professional gig at 14. I was the youngest stand-up bass player in Hawai‘i. I had to stand on a milk crate to play.”
Some of Hawai‘i’s top musicians were hired by Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines to travel around the world, performing Hawaiian music to stir up excitement about Hawai‘i as a vacation destination. Lena’s father was one of them. “I wasn’t hired for the Hawaiian Airlines tour until 1979-’81 when I was older,” Lena says. “I toured with Andy Cummings (the composer of the iconic song, “Waikiki”) in Europe. People hear that and say, “You’re not old enough to have known him!” Lena laughs, “He was only in his sixties then.” Lena visited exotic locations all over the world on those tours: Singapore, the pyramids of Egypt, temples in Mexico, and the jungles of South America, to name a few.
Kahulanui, Lena’s band, has a core group of four members who appear at most performances. At the wonderful “core four” performances, you won’t get the same high-energy sound that the horn section provides, but you will hear a bit more of the mellow, sweet, sometimes jazzy side of the band. There will be many hot licks (mainly from Duke Tatom’s innovative leads on ‘ukulele) and upbeat songs in the mix, as well. The “core four” of Kahulanui are Patrick Eskildsen on electric bass and vocals; Duke Tatom on ‘ukulele and vocals; Tim Taylor on drums/percussion and vocals; and, of course, Lena Naipo on lead vocals and guitar. There is an impressive display of talent from each member during performances, both as individuals and as part of an ensemble. Lena is very proud of “his boys” (band members). “I do the arranging; I tell them what I hear in my head and what I want, but I can’t take credit for their harmonies; they figure those out themselves. I hope this band will help the boys ‘go someplace’ with their music,” he says.
There are some very accomplished musicians in the group, and Lena encourages them to shine, and to try new things. For example, he heard Patrick, the band’s bass player, singing along with an old Alvin Kaleolani Isaacs song in his car once, and now Patrick is performing the song with the band. His falsetto has a classic vintage flavor to it on the piece. Duke, the band’s ‘ukulele player, and Lena have been performing together since they had a job at the Four Seasons 15 years ago. Duke is given plenty of room to “go for it” on his ‘ukulele leads during performances. Tim, drummer/percussionist extraordinaire, is also given creative license in the band—when was the last time you heard bar chimes played behind a traditional slack key guitar piece? These four members have been playing together for about five years.
Kahulanui’s exciting horn section is comprised of Jesse Snyder on tenor sax, Duncan Bamsey on baritone and alto saxophones, Andrea Lindborg on trumpet, and Garry “Railroad” Russell on trombone. Russell has played with many famous musicians in his music career, including Englebert Humperdinck and Frank Sinatra.
Lena has a mastery of what I will call “effective understatement” in his music arranging. His use of harmonies and unisons in the band’s performances is amazingly nuanced—thrilling would be a good word for it. His expertise comes from many years of absorbing and retaining the fine points of performance by his mentors, bandmates, and other musicians. This kind of learning you don’t get in school.
I was asked by Lena to mention in this article his desire that young people who have learning challenges should still have hope for themselves. Even though it’s hard for them, he wants them to know that they each have something valuable to offer the world. “I used to hide from shame when I couldn’t read in school. Those kids should know that it is still possible for them to become successful.”
Kahulanui’s signature visual image relies heavily on what I would call the “cool cat” look, and their classy pork pie and fedora hats are responsible for a big part of it. When music producer/guitarist Charles Brotman ran into a rep from San Diego Hat Company at an autograph signing in a resort retail store, he told the rep to go watch Kahulanui perform. Lena told me,“They came to see us play, and from then on, they’ve supplied our hats.” He shakes his head in happy amazement at this perk.
The band just finished recording their first album, “Kahulanui: Hula Ku‘i; Back in the Day,” with the horn section and guest steel guitarist Greg Sardinha, at Charles Brotman’s Lava Tracks Recording Studio in Waimea.
Though he’s played in other bands in his 30 years on Hawai‘i Island, I asked Lena why this band is getting so much attention “all of a sudden.” He replied, “Well, what did you say? It’s something different, isn’t it? Have you ever heard anything like it before? All I know is that after we played with the horn section at the Keauhou Shopping Center’s free concert a few months ago and they put the performance on local TV, we ‘exploded’! I started getting calls from everyone… Mountain Apple (a music distributor of some of Hawai‘i’s top performers)… you name it!”
It turns out that, over the years, Lena Naipo has developed a reputation for his unique and interesting interpretations of music. When I first heard his band at the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, Moku O Kona fundraiser this past August, the first thing I had to say to him after the event was, “What a breath of fresh air!” ❖
For info about Kahulanui: Booking Manager Patrick Eskildsen, 808.990.9911, FaceBook.com/pages/Kahulanui/221653527862584
Contact writer Shirley Stoffer: Shirley@Konaweb.com
