Losing one’s wallet/Finding one’s way – Puakea’s Lifelong Love Affair with the Hawaiian Language
to view Anne E. O’Malley’s slide show of Monday night’s EKK click here
Moonlight Concert for the Birds
If the ducks and geese and nene birds in the lagoon at Kaua’i Beach Resort appeared to quack melodiously or glide gracefully or not harass the visitors on Tuesday morning, it may be because they were treated to a moonlight serenade of Kaua’i songs by Puakea, Hau’oli and Lolena following the Monday night EKK session. Overflowing with a natural high after an evening of stories, songs and dance for the world’s most appreciative audience, the three artists extended their evening with a musical gift for the resident fowls. Don’t you wish you had been there?
OMG….that song is sung by Raiatea! Wow! That is on the Kupaoa album! That’s a hit song by Keali’i! Ku’uipo Kumukahi sings that song! All evening long these comments came up as Puakea went down his long check list of all the songs he wanted to share at EKK. If he had gotten to the bottom of that list, we would have been there until sunrise…or at least out on the lagoon with the nene birds.
The audience was mesmerized with the fascinating stories behind the songs…many laced with humor and concocted out of his unique view of the world from the simplest to the sublime, from the everyday to the eternal. Puakea shared his treasure trove of stories in his booming double bass voice, to a captivated audience who laughed, cried, swooned over the stories and songs.
It took persistence to finally get Puakea to EKK. He kept declining … he says he writes in perfect pitch but may sing off key; he finally accepted when I told him he could bring someone else. He showed up with his “dream team.” Harmonizing with Puakea were Lolena Niau Nicholas, his longtime colleague, and Hau’oli Akaka, whose lively side commentary added much flavor to the stories. Hau’oli was feeling very check about his Hawaiian history program on KCCN radio until one day Puakea called him up on the phone to make a correction in his history; to be corrected by the haole kumu popped his ego balloon, but that was the beginning of their long friendship. “Kaleo O Hawaii” was a Hawaiian language program that three of them co-hosted for years, traveling from island to island to meet with old kupunas before they passed on.
Puakea started with two compositions for Kaua’I – a welcome oli and “Lei Mokihana,” a hello-to-Kaua’i song that speaks of the intense beauty of the Mokihana berry that can leave burns on your skin for six months.
Serious songwriters may have felt a bit daunted by Puakea’s description of how he writes a song…a kumu hula shows up asking for a song, he walks to the other side of the room and pantomimes writing on his open palm and makes sounds like, “Du…du…dudu…” which means he is jotting down some words on a piece of paper and in minute-and-a-half he hands over a song…which ends up being a hit. No Fair! He’s either paid his dues early on or was standing in the line labeled “brilliant” when the talents were being doled out.
Plus…he gets songs out of ordinary situations which many of us experience but never turn into artistic expressions. How does a person tell his partner that he’s cranky…like “sour poi sitting in the same bowl too long”…and while on his way to work come up with lyrics and a melody that end up as a love song? Unless I heard the story, I would never guess in a million years that beautiful “Poi ‘Awa’awa” by Raiatea is actually about a metaphorical “sour poi”, a taste that one can get used to and love. Like “jaw jerking” sour poi, which needs to be eaten with condiments, a cranky partner needs to be balanced with other companions.
Puakea admits that with no television, his bar for entertainment is very low. His observation of the natural world around him feeds his entertainment needs and these experiences translate into songs such as the “Toad Song” made famous by Keali’i Reichel and also won first place for Chinky Mahoe’s men in the Merrie Monarch hula competition. When he moved from Waianae to Kalihi, he no longer heard the sounds of the bufo who came to feed out of his cat bowl, but when the five-story tammarine tree outside his Kalihi house was cut down and the rains formed mud puddles, he was greeted by a gutteral sound which he could utter to perfection. It was a homely lonely toad, who it turns out was not so homely to another toad as Puakea discovered strands of toad eggs in the mud puddle where the tammarine tree once stood.
Long story short, the experience resulted in lyrics which rolled off his pen in five minutes which he offered to Keali’i with the observation that this was probably not his style. Keali’i rebutted with “That is my style; it’s a love song!” The catchy low octave intro that Keali’i added to the song -- “Oom mama, Oom bebe, Oom Mama, Oom bebe…oom ma oom,” -- became Puakea’s recording debut; he could hit those low notes. Puakea rattled off the long complicated lyrics in Hawaiian with ease but the hilarious English version was a bit more of a tongue twister. “This has never been done in English in public before,” said Puakea. The rhyming lyrics were as funny as the beat was catchy. Puakea credits his new lanai to the royalties from this song on Kealii’s album; Hau’oli added “wrap-around porch where Puakea continues to write more songs for Keali’I.” Very likely the inhabitants of the toad village in the puddle below are asking each other, “Wonder if we will ever get invited up on that porch for a sunset cocktail…after all, we inspired it!”
The audience took to the chorus right away and Puakea complimented everyone, “You sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!” As for me, I am driving home from the hotel with these catchy rhymes indelibly burned into my brain, wake up in the morning singing it in my morning voice, and driving here and there all day wondering if people are noticing my muttering “Oom Mama, Oom Bebe, Oom Mama, Oom Bebe…“ Waiting for the long red light to change, I was singing out loud to not fall asleep and looked at the woman in the next lane looking at me quizzically….I pretended that I was chewing food. (Oh! The things we do to save face.) I should have shouted to her, “I am rehearsing for a Hemic jingle!” Auwe!
Puakea explores variations on the topic of love. He shares a song inspired by the aphrodisiac male blossom of the hala plant, Pua Hinano, which he admits has almost no kaona -- hidden meaning -- and that everything is laid right on top so it should be called a song of lust. One has to understand Hawaiian to really get the flavor because English translations never quite cut it…. He also shared his most romantic song about falling in love which he sang solo.
One of his songs about a lei of fond memories, “Lei Halia”, was recorded elegantly with live violins and cellos as the title tract on Kealii’s “Lei Halia” album. Puakea was riding the cable car in SF when he heard the demo and burst out crying because it was so move-your-heart beautiful. Inspired by the trade winds of Nu’uanu that sweep away the muggy Kona winds as a reminder to let your strong traits lift your spirit up to the peaks of Kilohana so you can realize your finest attributes. Beautifully harmonized by Puakea, Hau’oli and Lolena, it’s a song that makes everything all okay.
Hawaiian lullaby’s are rare but Puakea wrote “Melelana” for his God child. Keali’i was recording his album of ballads – songs and chants about love and desire – and called Puakea to add more verses to the lullaby. As the album is being recorded, Puakea dashes off additional verses and faxed it to Maui. Hau’oli claims that “Melelana” is very effective as he rocked his youngest child to sleep each night nestled in his bosom, and today if his ten-year-old starts to act up, Hau’oli will hum “Melelana” and he will settle down. Hau’oli treated us to a hula noho which he choreographed when he was a teacher at Kailua high school. Using ‘ili’ili, waterworn pebbles, to suggest the sound of heart beats, Hau’oli got down on his knees and this gentle giant swayed his abundant avoirdupois seamlessly this way and that with the pebbles clicking in both hands in a superbly graceful hula noho.
Upon request from one of the participants, Puakea shared the story behind one of his monumental projects in which he translated the most remarkable and sensual grown up tales of the Pele/Hiiaka saga which were part of a newspaper series written in Hawaiian at the turn of the century. This resulted in two beautiful hard-bound books titled Hi’iakaikapoliopele – one in Hawaiian and one in English. “Pili O Ke Ao” recorded in exquisite harmony by Kupaoa is a song inspired by one of the passages in the book with the message, “don’t let the night end” even when the “Moa Kuakahi” or three chickens of the night are announcing the start of a new day. Those relentless chicken crowing concerts at 2:00 am, 4:00 am and sunrise that we all know so well on Kaua’i appears to be a chicken tradition since time immemorial and serves at the Hawaiian clock. Hereafter when I hear the first chicken crowing at 2:00 am, I won’t complain but will blast my boom box out to the jungle with the song “Pili O Ke Ao”. Kaua’i is undoubtedly the chicken capital of the world; Niumalu pasture where I live is the chicken capital of Kaua’i, so I know the 2:00/4:00/sunrise regimen all too well. Actually, the 2:00 shift tells me to get to bed.
The “Bum-bye” song written for his foster mother Ululani Kumukahi, mother of Ku’uipo Kumukahi of Hilo, was to prompt her out of her failing health at age 89. She refused to eat or drink for days, fearful of choking, no matter how much Puakea coaxed her with delicious food. She kept saying bum-bye or “latahz” so Puakea told her that bum-bye yesterday is today now and called her the “Queen of Bum-bye”. As he was leaving her hospital room, she called out, “Don’t forget your bum-bye song,” so he showed up the next day and sang her a song of metaphors of all the things she is to him. She laughed so hard, drank some water, ate some food, vacated the hospital the next day and lived to be 90 years old. “It was the music that did it,” concluded Puakea.
The “Coqui Frog” song or “Mele Koki,” which was taught to the ukulele group earlier, was written during his visit to Mrs. Kumukahi in Hilo where the delicate single sound of one coqui soon became the uncontrollable screech of car alarms when the minitature critters, 20,000 per square mile, joined together in cacophony. Puakea hopes that one day Roy Sakuma and his 500-kid ukulele band will play the Coqui Song in unison. Maybe they could all fly to Hilo and play the song there.
Hau’oli announced a rare and unexpected treat, “Dr. Nogelmeier will dance the hula.” Puakea got up and danced to “Hanohano Ka Lei Pikake.” He punned, “You notice I dance in perfect pitch!”
One last song he really wanted to share was a song written for a Thanksgving dinner at the home of his teacher George Holokai. He told his friend, “You remember the tune; I will remember the lyrics,” and together they shared their thanksgiving song at dinner with the message, “Aloha is what has fed me; I am always full…” The life he is thankful for was told with his remarkable “lost his wallet” story. It began at age 18 when he lost his wallet/money/passport at San Diego airport which changed his weekend stop in Hawai’i en route to Japan into the longest weekend in history. He got to Japan 32 years later. How lucky for us he live Hawai’i.
We ended as always with Lorenzo Lyon’s “Hawai’i Aloha” whose words “may the lyrical language of this land live forever” has served as a model for Puakea. He continues his work on Ho’olaupa’i, a collaborative project with the Bishop Museum to digitize and place on the internet tens of thousands of pages from Hawaiian language newspapers of the 19th and 20th century available only on microfilm. As our voices were raised in unison, Hau’oli spoke the English translation of the song. What a gift we all received from the “dream team.”
Monday, February 8, the Ni’ihau ‘Ohana from Ke Kula Ni’ihau o Kekaha will share a rare program of songs, chants, stories and dance with Mama Ane Kanahele, Anake Ilei’aloha Beniamina, Hoku’au Ka’ohelauli’I, Love Kelly and some of the students. The instrumental hour goes from 6:00 – 6:45 and the main program goes from 6:45 – 9:00 pm. Food and drink is made available by Kauai Beach Resort so you can come straight from work.
Tune in to KKCR Radio -- Bruddah Kelly talked about EKK from the studio at Ke Kula Ni’ihau at 4:00 pm on Sunday. Feb 7; Linda Lester will be interviewing Ilei’aloha Beniamina at 8:15 am on Monday, Feb 8.
Contact the Kauai Beach Resort at 245-1955 for EKK Special Room Discounts.
(s) Carol Kouchi Yotsuda, www.gardenislandarts.org -- “Celebrating 33 years of bringing ARTS to the people and people to the ARTS”
E Kanikapila Kakou 2010 -- Hawaiian Music Program is funded in part by the Hawai’i Tourism Authority, the County of Kaua’i Office of Economic Development, and Garden Island Arts Council supporters with support from Kaua’I Beach Resort.
Garden Island Arts Council programs are supported in part by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts through appropriations from the Legislature of Hawai’i and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.