Duke Kahanamoku (and a couple other songs)

January 13th, 2015 by jim

I just got back from Waikiki, and you can’t come away from there not hearing about Duke Kahanamoku. There’s a big statue of him there next to the beach. He was a legendary surfer from the early 20th century. Maybe the most famous surfer ever. Anyway,  while I was there I found a Sol Hoopii record on ebay with a  song about Duke that I didn’t know existed! What Luck! So I’ll share that with you below (as well as the B side of that record and another record I bought from the same seller).

Incidentally, no one there seemed to know Sol Hoopii or play his style of music there at all. No compilations at the record shops. No bands (that I saw down in the tourist areas anyway) playing Hot jazz at all. I wish there were more bands at the hotels etc playing 1930s style hawaiian music rather than the newer easy-listening singer-songwriter style… maybe that’s just what the tourists want now. Well, EXCEPT I did find a great radio show, Territorial Airwaves, that does play a LOT of the great old historical Hawaiian music from the 78 era. You can listen to Territorial Airwaves online from anywhere at anytime here! (it’s also broadcast on all Hawaiian Airlines flights). They did a whole show about Sol Hoopii (where he played the Duke Kahanamoku track and gave a little more context than I have here) and released a nice collection of his music on CD a while back which you should buy. It contains a very nice biography of Sol in it.

So here’s 2 78 records from Sol Hoopii and His Novelty Quartet:

Duke Kahanamoku

Opelu (Feast Song)

Orange Grove In California

Ten Tiny Toes – One Baby Nose (That’s all I’m Living For)

dukeopeluorangetoes


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