The greater 78rpm record collecting world is sparsely populated with its largest worldwide Facebook collectors group just recently surpassing the 4000 mark.\u00a0 Those of us passionate weirdos who devote huge chunks of our money and collection space specifically to Hawaiian steel guitar are a thin sliver of that elite group.\u00a0 But this is what initially brought Jim and I together.\u00a0 When I first met \u201cAngry Jim\u201d (virtually via Facebook Messenger) this is what he wrote. “Hi Christo! I have a feeling you may be my eBay nemesis!! I see on Instagram you have been collecting Sol Hoopii.”\u00a0 He had seen a post of mine about finding the records we share with you below.<\/p>\n
Sol Hoopii is the undisputed \u201cKing of Hawaiian Steel Guitar\u201d.\u00a0 Anyone who is even slightly familiar with the instrument and style undoubtedly brings his name up first.\u00a0 It\u2019s with good reason!\u00a0 His hot jazz steel playing has cross genre appeal. He was both an amazing technical player and a passionate emotional improviser.\u00a0 Sol was one of the first to really blend Jazz improvisation with traditional Hawaiian repertoire.\u00a0 After traveling from Honolulu as a cruise ship stowaway he arrived in San Francisco and then moved to Los Angeles by 1924.\u00a0 This happened during the \u201cHawaiian Craze\u201d, a time period when there were more Hawaiian records sold than any other style of music across America.\u00a0 Sol quickly got swept up in record deals and cameos in movies. He became a star and a hero for the native Hawaiian people!<\/p>\n
Over the course of his spectacular career, life in the fast lane began to wear on Sol.\u00a0 He went through a personal and religious transformation and eventually converted to Christianity.\u00a0 By 1938 he had totally abandoned his secular career to join Foursquare Church founder, Aimee Semple McPherson as a part of her evangelical tours. After this conversion Sol signed contracts to record with various Christian record labels including Eldee, Sacred Records, and Campus Christians.\u00a0 It was during this time that Sol met and began regularly collaborating with organist and vibraphone player, Loren Whitney.\u00a0 Many of these sacred recordings still featured amazing traditional Hawaiian song interpretations on the B sides of the 78 releases. But the days of fiery jazz and pop recordings were gone.<\/p>\n
According to a contact I made who was a church member, these extremely rare circa 1941, Haven Of Rest 78s were not sold in stores.\u00a0 They were distributed for \u201cSingspiration\u201d nights in the Foursquare Church. The main Foursquare church was in LA, but at its peak it was one of the largest church denominations with congregations scattered all over the US.\u00a0 Many of them were too poor to afford a professional musician to lead music.\u00a0 At \u201dSingspiration\u201d events church members would get up to sing “specials”, a song they had chosen to sing solo for the congregation. Sometimes members would provide their own instrumentation, but often these church issued Haven Of Rest 78s were played as their accompaniment. It is obvious when listening to the recordings that there is ample space for singing over the music. Please enjoy these extremely rare Sol Hoopii recordings.\u00a0 And if the spirit moves you\u2026sing along!<\/p>\n
**Special thanks goes out to Jim for giving me my copy of HR530, helping me with research for this post, and being more of a collaborator than a nemesis!\u00a0 Thanks also to Keith Cordell for giving me insight into how these rare recordings were used at Foursquare from an insiders perspective.**<\/p>\n
1941 Haven\u00a0Of Rest\u00a0Records, Loren Whitney – Organ and Vibraharp. Sol Hoopii – Steel Guitar<\/p>\n