Video From 1927 Kalama's Quartet

Norman Markowitz · Post by **Norman Markowitz** » 29 Apr 2012 7:46 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPB-niJSlS4

Wow! Such wonderful video quality from so long ago.

Info On Kalams's Quartet can be found here.

http://www.arhoolie.com/world/kalamas-q ... html?sl=EN

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 29 Apr 2012 7:56 am

Rick Stratton · Post by **Rick Stratton** » 29 Apr 2012 8:15 am

Double Wow!
Who'd have thought some of the earliest soundies would have been made with Hawaiian music? Surely a testament to it's great popularity back then.
Typical to see it staged on a fake Hollywood set with caucasian extras & hula girls!
Keep your eyes on the upper left corner of the picture- the waves don't move or change shape, but there's a shimmer to them!
I like the spanish guitar the guy on the left is playing. Slot-head with (almost) Nick Lucas-style inlays and a bridge that looks like a canoe!
Can anyone identify it?

Matthew Dawson · Post by **Matthew Dawson** » 29 Apr 2012 8:23 am

Amazing! I'm speechless.

Norman Markowitz · Post by **Norman Markowitz** » 29 Apr 2012 8:25 am

Rick Stratton wrote:Double Wow!
Who'd have thought some of the earliest soundies would have been made with Hawaiian music? Surely a testament to it's great popularity back then.
Typical to see it staged on a fake Hollywood set with caucasian extras & hula girls!
Keep your eyes on the upper left corner of the picture- the waves don't move or change shape, but there's a shimmer to them!
I like the spanish guitar the guy on the left is playing. Slot-head with (almost) Nick Lucas-style inlays and a bridge that looks like a canoe!
Can anyone identify it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL9xnb0T2AE

Actually it seems that the staged set was in New York City.

Rick Stratton · Post by **Rick Stratton** » 29 Apr 2012 8:31 am

Actually it seems that the staged set was in New York City.

I stand corrected!
That's right, this one is so early. Most film production hadn't all shifted to the west coast, yet

Norman Markowitz · Post by **Norman Markowitz** » 29 Apr 2012 9:16 am

According to Wikipedia The First talking Film, "The Jazz Singer" came out in October of 1927. Makes these video clips even that much more amazing.

Norman Markowitz · Post by **Norman Markowitz** » 29 Apr 2012 9:30 am

Rick, these two videos may be the earliest Hawaiian music and Hawaiian Steel Guitar videos in existence. I wonder how to go about finding out more info on them?

Kevin Brown · Post by **Kevin Brown** » 29 Apr 2012 9:50 am

Watching this reminded me of how I felt when the first pictures of Robert Johnson were released, I'll never forget that moment, and neither shall I forget this, also speechless !! that is beyond priceless

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 29 Apr 2012 11:00 am

Absolutely awesome videos ! WOW !!!

The first song is SWEET LEI LEHUA, the second is MY HAPA HAOLE HULA GIRL. I wish we could have seen the steel solo in HULA GIRL, but obviously there was none.

You notice, no `Aloha Shirts`... they were not around in those days. The hula gals are obviously haole and very dis-organized. As mentioned above, it is doubtful the video was done in Hawaii...probably CA or NY.

Anyway, no mattah...VERY enjoyable to see non-electric
steel guitars and hearing their great style. Mahalo !

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 29 Apr 2012 11:11 am

Funny how the era of electricity suddenly took Hawaiian music so much further, and to my sensibilities infinitely more enjoyable.

David Matzenik · Post by **David Matzenik** » 29 Apr 2012 2:41 pm

Kevin, I know what you are saying about RJ. For me, these amazing films give me same goosebumps I got when I first saw the Jimmy Rogers footage.

Norman Markowitz · Post by **Norman Markowitz** » 29 Apr 2012 3:12 pm

Need a new category, "Steel Without Cords".

John Troutman · Post by **John Troutman** » 29 Apr 2012 10:48 pm

This is truly fantastic footage. The earliest footage that I have found of someone playing Hawaiian guitar predates this, however-- the video is on the link below. It was shot in 1918. The musician is Tsianina Redeather, a Creek/Cherokee singer who toured the world in the teens and twenties. I wrote about her in my book, _Indian Blues_. This film features no sound, unfortunately...

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675 ... dian-Woman

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 29 Apr 2012 11:25 pm

The Redfeather footage is very intriguing, too bad there's no sound as her movements suggest it might be even more musically interesting than the Kalama clips. Thanx for posting!

Norman Markowitz · Post by **Norman Markowitz** » 30 Apr 2012 5:31 am

John, that is remarkable footage of Ms. Redfeather. Are there any cylinder or 78 recordings of her music?

John Troutman · Post by **John Troutman** » 30 Apr 2012 6:53 am

Norman: I have looked for a good 10 or 12 years for a recording, to no avail. She often toured with Charles Wakefield Cadman, a semi-classical composer who wrote a number of "Indianist" (Indian-themed) compositions, as they were popular at that time. They filled the Hollywood Bowl to capacity and remained successful for a long time, well into the 1930s. So, it surprises me that I have found no recordings yet.

Originally this film was 'unidentified' on this Critical Past website, but I stumbled across it recently, as I'm now writing a book on the history of the Hawaiian guitar. I gave them the details so that they could update their description. You can imagine my surprise when I found not only Tsianina on film, but Tsianina performing in probably the earliest surviving footage of a Hawaiian guitar to boot! It's like all of my worlds collided at once!

John

John Bartlett · Post by **John Bartlett** » 30 Apr 2012 7:27 am

Wonderful videos of Kalama's Quartet! I've wondered what the source of these were, and so I've asked the lady from Tonga who posted these.

Also, I've wondered about some of the other early recordings. For example, did Frank Ferera make any videos that anyone is aware of?

Thanks,

John Bartlett

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 30 Apr 2012 3:13 pm

John Troutman wrote:This is truly fantastic footage. The earliest footage that I have found of someone playing Hawaiian guitar predates this, however-- the video is on the link below. It was shot in 1918. The musician is Tsianina Redeather, a Creek/Cherokee singer who toured the world in the teens and twenties. I wrote about her in my book, _Indian Blues_. This film features no sound, unfortunately...

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675 ... dian-Woman

I would be very interested to hear her music! That guitar looks very much like a 1930s Oahu student model I've got - any ideas of what guitar it is she is playing?

Cheers,

Fred

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 1 May 2012 4:22 am

"Flatties, vibrato that make the strings sing ... these are a few of my favorite things" ... Julie Andrews

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 1 May 2012 4:49 am

It seems unlikely that this was 1927, if only because they didn't add the second steel guitarist, Bob Matsu, until 1928, according to every source I could find.

Dig the harp guitar played by Bob Nawahine all the way on the right.

Although I agree for the most part about things going much further with the advent of electric instruments,
I really like this vocal style, which reminds me of hymn-style singing,
which seems to have vanished after things went electric.
Where Hawaiian music became so polished, I sometimes yearn for the earthiness of the earlier period,
especially with regard to the singing. I feel the same way about the Blues.

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Video From 1927 Kalama's Quartet

Video From 1927 Kalama's Quartet

Kalama's Quartet videos