Marketplace Download

Description

Marketplace (2018) Compact Disc by Cyril Pahinui

• Marketplace 3:33
• He Wahine U‘i 3:29
• Pauoa Ka Liko Ka Lehua 5:13
• Wai‘alae – Hälona 3:04
• Moloka‘i Nui A Hina 5:43
• He Aloha Nö ‘O Honolulu 4:46
• Waikïkï Hula (Instrumental) 3:33
• Waikïkï Hula (Vocal) 4:22
• Na Ka Pueo 5:29
• Lei Nani 2:38
• Isa Lei 3:09
• Moku Kia Kahi 4:12

In 2017, Cyril Pahinui, slack-key master and one of Hawaiʻi’s most beloved musicians, was named as a National Heritage Fellow, the United States’ highest honor for master folk and traditional artists, recognizing lifetime achievement, artistic excellence, and significant contribution to the nation’s traditional arts heritage.

To underscore this singular accomplishment and to place what may well be a final cap on a recording career that has spanned nearly five decades, Pahinui Productions, in collaboration with George Winston, presents MARKETPLACE, a collection of never-before released solo recordings. The eight instrumentals and four vocals, all recorded in private sessions during the 1990s, showcase Cyril’s unique touch in a variety of tunings, as well as his gifts for improvisation, and the beautiful introductions and endings he creates for the songs.

Like his previous Dancing Cat albums, this compilation represents some of the best work of Cyril’s career. Here is the master hitting his stride, letting out all the ideas and emotions that had previously been constrained by tradition. That vitality makes it an essential listen for fans, informed devotees, students looking for artistic insight, and anyone who is just getting into slack-key.

The title track, “Marketplace,” a Cyril original, evokes strolling through Honolulu’s Chinatown, a meeting place for cultures from all over the world, an alluring mixture of fish stalls, chop suey joints, theaters, and music halls, and an important focal point of Cyril’s life. Chinatown has always had a special place in Cyril’s heart, showing up as cover art for his Sandwhich Isle Band album and again as a setting for Peter Moon Band music videos. Cyril’s dad, Gabby, grew up in nearby Kakaʻako, and his family sold newspapers and lei at the Chinatown pier to arriving steamship visitors. Gabby first learned Hawaiian music in Chinatown’s dime-a-dance music halls. Mother Waldron Park, located just outside Chinatown on Pohukaina and Coral Streets, is where Cyril’s parents, Gabby and Emily Pulepule Kauha, first met while playing volleyball; they then started their family in the nearby Lanakila public housing complex before receiving a Hawaiian Homelands lease on Bell Street in Waimānalo. For most of his life, Gabby continued to frequent the Chinatown eateries, markets, and bars, often taking Cyril to eat at the hidden mom and pop saimin shops after gigs and recording sessions at the Sounds of Hawaiʻi Studio on Young Street. Cyril composed “Marketplace” in the studio, after sharing his Chinatown memories with George Winston and Howard Johnston.

Much like the marketplace of Chinatown, this captivating chop suey collection of recordings brings together the familiar and unfamiliar. Here, the listener can sample mana’o from the depths of Hawaiian music tradition, influences from jazz and Latin music, a melody from the American Civil War, and a Fijian farewell. The result is a rich experience for the senses and a celebration of island life.

“Ka wa ma mua, ka wa ma hope”
— the future is in the past.

©℗2018 Pahinui Productions.
Distributed by Pahinui Productions. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws

Produced by Pahinui Productions
Recordings by George Winston and Howard Johnston
Engineered by Howard Johnston
Additional Engineering by Sean M. Lennon, Tyler Crowder and Porter Miller
Mastered by Ken Lee at Ken Lee Mastering
Liner Notes by Chelle Pahinui with technical assistance from George Winston, J. W. Junker, Helma Kihm and Karen Gebarski
Editing by Ka‘iulani Jerman and T. Ilihia Gionson