78s - Aloha Oe' - Ferera & Franchini

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Uploaded by on May 21, 2009

Recorded in 1917, issued on several labels. This is the famous Farewell To Thee song.
Frank Ferera introduced steel guitar and slide guitar playing to an audience that was literally worldwide since many of his recordings were issued outside the United States. He was not the first Hawaiian guitarist to record. That was probably Joseph Kekuku, the steel guitar's reputed inventor (credit has also been given to James Hoa and Gabriel Davion), who performed with Toots Paka's Hawaiian troupe on Edison cylinders, both two- and four-minute, announced in the December 1909 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly. Another predecessor was W.K. Kolomku, whose guitar solo of "Hawaiian Melodies" was issued on Victor 65341. But Ferera was the first guitarist to enjoy success as a recording artist, his name a familiar one in the catalogs of virtually all record companies of the World War I era and 1920s. His style of playing was a forerunner of bottleneck playing on blues records and "steel" playing on country records, and his popular records must have influenced many guitarists of his generation.

Hawaiian music had been recorded as early as the 1890s but was not especially popular or influential until the World War I era. The most complete examination of pioneer Hawaiian recordings is L.E. Andersen's "Hawaiian Recordings: The Early Years" in Victrola and 78 Journal (Issue 7, Winter 1996). Andersen writes, "The recording industry at first paid little attention to authentic Hawaiian repertoire...The first major offering of Hawaiian repertoire appears to have been made by the American Record Co. of Springfield, Massachusetts and New York City. These are on 10-5/8 inch blue single-sided 'Indian label' discs. By 1904 several Hawaiian troupes were performing in various mainland cities including New York, where American's Hawaiian recordings apparently were made late in that year or early in 1905."

Shortly before World War I, keen interest in Hawaiian music had been sparked by the success of Richard Walton Tully's 1912 Broadway play Bird Of Paradise, starring Laurette Taylor. The Hawaiian Quintette even recorded for Victor the play's incidental music. Also significant was the appearance in 1915 of Keoki Awai's Royal Hawaiian Quartette at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. In late 1915 Victor began issuing Hawaiian discs on a monthly basis, recording such artists as Pale K. Lua and David Kaili (members of the Irene West Royal Hawaiians), and the Toots Paka Hawaiian Troupe. By 1916 all companies recorded Hawaiian or pseudo-Hawaiian numbers.

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This video is a response to ALOHA OE by Blue and White Marimba Band 1916
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  • Thats Entertainment.

  • Thank you ,for posting this

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