Saturday records...

Alfred Apaka's Greatest Hits: Hawaiian album! okay, this wasn't so bad. I think because there was singing and he has a pleasant voice. a nice mellow baritone. and there were a few songs that haven't been done to death such as Hapa Haole Hula Girl which was short and sweet. and even though I've heard the Hawaiian Wedding Song what seems like five million times now, this one was nice, he had a soprano singing with him and it was a nice contrast. so I guess if I had to hear another Hawaiian album this was a good call.

My Maoriland - The Best of Maori Songs and Dances: um, some liner notes would have been nice. there's various groups of people singing Maori songs. The last song, Po Atarau sounded kind of familiar and then I noticed the English subtitle was Now is the Hour, which was on the last record as well as many others, it was a popular tune. so i went searching for some background and found this site for NZ Folk Song.

oh, hee hee, here's an old mini-review by Alan Armstrong:

MY MAORILAND

Viking VP204 12in 33 ⅓ LP

Viking, who believe in getting plenty of mileage out of groups which record for them, have brought out yet another collection of tracks from Maori groups who have featured on full-length recordings issued earlier by the company. It is a pleasant and varied selection except for an item which purports to be a Maori chant. Entitled Ba Nana it is sung by Isabel and Virginia Whatarau. It is a tasteless offering.

The items range from action song to haka, traditional chant, poi, stick game and love song. A medley type disc such as this is always good value for the casual buyer of Maori material since it gives a selection of different groups and thus differing styles of performance, and of course varying types of item. However, such buyers usually want to know a little bit more about the origin, meaning and significance of the time than just a bald ‘haka’, ‘chant’ and the like. Viking have missed the bus in this respect because most tourists in particular have a healthy curiosity about the indigenous people and music of countries they visit. This record could thus have been so much more by adding so little. A few cover notes would have made all the difference.

anyhoo, "Maori" starts to look really strange the more you type it.