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Issue #12 December 6, 2013
WC: Israel began playing music at a very young age. Then in the late ’70s and ’80s he was with the Makaha Sons of Niʻihau before going solo with your help. What was his impact on contemporary Hawaiian music during his career, both in terms of the music itself and also in terms of popularizing it as a genre?
JM: He was from a very musical family. Everyone played an instrument, from piano to bass fiddle to ʻukulele to guitar. They didn’t have toys or games or the big TVs we have today, so after dinner they would go in the parlor and play music together. So as a very small kid, he started absorbing. And at about 5 years old they gave him an ʻukulele and he never put it down; it was like welded to his body.
Then, because his parents worked there, he would hang out at Steamboats—a very famous club in Waikīkī—and he would just be around these masters. Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaii, all these great musicians. They probably thought he was just some punk kid in the corner, but that punk kid in the corner was paying attention to what they were doing. He would try to imitate them, which is what we all do until you get to a certain stage and launch your own spaceship. In only about 10 years, he was skilled enough to do that, and joined the Makaha Sons of Niʻihau.
Skippy, Israel’s older brother, was the leader and the conceptual developer of that group, and they had these very smooth three- or four-part harmonies—very traditional, but with an increasingly contemporary edge. At the time, everybody was doing that—it was part of the Hawaiian renaissance, which Eddie Kamae and Gabby Pahinui started in the late ’40s—and it just morphed into this new kind of Hawaiian music. But the Makaha Sons had an enormous impact, and Israel really changed Hawaiian music forever, even before he branched out on his own. And at that point, when he really wanted to produce and organize his own music, he came to me.
Twenty years ago, Israel “Bruddah Iz” Kamakawiwoʻole, already an important part of the Hawaiian renaissance and a famous entertainer in the islands, released his first album with Mountain Apple Company. The record, Facing Future, is still the best-selling record of all time by a Hawaiian artist, and introduced to the world both Iz and contemporary Hawaiian music.
Israel was a champion in the struggle to preserve Hawaiian music and culture. Even after he passed away in the summer of 1997, he remained an inspiration, beloved by the people of Hawaiʻi. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Facing Future, we sat down to talk with the founder of Mountain Apple Company—and Israel’s producer, mentor and long-time friend—Jon de Mello, about the seminal work and the incredible musical talent and indelible influence that was Bruddah Iz.
Will Caron (WC): What made Israel so special as a musician and as a cultural icon?
Jon de Mello (JM): Israel was very concerned with humanity. He loved people, especially children. He was a kid magnet. And he loved doing his craft for those people. A common comment I’ll get is “When I listen to Israel’s music, it hits my heart first and then I hear it after.” And he does have one of those mellow, just beautiful, resonating voices that connects to individual people.
I think that’s really his key: the love of people. He could speak to people and they could hear it and understand the meaning behind it, even if they couldn’t understand the language he was speaking to them in. I think that was one the greatest things about him.
WC: Israel began playing music at a very young age. Then in the late ’70s and ’80s he was with the Makaha Sons of Niʻihau before going solo with your help. What was his impact on contemporary Hawaiian music during his career, both in terms of the music itself and also in terms of popularizing it as a genre?
Perspective:
"He could speak to people and they could hear it and understand the meaning behind it, even if they couldn’t understand the language he was speaking to them in."