Hal Aloma

Hal Aloma (January 8, 1908 — June 26, 1980)[2] was a Hawaiian steel guitarist, singer and bandleader.

Hal Aloma
BornHarold David Alama
(1908-01-08)January 8, 1908[1]
DiedJune 26, 1980(1980-06-26) (aged 72)[1]
OccupationMusician
NationalityHawaiian

Biography

Aloma was born on January 8, 1908[2] in Honolulu[3] as Harold David Alama.[4] He changed his name in the 1930s in response to the movies Bird of Paradise and Aloma of the South Seas.[3] Aloma joined Lani McIntyre's band as steel guitarist. He began his musical career with his brother, Sam Alama at the Alexander Young Hotel and the Moana Hotel.[5] Under his own name, he recorded three sessions for Decca records between February and April 1944.[4] In 1944, when McIntyre left a four-year booking at the Hawaiian Room in New York's Hotel Lexington, Aloma formed his own band and took over the engagement.[6] MGM booked him for two sessions in 1952, resulting in eight sides which were later compiled into an LP album.[4] He first recorded for Columbia Records in August and September 1953, resulting in song appearing not only on U.S. Columbia, but on Japanese Columbia and Philips in the Netherlands.[4] He was featured on the Ed Sullivan Show on June 19, 1960 in a segment in tribute to Hawaii's statehood.[7] When Disney's Polynesian Village Resort opened Aloma was the bandleader.[3] Aloma died on June 26, 1980.[2]

Style

Aloma was accounted as a "typical" traditional Hawaiian singer, although he recorded tracks that were intended to appeal to currently popular tastes.[8] His original band's instrumentation had more in common with the big band of the day than with traditional Hawaiian music.[6] Nevertheless it was accounted to be smooth "island music" even though it also performed current American pop music.[6] In addition to musicians, his touring band also employed young women as hula dancers.[9] Billboard stated that "Hawaiian music at its best is expected" of Aloma, describing his music as authentic and charming.[10] He composed more than 65 songs.[5]

Partial discography

Albums
  • King's Serenade - Decca A-429. (1946)[11]
  • King's Serenade Volume 2 - Decca A-506 (1946)[4]
  • A Musical Portrait of Hawaii - Columbia CL 538. (1950s)[12]
  • Hal Aloma Sings Hawaiian Songs - Dot 3451/25451 (1962)[8]
  • Hawaiian Dreams - Dot 3758/25758 (1966)[10]
gollark: You need, if I remember right, an introspection module *and* entity sensor for such data.
gollark: Text mode will subtly mess it up.
gollark: <@!426660245738356738> I assume the bad constant issues are due to not writing it to a file in *binary* mode?
gollark: Just include the entire source code of potatOS (except the bits that actually run it), shove your code in the middle somewhere, minify, compile to bytecode, strip debug symbols, and obfuscate the string constants using my thingy maybe.
gollark: You could compress it, I guess. PotatOS has LZW although actually that isn't used much now.

References
  1. "Hal Aloma". IMDb.com.
  2. "Hal Aloma". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  3. Ruymar, Lorene (1996). The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and its Great Hawaiian Musicians. Anaheim Hills, California: Centerstream Publishing. p. 82. ISBN 1-57424-021-8.
  4. Rockwell, T. Malcolm (2007). Hawaiian and Hawaiian Guitar Records: 1891 - 1960. Kula, Hawaii: Mahina Piha Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780615149820.
  5. Todaro, Tony. "Hal Aloma". Squareone.org. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  6. Ross, Paul (November 11, 1944). "On the Stand: Hal Aloma". Billboard. p. 18 – via Google Books.
  7. Inman, David M. (2005). Television Variety Shows: Histories and Episode Guides to 57 Programs. McFarland. p. 95. ISBN 9781476608778.
  8. "Reviews of New Albums". Billboard. August 25, 1962. p. 36 – via Google Books.
  9. Imada, Adria L. (2012). Aloha America: Hula Circuits Through the U.S. Empire. Duke University Press. pp. 191, 193. ISBN 9780822352075.
  10. "Album Reviews: Special Merit Picks". Billboard. December 10, 1966. p. 46 – via Google Books.
  11. Smith, H. Royer (May 1946). "Vocal". The New Records. Vol. 14 no. 3. Philadelphia, Pennsylviania: H. Royer Smith Company – via archive.org.
  12. Phillips, Stacey (2016). The Art of Hawaiian Steel Guitar. Mel Bay Publications. p. 53. ISBN 9781610654753.
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