Jazziest Steel Guitar Music

While on Oahu,I stumbled upon what I think is one of the most intense (and jazziest)
steel-guitar "Hawaiian style" albums of all time. Played by a Japanese band! And
you've probably never heard of da kine...

Because it's EXTREMELY rare. "Hawaii Best 40" was issued on the well-known label,
Toshiba. I had accidentally seen the album in a record store;they refused to
sell it as it was their last copy. I don't remember the name of the group.

However,I saw the song title "Blue Muu Muu". I'd heard that on a Hawaii radio
station. Bingo! I worked backwards and yes,the station had a copy. They made a
cassette tape for me which I still have,25 years later. I made an excerpt from
that which I call "Hawaii Best 21" (instrumentals and wahine singing).

There used to be all kinds of exotic steel guitar albums around...but a lot of
these have disappeared,and were never on CD. I just wish somebody would reissue
them..."Hawaii Best 40" is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sounds very interesting. You might like Buddy Emmons’ Steel Guitar Jazz (Mercury) as well.

Oddly,somehow,I didn't like the Emmons album you'd mentioned.

Steel guitar played in a non-Hawaiian context might not sound
as good...

But thanks for mentioning it.

I occasionally see rare Hawaiian style albums on eBay...

Somebody ought to find a way to reissue them,as I'd said.

To me steel guitar is it’s own hawaiian context, just like ukulele.

I would invite you to come watch the Smoking Menehunes perform on January 25th at the Catalina fish kitchen in huntington beach. Though not strictly jazz, we play Hawaiian Swing (from the 1940's, 1950's)which is very jazzy music. Oh yes, we do have a steel guitar!

Most Hawaiian steel guitar in the '20s and '30s could be considered jazz or Tin Pan Alley. It's easy to tell the jazz stuff, because it's rollickin' and all over the place, like American dixiland jazz, but, you know, exotic. Sol Hoopii is probably the best known of the Hawaiian steel guitar jazz artists. I like him as much as another exotic jazz guitarist -- Django Reinhardt. Different part of the world... same level of cool.

Only with the last couple of years or so I FINALLY was able to post most of the songs from the album onto YouTube as "fair use".

For example, "Malihini Mele". YouTube LINK is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQZJLg3WeRk

After listening to your link, I have to say I didn't find that jazzy at all. It's fairly standard hapa haole sung in japanese. There is one small steel solo which I did not find to be impressive.

When I think of "jazzy" steel guitar, I am thinking about Barney Isaacs and Freddy Tavares, guys who pushed the envelope as to what steel guitar could do, playing lush, rich and complex chords, all while still being hawaiian music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZS317lXhs

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2013-02-07 07:24 ]