Liner, Listening & Album Notes:

Original vinyl release in 1964 on Century Custom Records.

From the liner notes on Dionysus Records:

Exotica expert and fanatic Jeff Chenult first heard about the elusive HAWAIIAN SPOTLIGHTERS album called Mauna Kea Breeze in 2015. A copy came up on eBay which he bid for, and won. Shortly thereafter he set out to locate group member Al Pabilona or any of his musical family who were still around. He found Al’s profile on Facebook; still playing music with his daughter Olivia in a band called THE GOOD VIBES DUO/UNDERTOW. What luck! To say Al was surprised would be an understatement. He was gracious, kind and awestruck that we wanted to release a record that he had recorded with his father over fifty years ago! Al Jr. was only 13 years old when he played drums on this record. They were originally called AL’S SPOTLIGTHERS and played at clubs, weddings and other events in Hilo, Hawaii. The family later moved to California. In 1964, Al Pabilona Sr. recorded his musical family inside their garage in Hayward, California. Each family member played an integral part of the band with Bill Pabilona composing the title track “Mauna Kea Breeze”.

A reported 200 copies of the original album were made by the Century Custom label, a vinyl manufacturer that catered to private pressings. Today, only a handful of these exist, making this one of the rarest exotica records ever recorded! The audio has been lovingly restored by the legendary Dana Countryman (Cool and Strange Music Magazine, co-conspirator with the late JEAN JAQUES PERREY among others) and cut using a tube system, vintage Scully lathe and Westrex cutting head at HRS in Culver City, CA. The reissued LP features cover photography by Jochen Hirschfeld, producer of The DVD of Tiki.