Liner, Listening & Album Notes:

During the latter half of the Nineteenth Century, Hawaiian music was dominated by four siblings known as Na Lani Eha, the Royal Four. Through their social and political influence, David Kalakaua (1836-91), Lydia Kamakaeha Paki (Liliuokalani, 1838-1917), Miriam Likelike (1851-87), and William Pitt Leleiohoku (1854-77) helped to create and popularize a new musical idiom that synthesized traditional Hawaiian poetics with New England-style hymnody.

Harvard ethnomusicologist Helen Roberts wrote that the native Hawaiians “… first obtained an idea of real melody from the hymn singing of the missionaries. In somewhat later times there ensued a period of extensive composing on the part of those Hawaiians who had superior educational advantages and were gifted, like the members of the royal family. These songs represent a period in which the foreign art, stamped with a fresh viewpoint, was being adopted by the Hawaiians, and made to assume distinctive features at their hands.” Due in part to the efforts of the Royal Four, Hawaiian music was in vogue on the Mainland and in Europe by the 1910s, despite one annexationist’s prediction that it would “… never become widely popular.”

– From the album’s liner notes

King’s new album of ukulele instrumentals will delight those with a preference for traditional Hawaiian music. There are no electronic toys, gimmicks or synthesized tracks — all the songs are 19th-century Hawaiian standards with ties to the monarchy.

A majority are from the pens of Na Lani ‘Eha — Kalakaua, Leleiohoku, Lili’uokalani and Likelike. Several others show the importance of Heinrich “Henri” Berger and David Nape as songwriters. “Ka Ipo Lei Manu” adds Kapiolani’s best-known composition to the collection.

– Album review from the Honolulu Star Bulletin

John King was a modern master of the ukulele; but there’s precious little information about him online. For those interested in ukeleles, the playing of the instrument and their history, it appears that there is a site created by John King at nalu-music.com. The site includes additional John King recordings, plus a wealth of information & books on ukuleles.

The New York Times published a nice write-up on John King at the time of his all-too-early passing in 2009.