Today is a special day, my girlfriend's birthday! This post is in honor of her and her Japanese roots. It's also a post about a Kalapana album that not many people know about. Enjoy!
Kalapana sat down in 1991 to create what should be a monumental album in their long list of recordings, but has been largely overlooked in their discography. My guess is that people enjoy the 1970s and 80s sound of Kalapana, but never really got used to the 90s sound of this CD.
Kalapana plays Southern All Stars—featuring ten tunes written by prolific songwriter Keisuke Kuwata—showcases the Hawaii group singing some of Japan's most beloved songs from the 1970s and onward.
I once read that Southern All Stars is to Japan what Kalapana is to Hawaii.
It took me a long time to track down this CD which never made it to vinyl as far as I know.
Kalapana translated all ten songs from Japanese to English from the CD. A big challenge that succeeded by keeping the meaning of the original lyrics intact.
My girlfriend's favorite Sazan song is "Itoshi no Ellie", and we've been playing it on repeat for months now.
The details:
1. Sorry To Make You Cry (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
2. Unaware (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
3. Just A Little Bit (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
4. Miss Brand-New Day (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
5. Ya Ya (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
6. Melody (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
7. Please! (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
8. Capricious (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
9. Ellie My Love (Keisuke Kuwata, Varnes & Hawkins)
10. Big Wave (Keisuke Kuwata & Kalapana)
Executive Producers : Yoshiya Omata & Tom Sassa
Produced by Kenji Sano
Recorded at Garden Rake, California; Village Recorders, California (The Steve Lindsey Studio) & M-Bar, Osaka
Mixed at Garden Rake
Engineered by Gaylor Holomalia
Assistant Engineers : Greg Loskorn, Eric Anest & Hideo Ueda
Kalapana :
Malani Bilyeu : Guitars & Vocals
Mackey Feary : Guitars & Vocals
Gaylord Holomalia : Keyboards
D.J. Pratt : Guitars
Kenji Sano : Bass & Vocals
Additional musicians :
Alex Acuna : Percussion
Tris Imboden : Drums
Michael Paulo : Sax
James Studer : Keyboards & Vocals
It took me a long time to track down this CD which never made it to vinyl as far as I know.
Kalapana translated all ten songs from Japanese to English from the CD. A big challenge that succeeded by keeping the meaning of the original lyrics intact.
My girlfriend's favorite Sazan song is "Itoshi no Ellie", and we've been playing it on repeat for months now.