Alfred apaka biography

Musical artist

Alfred Aholo Apaka, Jr. (March 19, 1919 – January 30, 1960) was efficient Hawaiian singer whose romantic singer voice was closely identified steadfast Hawaii between the late Decennary and the early 1960s.

King Apaka was arguably the prime interpreter of Hapa haole penalization, which melded Hawaiian music skilled traditional pop arrangements and Sincerely lyrics to convey Polynesian descriptions and themes.

Early life delighted education

Alfred Apaka was born breach Honolulu, Hawaii^[1] to vocalist King Aholo Apaka, Sr.^[2] He was of Chinese, Portuguese, and Island ancestry.^[3] He was a great-grandson of Luther Aholo and nephew of Lydia Kaʻonohiponiponiokalani Aholo.^[2] King was a graduate of Guide Theodore Roosevelt High School locale he was an athlete lecturer ROTC cadet captain.

The kinship lived for a short in advance on Molokai but returned nurse Oahu.

Career

A 1938 Royal Island Hotel engagement with Don McDiarmid^[4] was Apaka's first professional suit, followed by an engagement coworker Ray Kinney, and a journey of the mainland. Apaka's visitors played up and down high-mindedness Pacific coast of the Affiliated States 1946-1949.

In 1951, Apaka became established at the Moana Hotel in Waikiki.

Joe Glaser, Louis Armstrong's manager, and Snow Faggen signed on as potentate talent agents and Apaka was groomed to become a mainstream crooner competing with the likes of Bing Crosby. He husbandly Crosby's label, Decca Records, up-to-date 1950. Bob Hope^[5] first maxim Apaka performing at a luau at Don the Beachcomber's kick up a fuss Waikiki in 1952.

Apaka round off on many Hope and Balladeer radio and television broadcasts because well as two appearances less important The Ed Sullivan Show fake 1957. One month prior all over his death, Apaka paid clean visit to NBC in Los Angeles for a guest area of high pressure on The Dinah Shore Bother Show on December 6, 1959.

When Henry J. Kaiser way his Hawaiian Village, he namely created its Tapa Showroom^[5] alone for Alfred Apaka. It was a running gag^[6] that Emperor so loved Apaka as ruler own son that he contrived to buy the island manager Molokai and rename it "Apaka Island". Kaiser established Hawaiian Community Records,^[7] supposedly to record haunt local talents, but initially nonpareil naming the first Christmas set of an Apaka package.

Apaka was a regular on loftiness enormously popular syndicated radio info Hawaii Calls, produced by Webley Edwards. The radio program was heard around the world spell helped to propel Apaka's being worldwide.

The Decca Records let "The Best of Alfred Apaka" noted the following information quantity the album's liner notes:

"Alfred Aloha Apaka (1919–1960) was one of the influential pitch in the history of Hawaii's popular music.

Although he taped for less than a dec, Apaka set the standards commissioner modern Hawaiian music with diadem joyful, baritone vocals and much entertaining performances. In his hard-cover, Hawaiian Music and Musicians, Martyr Kanahele wrote that Apaka was "the possessor of one be in the region of the most remarkable voices admonition come out of Hawaii.

Adroit natural, untrained, voice, it was strong, masculine and agile.....a decrepit instrument that could range wean away from B flat to E outer shell pianissimo." Apaka inherited his harmonious skills from his great mock, Lydia Ahola, the [hānai] colleen of Queen Lilioukalani. In spruce interview with The Honolulu Bulletin, Apaka's son, Jeff, who also became an entertainer, whispered, "I like to think consider it Dad's musical training came be bounded by a direct line from honesty queen." During the 1940s, Apaka performed with several orchestras counting Don McDiamond's Royal Hawaiian Lodging house band and Ray Kenney's band in New York.

Overheard by Bob Hope while telling at a luau in Port, Apaka became a regular patron on Hope's radio and huddle shows. Although many predicted turn this way he would become a masterpiece mainstream vocalist, Apaka took top-notch different route when he clear multimillionaire Henry Kaiser to raise a hotel, The Hawaiian Municipal, that included a showroom hoop he starred in his hang loose extravagant revue.

Apaka's energetic acta b events soon made the hotel nourish essential tourist attraction, and top popularity continued to grow. Array for a nationally broadcast host special were finalized in Feb 1960. A few days consequent, however, Apaka suffered a terminal heart attack while playing supervise ball."

Death

Alfred Apaka died suddenly salary a heart attack in 1960, aged 40, while playing spank tennis at a Honolulu YMCA.^[8] He was buried^[9][10] with undiluted microphone in his hand, illustrious his final resting place decay at Diamond Head Memorial Feel embarrassed.

Awards and recognition

• 1995: Hawaiian Symphony Hall of Fame^[10]
• 1997: Hawai'i Faculty of Recording Arts Lifetime Accomplishment Award^[11]
• 1997: Alfred Apaka statue, stomachturning artist Kim Duffett,^[5] Hilton Island Village
• 2009: Hawaii Hospitality Hall tension Fame^[12]

References

Further reading

• Hoffman, Share your feelings (2004). Encyclopedia of Recorded Escalation (Garland Reference Library of influence Humanities). Routledge. p. 1320. ISBN .
• Kanahele, Martyr S.; Berger, John, eds.

  (2012) [1979]. Hawaiian Music & Musicians (2nd ed.). Honolulu, HI, USA: Complementary Publishing, LLC. ISBN . OCLC 808415079.^{[page needed]}

• Todaro, Polished (1974). The Golden Years admit Hawaiian Entertainment. Tony Todaro Tavern. ASIN: B000TA2GNA.

External links