My friend, Judy, wrote:
" This has got to be the hottest deal ever in Hawaiian music entertainment."
I replied:
I couldn't agree more!
And I think our cetacean cousins in Kona are nodding their heads, too. I recently put to
words some thoughts about Melelana, shared with a friend, after our recent vacation in Kona -- our first
care-free, no worries vacation in years. If you care to listen, here's an excerpt:
"As soon as we settled in, we filled the house, Ocean
Song, with the songs of Melelana, which was
intentionally the only CD we brought with us.
Ocean Song sits at the very edge of Kealakekua Bay; its broad windows and sliding doors open to the sea.
We left them wide open the entire time.
- Perfect temperatures.
- `Ehu kai (Sea breeze).
- The fragrance of pua
mźlia (plumeria).
- No makika (mosquitoes). *:-)
Ocean Song was a happy home all week, very much living up to its name. It was enveloped with song from
Melelana -- and Ocean Song shared the music generously with the ocean before it.
Nā nai`a (The dolphins) came close to the shore, listening. Melelana's mele (song) and oli (chant) wafted
directly their way. Their consecutive morning visits into Kealakekua all week, we were told, were most
unusual.
This time of year, they migrate along the coast for their morning rest and play, and those wishing to
see them in the wild must travel up and down the coast. One morning they might be in Kealakekua, the next,
maybe Ho`okena, maybe Hōnaunau, maybe other points South.
Melelana's songs struck a respondent chord in them. They just couldn't get enough of it, I sensed, as our
entire time there, after their nights of feeding in open south seas, they returned back to Kealakekua Bay,
EVERY morning. I think they too loved Melelana very much.
Nā kōhola (The whales) also enjoyed it, too. At breakfast on the lānai, we'd watch them spout, breach,
and fluke. When in the bay, under water, we'd hear their haunting songs. A moving aural experience. If that
wasn't enough, one morning, while we were in the water, one came right into the bay and, to our surprise,
swam unusually close by.
Keola Donaghy's poll showed "Melelana"
is pulling ahead of "Kawaipunahele" as the listeners' favorite Keali`i
CD," I wrote:
This was a tough vote for me... for reasons too many, Kawaipunahele will
forever be my most beloved. And
Melelana is clearly Punahele Production's most accomplished CD to date, voice-wise, musically,
compositionally, and technologically with ALL of its value-added goodies, as well as its superb engineering.
A resplendent Hawaiian jewel, deftly polished, by seasoned creators of music magic.
Like the healing sonar of dolphins, Melelana reaches deeply into the soul of the listener to places
unaccustomed. Yet, it is buoyant. And soft as lullaby. Like the dolphins, Melelana came into our hearts in
ways unobtrusive and sublime.
Filled with aloha, peace, delight in nature, a natural erotic energy, and grace of movement, Melelana frees
the heart to surge and leap as dolphins do through waves. And as dolphins do, to the willing student,
Melelana teaches us that sound and healing are intimately connected, if we would listen.
Like the dolphins, these are the lessons I received from the conscious, yet relaxed listening of Melelana: Joy
is our goal. And our means.
If we rest in `oli (joy) within, our native gift, we return to our natural state of
being. If we fail to nurture that inner joy and submit instead to oppressive feelings of exaggerated duty and
responsibility, things go wrong and we suffer.
Melelana and the dolphins lullabied us back to the joy state. Joy, that spontaneous burst of the heart energy,
which I believe, is the essence of life itself.
~ Aunty D
