One of the first Hawaiian music groups I fell in love with growing up was Kalapana. All of their hits during the 70's and 80's will always bring back memories for me. Nightbird, The Hurt, Black Sand, and For You, I'd Chase A Rainbow had great hooks and beautiful melodies.
Malani Bilyeu, Mackey Feary, Kirk Thompson and DJ Pratt comprised the original band. During the 70's the band had a falling out of sorts and I think I recall Milani and DJ recording a few albums in Japan with the name Kalapana. The original line up reunited in the 80's for a one off concert at the Shell along with Kamasami Kong as the host. You can buy this historic live in concert CD still today.
The group minus Kirk Thompson reunited with Kenji Sano on Bass and Gaylord Holomalia on keyboards during the 80's with the album Hurricane. If you can find this album on CD, you're lucky because it's a collectors item and seems like it was only released in Japan. The "80's" configuration of Kalapana began including Holomalia as a member of the band in the 90's. The group was going strong until singer/songwriter Bryant Mackey Feary Jr. commited suicide in 1999 and then people wondered "what now?"
Well Kalapana came out with a new album in 2002 called the Blue Album and replaced Mackey (if you can call it that) with singer songwriter Maurice Bega on two songs along with a slew of special guests.
The current lineup in Kalapana seems to be Malani, DJ, Kenji and Gaylord and they will be playing a gig in Seattle according to their website. Let's hope for more music from Kalapana in the future!
Do you have any Kalapana memories?
Full Kalapana History here.
Tags: DJ Pratt, Gaylord Holomalia, hawaii music, hawaiian music, kalapana, Kenji Sano, Kirk Thompson, Mackey Feary, Malani Bilyeu