By JOHN BURNETT
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
He was the big winner Sunday night at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, but there’ll be no time for Kuana Torres Kahele to rest on his laurels.
The 34-year-old Hilo native is already in Japan, opening Hawaiian music schools in Tokyo and Osaka, and already has, he estimates, “somewhere between 150 and 200 students.” He’ll fly there monthly to teach classes.
Torres Kahele won six of the coveted Hokus for his debut solo album “Kaunaloa.” They include two for Album of the Year as artist and co-producer with Dave Tucciarone, Hawaiian Album of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year for “Na Vaqueros,” Liner Notes, and the Graphics award for designers Kuhao Zane and Kamele Eskaran. He said he was “shocked” hearing his name time and again from the awards podium, “mostly because this was the first solo album for me.”
Perhaps he shouldn’t have been. “Kaunaloa” has sold more than 40,000 units, making it the top-selling Hawaiian album of 2011.
It’s the second consecutive time that a Hiloan has come away with the most Hokus. Last year, it was Torres Kahele’s childhood friend, Mark Yamanaka, who won four Hokus for his album “Lei Pua Kenikeni,” which Torres Kahele co-produced. Both Torres Kahele and Yamanaka started their professional music careers playing for Johnny Lum Ho’s Halau O Ka Ua Kanilehua.
“It seems that everybody who goes to that school comes back a winner,” Torres Kahele said and laughed.
Torres Kahele is a prolific composer, with more than 100 original Hawaiian mele to his credit. He also wrote 11 of the 12 songs on “Kaunaloa,” an album he released as a promise to his hanai mom, Lulu Kahele.
“With that thought in mind, I just kept it true and sang my butt off,” he said.
Torres Kahele is still a member of the highly successful traditional Hawaiian duo Na Palapalai, with Kehau Tamure, and their sixth album, “Ha‘a,” is scheduled for release on June 26. He’ll also release a Christmas album, “Holidays in Hilo,” in mid-November.
He believes “Kaunaloa” has been so successful because “I was just being myself and not producing a catered CD to any specific crowd.”
“For example, Na Palapalai, we always catered to the hula people,” Torres Kahele said. “We chose our songs in accordance to what we think they would like, because in Hawaiian music, that’s our biggest draw. But with this album, not keeping those kind of things in mind probably contributed to the success of Kaunaloa.”
Others with Big Island ties who won Hoku awards include: Ken Makuakane (Pandanus Club), “Kekumuwai,” Anthology Album of the Year; John Ioane Keanaaina Jr., “Na Mele O Ioane Keanaaina,” EP of the Year; and Matt Spoat (Waipuna), “E Ho‘i Mai,” Group of the Year, and “Ainahau,” Single of the Year. Sproat was born and raised on Oahu, but is a member of the prominent Sproat family of North Kohala and won the 2003 Big Island falsetto competition.
The album “Ukulele Jazz Live in Concert Hilo, Hawaii” by Benny Chong tied Starr Kalahiki’s “Salt” for Jazz Album of the Year.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.