Benny Kalama

Singer and musician

  • Born: June 29, 1916
  • Place of Birth: North Kohala, Hawaii
  • Died: September 21, 1999
  • Place of Death: Honolulu, Hawaii

A Hawaiian musician and singer, Benny Kalama performed with numerous groups during a career that spanned nearly sixty years. Working primarily in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kalama entertained generations of tourists playing ukulele, steel guitar, and bass and harmonizing on ethereal falsetto vocals that evocatively captured the character of Polynesia.

Areas of achievement: Music, entertainment

Early Life

Benjamin “Benny” Kapena Kalama became interested in music as a child. Kalama learned to play such instruments as ukulele, bass, and steel guitar at an early age. He also practiced the Hawaiian-style falsetto singing known as ka leo ki’eki’e, which is similar to a yodel but emphasizes the breaks between lower and higher vocal registers. He began playing trombone in the school band while attending Kalakaua Intermediate School in 1931 and continued playing in the band while at McKinley High School.

After graduation in 1934, Kalama briefly played bass with the Honolulu Symphony before he was hired to play ukulele and stand-up bass and sing with Leonard “Red” Hawk and the Waikikians. The Waikikians were the house band at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, a luxury hotel known as the Pink Palace of the Pacific and a major landmark and tourist destination since its opening in 1927. When the Malcolm Beelby Orchestra replaced the Waikikians, Kalama stayed on at the Royal Hawaiian, playing steel guitar with the new group, and continued his tenure as bass player and singer with Wally Lavque’s band. When Don McDiarmid’s orchestra took over in 1938, Kalama remained as a band member at the Royal. For McDiarmid’s band, Kalama recruited a young baritone named Alfred Apaka, who would become one of the best-known singers of hapa haole music—Hawaiian tunes with popular arrangements and English-language lyrics.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Kalama also served as musical director and arranger at the islands’ first radio station, KGU (which first began broadcasting in 1922), known as the Voice of Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft used KGU’s strong signal to home in on Pearl Harbor and bomb American ships. During World War II, Kalama played at a variety of venues while the Royal Hawaiian was temporarily used to house American military personnel on leave.

Life’s Work

After the war, Kalama joined guitarist Alvin Kaleolani Isaacs, ukulele player George Kainapau, and steel guitar player Tommy Castro to form the Royal Hawaiian Serenaders. Originally based at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the Serenaders extensively toured the mainland between 1947 and 1951, impressing audiences with their four-part harmonies featuring the falsettos of Kalama and Kainapau. During the height of their popularity, the Serenaders made many recordings and appeared in several films, notably Million Dollar Weekend (1948). After the Serenaders amicably disbanded in 1952, Kalama reunited with Don McDiarmid to play at upscale restaurants and nightclubs in Honolulu, including the Kewalo Inn and La Hula Rhumba Bar and Grill. He also worked as an arranger for Alfred Apaka, helping the singer become world-renowned.

Between 1952 and 1955, Kalama was a member of Andy Bright’s dance band at the Moana Hotel, an elegant beachfront resort. In 1955, Kalama accompanied Apaka as arranger for the singer’s wildly popular stay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Returning to Hawaii, Kalama formed Ben Kalama’s Islanders, which were a mainstay at Henry Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village for fifteen years. The Islanders recorded several albums, and Kalama released the only album featuring his unique talents—He Is Hawaiian Music—highlighted by such songs as “Sing Sweet Mama E,” “My Island Love Song,” and “When I Hear Hawaiian Music.” From 1962 until its final broadcast in 1975, Kalama also served as musical director and arranger for Hawaii Calls, the highly popular radio program transmitted live from the courtyard of the Moana Hotel.

Throughout his seventies, Kalama continued performing. He became a fixture with Alan Akaka & the Islanders at the House without a Key, a popular venue at the Halekulani Hotel in Kailua, Hawaii. Kalama also often participated in the annual Jerry Byrd Steel Guitar Ho’olaule’a concert from its inception in 1982. Kalama finally retired in 1997, two years before his death.

Significance

Performing almost continuously from his teens to the end of his life, Kalama was instrumental in promoting the worldwide appeal of Hawaiian music. As an entertainer, he mastered the ukulele and bass, while his clear falsetto singing epitomized the tropical and romantic nature of the islands. He was likewise an important behind-the-scenes contributor to the dissemination of Hawaiian musicology as a radio musical director and arranger; in the latter capacity, he helped make local themes more accessible to listeners by giving tunes a popular rhythmic feel and English translations. Kalama received a Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 and was posthumously inducted into the Falsetto Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

Bibliography

"Na Leo Hawai'i." Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, folkways.si.edu/na-leo-hawaii/music/article/smithsonian. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.

Peters, Robert E. Leo Ki’eki’e: The Story of Falsetto Singing in Hawaii. Kailua: Hawaiian Music Foundation, 1973. Print.

Plantenga, Bart. Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.

Ruymar, Lorene. The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and Its Great Hawaiian Musicians. Anaheim Hills: Centerstream, 1996. Print.