ʻIʻiwi aʻo Hilo
Composed for the 1950 Kamehameha Day Parade. Her own nickname, and her most-cited mele.
E hoʻomanaʻo kākou · Let us remember
Alice Kuʻuleialohapoinaʻole Kanakaoluna Nāmakelua
1892 – 1987 · Kumu. Haku mele. Mea hoʻokani pila.
A kumu who taught us more than music. Composer of nearly two hundred mele. Master of the oldest slack key style ever recorded. Teacher to generations of ʻohana — including ours.
He ʻōlelo noʻeau
“ʻAʻole ʻo ia i aʻo mai iaʻu i ke kī hōʻalu wale nō — akā, he ʻano o ka noho ʻana.”
She did not only teach me slack key — she taught a way of being.
— Palani Elua, haumāna
Nā mele · her songs
She composed nearly two hundred mele.
For keiki, for paniolo country, for the ʻāina she loved. Here are three that carry her voice most plainly.
Ka Manu
Learned in childhood from a Kohala kupuna.
Kaʻahumanu
Honors Queen Kaʻahumanu.
Ke kī · the tuning
A tuning that still carries her name.
Every serious slack key player knows G Wahine. Many of them learned it from her — or from someone who did.
G WahineD – G – D – F♯ – B – D
Also called Auntie Alice Nāmakelua’s G Tuning, Double Slack, or F♯ Tuning.
E hoʻolohe · listen
Hear her play, on the service you already use.
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YouTube
Community-curated playlist of her recordings
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Deezer
Artist page
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AllMusic
Discography
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Discogs
Full release history
- Not yet
Spotify
The 1974 Hula Records LP has not been reissued to Spotify as of this writing. Hula Records is the licensing rights holder.
- Not yet
Apple Music
Not yet available. Licensing via Hula Records.
Ka hale hanohano · the hall of honor
Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame · Walk of Fame.
Inducted posthumously into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2011. Her bronze plaque stands on the Hawaiian Music Walk of Fame in Waikīkī, near where Queen Liliʻuokalani once composed.
Tribute video from the Hawaiian Music Walk of Fame honoree page in Waikīkī — her life, her music, in moving image.
Ka moʻolelo · her story
A life that spanned the century of Hawaiʻi.
Alice Kuʻuleialohapoinaʻole Kanakaoluna Nāmakelua (1892 – 1987) — born one year before the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani, passed the year Pūnana Leo opened its first Hawaiian-medium school on Oʻahu. Her life is the arc from the Kingdom to the Renaissance.