Ho'omalu CD reflects aggressive personality

• Ho'omalu album pays tribute to island traditions

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

"Call It What You Like ... " is Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu's second album of chants. The Mountain Apple Co. What's in a name? For chanter Mark Ho'omalu, dubbing his second CD "Call It What You Like ..." is somewhat of a misnomer. But it's based on a succession of failed titles. "We started looking for a name," said Ho'omalu. "We quickly were told, 'not supposed to do this,' 'supposed to do that.' After awhile, I was ready to call it 'Supposed To.' " Somewhat exasperated, he remarked to his production team, "Call it what you like." And they did.

"My hula is a little bit aggressive," said Ho'omalu, who declined to give his exact age but said "fortysomething, pushing 50" was safe.

"I've been slammed before. But I've sat myself down often to question myself: Why would I want to do what everyone else might be, to copy someone else? My hula comes out hard, not soft, but there's a reason. If you're feminine, your hula is feminine; I'm not like that. My stuff reflects my feelings, so my chants are like me: aggressive."

Ho'omalu is an Oakland-based kumu, chanter, composer and teacher, whose second CD of chants, "Call It What You Like ... ," is just out. He is part Hawaiian, Portuguese and Japanese.

"And German shepherd," he joked.

"Big bark, but Chihuahua bite."

He also is a Kamehameha Schools graduate and the only kumu hula ever involved in an Academy Award-nominated film. Ask your keiki. They know him through the two songs/chants he composed and shaped for Disney's animated hit "Lilo & Stitch," an Oscar contender for best animated film (it lost to "Spirited Away").

Disney helped nurture a commercial edge to his music, because his two featured tunes, "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" and "He Mele No Lilo," were not only in the movie but in the subsequent video and DVD releases, complete with choreography he created for dancers who were videotaped so animators could recreate the essence of Hawaiian dance. The music also was on the movie's best-selling soundtrack.

Ho'omalu is set to perform the "Lilo & Stitch" songs with Kamehameha Schools singers May 24 at the Waikiki Shell, as part of the "Hawaiian Bash."

" 'Lilo & Stitch' was fun," said Ho'omalu, because it was rooted in his traditional passion: chant. Even if the experience was not part of his "aggressive" nature, the film was a link to young children, another favorite.

"I liked the idea to have children featured (vocally) in the movie," he said. The marriage of his chants and melodies, blended with the voices of children, resulted in a fusion of yesterday meeting today.

"Alan Sylvestri (a composer) came up here, sat down with the halau, and we huddled, sang songs, did the hula," Ho'omalu recalled. "I told him that if he wanted a sound closer to the home language, it had to be Kamehameha, which has an ongoing choir. I felt if any keiki voices would be heard, they ought to be from Hawai'i."

To lend authenticity to the hula animation, Ho'omalu said that the film's co-writers, Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, "brought in a filming crew to Oakland, draped the room in black and began shooting our dancers. From live shots to animation, it's amazing; we can see some of our girls in the cartoon, down to figuring out which girl was which girl."

But two songs on a movie soundtrack do not make a career, and Ho'omalu is quick to admit that hula is the heartbeat of what he does best.

Ho'omalu was born and grew up in 'Aiea, where he became a self-taught specialist in the handcrafts of his culture. During the 1970s, he added hula to his accomplishments, and journeyed in the 1980s to refine his teaching and Hawaiiana skills in San Francisco. He opened a hula school, whose headquarters are across the bay in Oakland.

"I really love hula," he said. "I gotta go hula class myself. Halau, for me, is hula class; I practice, I teach. I practice some more. There are lot of gifted buggahs out there now. And bless them. 'Cause I'm not gifted."

He said his role is to enlighten, instruct and share. "If you can pass a little piece of Hawai'i down to somebody else, how grand is that? That's how I look at my life. Sharing. People from all over the world write in that they love hula, too."

In San Francisco, Ho'omalu was associated with Na Mele Hula 'Ohana, led by kumu Tiare Clifford, for about 15 years. "I took care of the halau and closed it after she passed on, to relocate to Oakland, to establish my own Academy of Hawaiian Arts," Ho'omalu said.

His first CD, "Po'okela Chants," was a bold test for the "Renegade of Hula," as Ho'omalu is nicknamed, because of some nontraditional songs in the lineup.

But perhaps it's his attitude.

"Chant is chant; there is no such thing as kahiko or 'auwana," he said. "Only hula. Just hula. OK, 'auwana has music. But it's still hula. I use heavy pahu (traditional drum) and heavy rhythms on my CD; different types of rhythm, one basic sound. I bend basic traditions; I don't push it, if it doesn't feel right."

Ho'omalu has a daughter, Michelle, 10, and a son, Kolu Boy (actually Mark Ho'omalu III), almost 2. He and girlfriend Maile became parents of a daughter, Melia, on April 8.

Ho'omalu album pays tribute to island traditions

Known to keiki as the composer of two songs in Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" film, Ho'omalu has a more serious — and creative — side, as demonstrated on this disc.

His style is deep-rooted in the island tradition of fusing rhythmic measure to spoken language, but his chant are also mele, with musical embellishments.

His chanting style is powerful, driven by ancestral traditions, and is best experienced on tracks "Ka Pua Hau o Maleka," " 'Onipa'a Ka Pua o Ka Hala," and "Wai'oli." There's a sing-along contagiousness, a mana'o with expected appeal to hula dancers.

Occasionally, there is ceremonial reverence to the chant, notably on "He Inoa No Lili'uokalani," an exceptional mele inoa (name song).

Happily, for hula halau or merely interested fans, the liner is loaded with lyrics that enhance the joys of appreciating each chant.

"Ka Pua Hau o Maleka" by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu. Audio sample available in mp3 and RealAudio formats.