By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Well, Aaron Mahi has conducted his last concert for the Royal Hawaiian Band. Let me make one final comment. I told the mayor I think he put his foot in it. I said Aaron Mahi is the best thing that's happened to the Royal Hawaiian Band since I've been in Hawai'i.

That's been since former Mayor Johnny Wilson hired Domenico Moro before many of you were born. Even then, the Royal Hawaiian Band aroused passion.

Johnny Wilson's wife, Jenny, strongly disapproved of the contralto he appointed as singer for the band. She stormed into the City Council chambers and shook her cane at Johnny. Theirs was a tempestuous and sincere marriage. She wailed the old Hawaiian way when he died.

Getting back to the band, Mayor Mufi Hannemann told me that Mahi didn't score among the top three in the test given applicants for the job of band director. Otherwise he would have been appointed. That brings me to the comment I'd like to make about the band director's job. It's the test.

I think a prime requisite for being leader of the Royal Hawaiian Band is fluency in Hawaiian. Understand, I didn't say the director should be Hawaiian. I said he should speak Hawaiian.

There's a big difference. Puakea Nogelmeier is an authority on the Hawaiian language and doesn't have a drop of Hawaiian blood. Businessman Nakila Steele is fluent in Hawaiian and doesn't have a drop of Hawaiian blood. You don't have to be French to speak French. And you don't have to be Hawaiian to speak Hawaiian.

The reason it is important for the director of the Royal Hawaiian Band to speak Hawaiian is because of its heritage. Henry Berger, the father of the Royal Hawaiian Band, is the father of Hawaiian music as we know it. Under him, Hawaiian musicians moved away from chants and hymns to the mele that have become a classic Hawaiian repertoire.

The band boys began composing songs in Hawaiian. Many of these songs have a hidden meaning called the kaona. Without fluency in Hawaiian, this whole world of music is a closed book. That's what made Mahi special. He understands the kaona.

Certainly, Michael Nakasone, the new director of the Royal Hawaiian Band, is a first-class conductor. He's proved it. Maybe he can get Bill Kaina or Eddie Kamae to teach him the kaona.

I strongly support Councilwoman Barbara Marshall's effort to stress the Hawaiian in the Royal Hawaiian Band. Think of it this way: The hula is a dance form. But it's not ballet. Giving a test to hire a kumu hula isn't like a test for hiring a public school dance teacher. Why should a test for the Royal Hawaiian Band leader be like a test for a school band?

The Royal Hawaiian Band is not like any other band. It is the granddaddy of Hawaiian music as we know it. Preserving this heritage is not easy. The minimum requirement should be a director who speaks the language of the music.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.