Facing Future
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Free Music Notes for Facing Future
Free Music Review: Something's gotta a hold on me......
Hit: 5 Stars
Last year, I saw an etoys commercial that began with a boy chasing fireflies and ended with his wise and loving father ordering a firefly 'kit' from etoys. It was a good ad, but what made it great was the music --- someone playing a 4-string ukulele and humming.It was the oddest thing. Every morning this commercial ran on the 'Today' show, I'd get....misty. Without a word, the music generated pictures of home and love and security --- images of a world in which everything works.
I mentioned this commercial to others. They also had noticed the music and had been moved by it. But no one knew who the singer was.
Then a colleague quietly played a CD in her office: the soundtrack of the Sean Connery film, 'Finding Forrester. And along came this song. Its title: 'Over The Rainbow/Wonderful World.' The singer: a Hawaiian named Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, who, as a quick Web search revealed, had died in 1997 at the age of 38.
I read up on IZ, and learned IZ called his producer and said there was a song he had to record. He showed up at the studio at midnight with his ukulele -- and, in 5 minutes, created "Over The Rainbow/Wonderful World."
In 1996, National Public Radio did a piece on IZ and played 'Over the Rainbow.' Listeners called in; sales shot up. And music insiders like Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon and Bette Midler were no longer alone in their admiration for IZ.
The following year, when IZ died, it was clear that he was the Bob Marley of Hawaii. His casket lay in state at the Capitol, and 10,000 fans came to say goodbye. The next day, friends paddled a double-hulled voyaging canoe into Makua Bay, where IZ and his friends had camped out and played music over the years. It was in this bay, in l982, that IZ had scattered the ashes of his brother Skippy, who had died of a heart attack; now the brothers would be united.
There was thunderous cheering as IZ's ashes were poured into the water. It continued for an hour. To be with IZ one last time, family members and friends ran into the ocean. And the music continued into the night.
It still does.
Free Music Review: I Was Blessed, Too
Hit: 5 Stars
My family and I just returned from a spring break trip to Hawaii. This was my fourth trip, and I really wanted to avoid the madness that is Waikiki, so we rented a house on the beach in the little town of Hauula. Though I'm not a runner, in an effort to counteract the effects of frequent "plate lunch" meals, I went jogging along the beach/highway most mornings while we were there. One particular morning, I had sand in my shoes, so I stopped at a little beach sandwiched between two houses, and noticed a large, hand-painted sign that I'd seen but been unable to read as we drove by. I may have heard of "Iz" before--and I'd certainly heard his rendition of "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World," but I had no idea what the painter of this sign was talking about--only that someone named "Bruddah Iz" had (apparently) died and that he'd blessed this person's life.
Later that day, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and being too early to get in, we spent considerable time in the gift shop, where I was very surprised to see the name "Bruddah Iz" again. Upon learning that he was the artist who sang "Over the Rainbow" and that he'd died and yet was still (on some level) being mourned, I knew I had to have this CD--right then!
Like many other reviewers, it's hard to describe what hearing this man's music, particularly while being in a more "local" Hawaii, means. I cried from the opening bars of the first song--partly because I knew he was dead before I knew he was alive, partly because so much was communicated in a few simple lines and melodies. It is hard to believe that such a sweet, pure voice could emerge from someone with respiratory problems, but perhaps that's appropriate. Perhaps Hawaii has been ravaged, but its beauty nonetheless cannot be contained. I'm not sure what it is--only that I too was and am blessed by Bruddah Iz.
Free Music Review: Great album by an artist who passed away much too young
Hit: 5 Stars
A great album by an artist who passed away at an early age in 1997.
Wikipedia:
"In the year 1998, Kamakawiwo'ole's recording of "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" featured as a sound track in the movies Meet Joe Black and Finding Forrester.[7]
"Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" reached #12 on Billboard's Hot Digital Tracks chart the week of January 31, 2004 (for the survey week ending January 18, 2004), and passed the 2 million paid downloads mark in the USA as of September 27, 2009.
On July 4, 2007, Kamakawiwo'ole debuted at No. 44 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart with "Wonderful World," selling 17,000 units.[8]
In April 2007, "Over the Rainbow" entered the UK charts at #68, and eventually climbed to #46, spending 10 weeks in the Top 100 over a 2 year period.
In October 2010, following its use on a TV advertisement - for Axe deodorant (which is itself a revival of the advertisement originally aired in 2004) [9] - it hit #1 on the German singles chart, selling 300,000 copies.[10]
The 2010 IMAX: Hubble 3D feature uses both "What a Wonderful World" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with the latter playing over the ending credits.
As of November 1, 2010, "Over the Rainbow" peaked at No. 6 on the OE3 Austria charts, which largely reflect airplay on Austria's government-operated Top 40 radio network.[11] It also peaked at No.1 in France and Switzerland in late December 2010.
On December 6, 2010, "Iz" was named one of the 50 great voices on National Public Radio.[12]
It is also used in the 2009 BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Series "South Pacific" as the intro track."
Goran N
Free Music Review: Aloha Spirit
Hit: 5 Stars
IZ is aloha. The word has lost much of it's spiritual association for people...turned into a tourist greeting. But IZ gets the real flavor of aloha, which is somewhere between love (agape) and "the peace that passes all understanding." And that's what melts from every note that IZ sings. I love this recording and think that it is the best thing that IZ did on his own. He could take a song and transform it just with the turn of a phrase or a slight change of vocal timbre. The material on the album is varied, as is the case with most of IZ's work. Strongest cuts are both Hawaii '78s, the Somewhere/Wonderful World medly and the material in Hawaiian. IZ could do wonderful things with just a voice and a ukelele. Over the Rainbow reduces me to tears each time I hear it, long before either Meet Joe Black or the ER episode. Yes...I know that the words are "wrong" but I think this may be purposeful. Iz chooses to focus the song around it's images. This is a traditional Hawaiian approach to poetry and I think helps to transform the meaning of the song from just a nostaligic diddy to a deep ode to nature. To assume that IZ recorded this song as a goof is to misunderstand it completely.
Even the material that misses for me, the islandized version of Country Roads and Maui, Hawaiian Sup'pa Man can't mar the album. And IZ may have been the best interpreter of traditional modern hula chant in his generation. His music is filled with love, love for his people, love for his culture, and love for all of humanity. His loss is a loss for all of us who appreciate the unique beauty that was and still is Hawaii.
Free Music Review: Absolutely Stirring
Hit: 5 Stars
While I have not purchased this album, I am very familiar with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World". I like many non-Hawaiians, firts experienced the song in 2002 when it was played on "ER", my then fiancee and I immediately fell in love with the song. Fast forward a year, we decided for our wedding favor we would make a CD of our favorite songs and immediately this came to mind. I searched long and far, not knowing the artist and could not find it. I then turned on my local radio station and the DJ's were talking about this very song and that it was on the "Finding Forrester" sndtrk. I immediately went to buy that CD (which was sold out in many stores). Our wedding was in June '03 and we gave the CD's which now included the song. Now, almost a year later, people who attended the wedding, as well as their friends whom they played the song for, continue to ask where I found such a great song. And now wihtin the past few weeks, my wife has told me that she hears it often on the radio and that the same DJs were discussing the song again and that they said it is one the most downloaded songs ever. My wife almost believes that we "pay it forward" and that becuase we used the song, it has become more popular. I know now from reading the reviews that we were not completely original in using it as part of our wedding, but I do know that we have touched many people's hearts by doing so.I will be buying this album and if the remaining songs are one tenth as good as "Over the Rainbow", then I am in for a treat!