Helen Louise & Frank Ferrera - Kamehameha (1916)
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Helen Louise and Frank Ferera play "Kamehameha March" on Edison Blue Amberol 3045, recorded on September 1, 1916, and issued in January 1917.
The team of Helen Louise and her husband Frank Ferera was remarkable.
Helen Louise Greenus--her name before marriage--was a Seattle native, her childhood home on the West slope of Capitol Hill (1616 Summit Avenue). She died mysteriously in 1919, drowning in the Pacific during a steamship trip back to Seattle.
Their Edison recording debut, as Helen Louise and Palakiko Ferreira, was "Medley of Hawaiian Airs--No. 1," issued on Blue Amberol 2917 in July 1916.
Frank Ferera introduced steel guitar and slide guitar playing to a worldwide audience, many of his recordings issued outside the United States. He had more recording sessions than any other guitarist from 1915 to 1925.
He was not the first Hawaiian guitarist to record. That was probably Joseph Kekuku, the steel guitar's reputed inventor. Credit has also been given to James Hoa and Gabriel Davion.
But Ferera was the first guitarist to enjoy success as a recording artist, his name familiar in catalogs of most record companies of the World War I era and 1920s. His style was a forerunner of bottleneck playing on blues records and "steel" playing on country records. His popular records influenced many guitarists of his generation.
Hawaiian music had been recorded as early as the 1890s but was not popular on the mainland nor influential until the World War I era. The first records featuring authentic performances were made by the American Record Company.
By 1904 Hawaiian troupes performed in mainland cities including New York, where American's Hawaiian recordings were made in late 1904 or early 1905. Over two dozen performances were issued on a series of 10-5/8 inch blue single-sided "Indian label" discs.
Steel guitar virtuoso Frank Ferera--called Palakiko Ferreira on some of his early Edison recordings (others were credited to Palakiko's Hawaiian Orchestra)--was born on June 12, 1885, in Honolulu to Mary and Frank Ferreira. He left for the mainland around the turn of the century.
He was featured on the cover of the December 1916 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly, in which an article states, "Frank Ferera...has the distinction of being the one who first introduced the Hawaiian style of playing the guitar into the United States. It was in 1900 that he brought the first ukelele [sic] here and commenced to charm vaudeville audiences with the weird and plaintive effects he produced. For quite a while he had the field to himself....It is said that the Hawaiian style of playing the guitar was originated by a Portuguese sailor. Perhaps this has something to do with the tendency that Mr. Ferera had toward the ukelele for he, although of Hawaiian birth, is of Portuguese descent. He was musical even in his childhood."
His first wife was named Eva Perkins. After their divorce, he, married a young woman from Seattle named Helen Greenus, who played ukulele.
The team of Helen Louise and her husband Frank Ferera was remarkable.
Helen Louise Greenus--her name before marriage--was a Seattle native, her childhood home on the West slope of Capitol Hill (1616 Summit Avenue). She died mysteriously in 1919, drowning in the Pacific during a steamship trip back to Seattle.
Their Edison recording debut, as Helen Louise and Palakiko Ferreira, was "Medley of Hawaiian Airs--No. 1," issued on Blue Amberol 2917 in July 1916.
Frank Ferera introduced steel guitar and slide guitar playing to a worldwide audience, many of his recordings issued outside the United States. He had more recording sessions than any other guitarist from 1915 to 1925.
He was not the first Hawaiian guitarist to record. That was probably Joseph Kekuku, the steel guitar's reputed inventor. Credit has also been given to James Hoa and Gabriel Davion.
But Ferera was the first guitarist to enjoy success as a recording artist, his name familiar in catalogs of most record companies of the World War I era and 1920s. His style was a forerunner of bottleneck playing on blues records and "steel" playing on country records. His popular records influenced many guitarists of his generation.
Hawaiian music had been recorded as early as the 1890s but was not popular on the mainland nor influential until the World War I era. The first records featuring authentic performances were made by the American Record Company.
By 1904 Hawaiian troupes performed in mainland cities including New York, where American's Hawaiian recordings were made in late 1904 or early 1905. Over two dozen performances were issued on a series of 10-5/8 inch blue single-sided "Indian label" discs.
Steel guitar virtuoso Frank Ferera--called Palakiko Ferreira on some of his early Edison recordings (others were credited to Palakiko's Hawaiian Orchestra)--was born on June 12, 1885, in Honolulu to Mary and Frank Ferreira. He left for the mainland around the turn of the century.
He was featured on the cover of the December 1916 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly, in which an article states, "Frank Ferera...has the distinction of being the one who first introduced the Hawaiian style of playing the guitar into the United States. It was in 1900 that he brought the first ukelele [sic] here and commenced to charm vaudeville audiences with the weird and plaintive effects he produced. For quite a while he had the field to himself....It is said that the Hawaiian style of playing the guitar was originated by a Portuguese sailor. Perhaps this has something to do with the tendency that Mr. Ferera had toward the ukelele for he, although of Hawaiian birth, is of Portuguese descent. He was musical even in his childhood."
His first wife was named Eva Perkins. After their divorce, he, married a young woman from Seattle named Helen Greenus, who played ukulele.