:Sol Hoʻopiʻi

He was born Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai{{Cite web | title=Sol Hoʻopiʻi – King of the Hawaiian Guitar|publisher= Brad's Page of Steel | url=http://www.well.com/~wellvis/hoopii.html | accessdate=May 21, 2010}} in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1902 into a large family – his birth making him the 21st child in the family.

Sol's family taught him to sing and play instruments by the time he could walk. He was playing the ukulele by age three. By his teenage years the Hawaiian steel guitar had become his instrument of choice.

He made his debut with Johnny Noble and his Orchestra. According to the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame, at age 17 Sol and two teenage friends stowed away on the ocean liner Matsonia. They were discovered by passengers who were so charmed by their musical performances that the other passengers took up a collection to pay their fares.{{cite book |last=Ruymar |first=Lorene |date=1996 |title=The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and its Great Hawaiian Musicians |location=Anaheim Hills, California |publisher=Centerstream Publishing |page=90 |isbn=1-57424-021-8}} They landed in San Francisco, played a few club engagements, and eventually made their way to Los Angeles at the behest of Hoot Gibson to play in his country music band. Sol's friends returned to Hawaii, and Sol formed a trio with new associates.

By 1924, Hoʻopiʻi had moved to Los Angeles, where he formed the Sol Hoʻopiʻi Trio, with Glenwood Leslie and Lani McIntyre, including sometimes additional musicians, and he successfully performed in the local and then very popular Polynesian-themed night venues. His first recordings in 1925–28 featured often jazzy improvisation.

He recorded his best known material 1933 to 1938, as Sol Hoopii's Novelty Trio,{{Cite web | title=Novelty Trio 1936 Flower Lei recording | date=September 20, 2009 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qViVHqfCVF4| accessdate=May 22, 2010}} Novelty Quartette and Novelty Five on Decca Records and Brunswick Records labels, like the famous Hula Girl,{{Cite web | title=Hula Girl | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a6HBGkCRHM| accessdate=May 22, 2010}} Ten Tiny Toes, and many more brilliant Hawaiian hula and hapa-haole songs penned by the best Hawaiian composers like Johnny Noble and Sol Bright.

Originally favouring the acoustic lap steel guitar, he switched to electric lap steel only around 1935 and developed an original tuning, in addition to the open A or open G tunings commonly in use at the time.

He very often applied bluesy and jazzy treatments to the Tin Pan Alley standards, as well as to Hawaiian classics. His peculiar rhythmic, harmonic and melodic techniques influenced not only Hawaiian-styled musicians but also famed country and western swing steel guitarists, like Joaquin Murphy and Jerry Byrd.

In 1938,{{cite book | last1=Broughton | first1=Simon | last2=Ellingham | first2=Mark | last3=Muddyman | first3=Dave | last4=Trillo | first4=Richard | title=World Music: The Rough Guide | page=[https://archive.org/details/worldmusicroughg00brou/page/61 61] | publisher=Rough Guides | year=1994 | isbn=978-1-85828-017-2 | url=https://archive.org/details/worldmusicroughg00brou/page/61 }} Hoʻopiʻi gave up his secular career to join the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, writing and performing songs for her tours.{{cite book| last =Rath| first =J Arthur| title =Lost Generations: A Boy, a School, a Princess| page =[https://archive.org/details/lostgenerations00jart/page/82 82]| publisher =University of Hawaii Press| year =2005| isbn =978-0-8248-2949-0| url =https://archive.org/details/lostgenerations00jart/page/82}}{{Cite web | title=Aimee Semple McPherson | publisher=The Foursquare Church | url=http://www.foursquare.org/landing_pages/8,3.html| accessdate=May 21, 2010}} The Foursquare Church A rare video{{Cite web | title=Part 1 – Rare Hoʻopiʻi Video | date=March 27, 2009 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb0A2RLE32U| accessdate=May 21, 2010}} exists of Hoʻopiʻi playing traditional hymns on his lap steel guitar, accompanied by Christian composer Phillip Stanley Kerr{{Cite web | title=Phillip Stanley Kerr | publisher= Hymnary.org | url=http://www.hymnary.org/person/Kerr_PS1 | accessdate=May 21, 2010}}Hymnary.org on the piano.

Kerr mis-pronounces Sol's name as "hope-y". (Prior to, and for years after Hawaii's statehood, many Americans mis-pronounced the state's name as How-Wah-Yah, leading to show biz jokes about the 50th state of "How Are Ya?" )

Titled Musical Moments with Sol Hoʻopiʻi and His Hawaiian Guitar, part of The Scriptures Visualized series, this was produced in 1942 by C.O. Baptista Films of Chicago.{{Cite web | title=Baptista Film Mission – Collection 225 | publisher=Billy Graham Center | url=http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/225.htm| accessdate=May 21, 2010}}Billy Graham Center Part 2{{Cite web | title=Part 2 – Rare Ho'opi'i Video | date=March 27, 2009 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=422yGi5zhP4| accessdate=May 21, 2010}} of the video begins with Phil Kerr and Sol Hoʻopiʻi testifying about Hoʻopiʻi's Christian conversion, and contains a rare moment of Hoʻopiʻi doing a falsetto rendition of Kerr's composition I'm in Love with the Lover of my Soul.

Some historians credit Joseph Kekuku with inventing the Hawaiian steel guitar about 1889 from an acoustic Spanish guitar.{{Cite web | title=History of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar | publisher=Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association | url=http://www.hsga.org/new_design/history.htm#| accessdate=May 21, 2010}} Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association This was long before Hoʻopiʻi's time.

As far as the electrified lap steel, Philip Kerr mentions in the 1942 Baptista video that Hoʻopiʻi "was the originator of this electric guitar that he's playing." Hoʻopiʻi himself does not make that claim on camera and Kerr may have been saying that Hoʻopiʻi designed or made that particular guitar in his possession. However, the claim comes up again in 1950,{{cite news |title=Tabernacle Observes 26th Anniversary|newspaper=The Evening Independent |date=April 15, 1950|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zb4LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=flUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1739,949008&dq=sol+hoopii&hl=en}} in a Florida Newspaper announcing, "Sol Hoopii, king of the Hawaiian guitar and originator of the electric guitar..." as part of the entertainment line-up for a church anniversary. The electric lap steel guitar, in fact, was not invented by Hoʻopiʻi, but he was acquainted with its inventor, George Beauchamp, in Los Angeles. Beauchamp was a steel player who collaborated with violin repairman John Dopyera to attempt to build a steel guitar that was louder.{{cite web|title=The Earliest Days of the Electric Guitar|url=http://www.rickenbacker.com/history_early.asp|website=rickenbacker.com|publisher=Rickenbacker International|accessdate=September 7, 2017}} Dopyera and Beauchamp developed a non-electric guitar prototype with a metal resonator, a large metal cone placed under the guitar bridge. They sought investors for a new company to manufacture and sell the resonator guitar. To promote their invention, they organized a lavish party hosted by millionaire Ted Kleinmeyer and asked Sol Hoʻopiʻi to demonstrate the instrument.{{cite web|last1=Ross|first1=Michael|title=Pedal to the Metal: A Short History of the Pedal Steel Guitar|url=https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/22152-pedal-to-the-metal-a-short-history-of-the-pedal-steel-guitar|website=premierguitar.com|accessdate=September 1, 2017|date=February 17, 2015}} Years later, after splitting with Dopyera, Beauchamp independently invented the first electric guitar (a lap steel), and received the patent on August 10, 1937.{{cite web|title=First-ever electric guitar patent awarded to the Electro String Corporation|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-ever-electric-guitar-patent-awarded-to-the-electro-string-corporation|website=history.com|publisher=A&E Television Networks|accessdate=September 20, 2017}}

For the last few years of his life Hoʻopiʻi was blind, but he continued to play, compose, and teach. Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai died November 16, 1953. His place of death has been listed alternately as Los Angeles, California, or Seattle, Washington.

Bud Tutmarc, a Christian Hawaiian steel guitar player based in Seattle, was a close personal friend of Sol's and stated that Sol died in Seattle. On May 27, 1953, only 6 months before Sol's death, the two friends recorded a live Seattle performance of Indiana March (Sol on steel guitar);{{Cite web | title=Indiana March | date=August 22, 2007 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJcjBbQeNmc| accessdate=May 22, 2010}} a three-in-one gospel medley (Sol and Bud steel guitar duet) – Mansion Over the Hilltop, It Is No Secret and Aloha Oe;{{Cite web | title=Three In One Medley | date=March 30, 2009 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvU2uCVn3bE| accessdate=May 22, 2010}} a medley of At Calvary and Power In The Blood (Sol solo ukulele instrumental);{{Cite web | title=At Calvary-Power In The Blood | date=July 27, 2007 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmJDqcpYjc| accessdate=May 22, 2010}} and I'll Go With Him (ukulele and Sol vocals).{{Cite web | title=I'll Go With Him | date=July 27, 2007 | publisher=YouTube | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_teFpdvwCY| accessdate=May 22, 2010}}

Tutmarc died December 4, 2006, and his web site photo page has a snapshot of Sol and Bud having what looks like a one-on-one jam session. (photo #6 of the "Middle Years" gallery){{Cite web |title=Bud Tutmarc | publisher=Brandon Tutmarc | url=http://www.budtutmarc.com/photogallery/| accessdate=May 21, 2010}}

Steel guitarist George de Fretes, who died in 1981, considered Hoʻopiʻi to be his idol, and is buried next to him.Concertzender.nl Saturday March 15, 2014 [http://www.concertzender.nl/schedule/?detail=69049 23:00 – 00:00 Exitos Musicales, Surata Istana of Krontjong Minstrels led by George De Fretes (repeat).]

The Sol Hoʻopiʻi Trio appears as a house band wearing "...pink shirts and matching trousers, with red cummerbunds and leis..." in the 1998 novel Damned in Paradise.{{cite book |last=Collins |first=Max Allan |title=Damned In Paradise: A Nathan Heller Novel |pages=[https://archive.org/details/damnedinparadise00maxa/page/154 154–157] |publisher=Signet |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-451-19104-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/damnedinparadise00maxa/page/154 }}

Sol Hoʻopiʻi's guitar and memorabilia make an appearance in the 2004 novel The Celestial Jukebox.{{cite book |last=Shearer |first=Cynthia |title=The Celestial Jukebox |page=[https://archive.org/details/celestialjukebox00shea/page/227 227] |publisher=Counterpoint |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-59376-052-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/celestialjukebox00shea/page/227 }}

Garrison Keillor does a brief tip of the hat to "Sol Hoʻopiʻi and his Royal Hawaiians" in his 2004 novel Love Me.{{cite book|last=Keillor |first=Garrison |title=Love Me |url=https://archive.org/details/loveme00keil |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/loveme00keil/page/80 80] |publisher=Penguin |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-14-200499-9}}

Author Simon Leng likens George Harrison's slide guitar work with the Traveling Wilburys to "a 1990s Sol Hoʻopiʻi" in his 2006 book on the works of the British legend.{{cite book|last=Leng |first=Simon |title=While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison |page=204 |publisher=Hal Leonard |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4234-0609-9}}

In 1996,{{Cite web | title=Hoʻopiʻi Hall of Fame|publisher= Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame | url=http://www.hawaiimusicmuseum.org/honorees/1996/sol_hoopii.html | accessdate=May 21, 2010}} Hoʻopiʻi became an honoree in the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame{{Cite web | title=Steel Guitar Hall of Fame|publisher= The Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame, Inc | url=http://www.scottysmusic.com/hofplq.htm | accessdate=May 21, 2010}}he Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame, Inc inducted Hoʻopiʻi in 1979.

In 2012 Hoʻopiʻi's recording of the Gershwin standard "Fascinating Rhythm" was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."{{cite web|title=The National Recording Registry 2011|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/registry/nrpb-2011reg.html|work=National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress|publisher=Library of Congress|date=May 24, 2012}}

Hoʻopiʻi performed in a number of Hollywood "jazz" movies like His Jazz Bride, and later he was involved in the exotic movies craze, appearing notably in Bird of Paradise, Waikiki Wedding, and even some Charlie Chan mystery movies. He also performed in the soundtrack for the Betty Boop cartoon Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle.

• Hula Girls – Brunswick 6768
• King Kamehameha – Brunswick 6873
• Ten Tiny Toes, One Baby Nose – Brunswick 6687
• King's Serenade – Brunswick 6950

• Twilight Blues – Decca 2560
• Stack O' Lee – Decca 2241
• Fascinatin' Rhythm – Decca 2280
• Farewell Blues – Decca 2241

• Sol Hoʻopiʻi in Hollywood Grass Skirt
• The Moana Serenaders 1974 MCA Records
• Master Of The Hawaiian Guitar (Volume I) 1977 Rounder Records
• Master Of The Hawaiian Guitar (Volume Two) 1987 Rounder Records

• Radio Kisses (1930)
• Divorced Sweethearts (1930)
• Flirtation Walk (1934)
• High Tension (1936)
• Hawaiian Nights (1939)

{{Portal|Biography}}

• Music of Hawaii
• American popular music
• Andy Iona

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0393813}} (as Sol Hoopii Jr.)
• [http://squareone.org/Hapa/solhoopii.html Sol Hoʻopiʻi – 1930s publicity still]
• [http://www.beerrecords.com/Sol_Discography.htm Sol Hoʻopiʻi's pre-war recordings]
• [http://marcrecordsmusic.com/releases/ Sol Hoʻopiʻi's sacred and private recordings]
• {{Find a Grave|10928932}}

{{Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ho'opi'i, Sol}}

Category:Native Hawaiian musicians

Category:Steel guitarists

Category:Ukulele players from Hawaii

Category:American performers of Christian music

Category:1902 births

Category:1953 deaths

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Category:20th-century American guitarists

Category:Decca Records artists

Category:Brunswick Records artists