Books: Hawaiian Music and Musicians: An Encyclopedic History

Hawaiian Music and Musicians: An Encyclopedic History

Edited by George Kanahele and John Berger

Mutual Publishing, $35

When the first edition of this encyclopedia was released in 1979, it became the most comprehensive, authoritative reference work available on the history and artists of Hawaiian music. When its editor, George Kanahele, passed away in 2000, John Berger took up the torch, spending more than a decade researching and writing a much-needed update. Berger tackles the subject with an opinionated style, developed during a long career of music criticism, but there’s no denying the exhaustive lengths to which he’s gone—the entry on Jawaiian music alone is 18 pages long. An invaluable resource for serious Hawaiian music fans.