![]() He became a star and a hero for the native Hawaiian people! Sol quickly got swept up in record deals and cameos in movies. This happened during the “Hawaiian Craze”, a time period when there were more Hawaiian records sold than any other style of music across America. After traveling from Honolulu as a cruise ship stowaway he arrived in San Francisco and then moved to Los Angeles by 1924. Sol was one of the first to really blend Jazz improvisation with traditional Hawaiian repertoire. He was both an amazing technical player and a passionate emotional improviser. It’s with good reason! His hot jazz steel playing has cross genre appeal. Anyone who is even slightly familiar with the instrument and style undoubtedly brings his name up first. Sol Hoopii is the undisputed “King of Hawaiian Steel Guitar”. “Hi Christo! I have a feeling you may be my eBay nemesis!! I see on Instagram you have been collecting Sol Hoopii.” He had seen a post of mine about finding the records we share with you below. ![]() When I first met “Angry Jim” (virtually via Facebook Messenger) this is what he wrote. But this is what initially brought Jim and I together. Those of us passionate weirdos who devote huge chunks of our money and collection space specifically to Hawaiian steel guitar are a thin sliver of that elite group. ![]() The greater 78rpm record collecting world is sparsely populated with its largest worldwide Facebook collectors group just recently surpassing the 4000 mark. ![]()
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May 2023
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