Charles K.L. Davis

Charles K.L. Davis, the Hawaiian musician, encountered limited serious regard over the course of his professional life, a frequent outcome for entertainers who incorporated comedy into their routines. He reshaped the familiar “hapa haole” song format into something startlingly unconventional, delivering it to audiences in a manner akin to depositing a still-quivering jellyfish directly onto a lap, though without the accompanying stings. Live appearances gave scant indication of the breadth of his musical training or the immense effort he had devoted to his craft. Even relatives active in music expressed surprise at his trajectory, having anticipated a classical path given his rigorous childhood instruction as a vocalist, pianist, and cellist, as well as on the pipe organ, an instrument whose sonic world seemed far removed from Hawaii and closer to Leipzig. For a time, precisely that classical direction materialized.

Despite disruptions arising from the Second World War, Davis completed an extensive education that concluded with studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. His performing life after graduation advanced at a deliberately unhurried pace. He formed a nightclub duo with actor and singer James Shigeta that appeared regularly along the bustling Sunset Strip. Once his partner was drafted, Davis returned to New York as a soloist and became the first Hawaiian to succeed at a Metropolitan Opera audition. An operatic chapter followed, encompassing a tour of Russia, a command performance at the White House, and co-starring roles on Broadway. All of this he eventually set aside in pursuit of a Hawaiian music career marked by exuberant irreverence; one publicity biography stated the matter more concretely: “...he left it all behind and performed for many years at Kemoo Farms near Schofield Barracks, delighting crowds with his prodigious memory for the most obscure lyrics, always ready with a joke or a bawdy tune.”

That same body of material had evidently absorbed his attention while traveling with opera companies. Observers claimed Davis knew every Hawaiian song in existence, an assertion that, however extravagant, pointed to an enormous repertoire centered on the “pidgen/oriental” compositions of the 1920s and 1930s. He began cutting 78s in the 1940s and continued issuing recordings on vinyl in subsequent decades, preserving selections that included works by Sir Noel Coward. His albums appeared on major labels such as Decca as well as on budget classical lines. In the mid-1990s a fresh series of reissues commenced, and individual Davis tracks have since surfaced on numerous Hawaiian music compilations.