Review by Wanda Adams The Honolulu Advertiser November 3 2005
When he died the state capitol was the only place suitable for his memorial service. He remains one of a handful of figures in Hawaii history who are routinely identified by only a first name. In the past few years his fame has spread to the Mainland. And one of his albums was the first Island collection to be certified platinum 1 million sold. Yet the life story of Israel Kamakawiwoole the Islands beloved Iz has never been told in book form until now. The book is Iz: Voice of the People by Rick Carroll with a foreward by Marlene Kamakawiwoole and many rarely seen or never-before-published photographs. Its planned for publication next spring.
Publisher Benjamnin Buddy Bess made a first public announcement about the new book at a meeting of Borders Books & Music buyers in California last week. It will be the biggest undertaking to date for Bess Press a company better known for Pacific-themed textbooks and lighthearted works such as The Spam Cookbook and Pidgin to Da Max which is coming back in a new edition for its 25th birthday in December by the way.
A first run of 25000 and a west coast author tour is planned--virtually unheard of for an island publisher. Six years ago Carroll a former Hawaii resident sat down on the beach at Kaaawa during a trip here and began to write the biography. But a short time later he was diagnosed with cancer and set the project aside to give his all to regaining his health. Now feeling better Carroll is working with Bess Press and Kamakiwiwoole widow Marlene to bring the partly finished manuscript to life. When Carroll presented the Iz proposal to Bess--who previously published the authors Spooky Tales series--the publisher liked the approach which linked the entertainers biography to the Islands history. But he was cautious and suggested a small-format gift book. Then Carroll came in to town a short while ago and met with Marlene Kamakawiwoole. After the two had talked for hours Bess knew he had to go all out for the book.
Its Iz he said summing up the power of this extraordinary character. For Carroll Israel Kamakawiwoole was more than an entertainer. He knew this long before the singer seperated from the Makaha sons of Niihau and started a wildly successful solo career under the wing of John DeMello and Mountain Apple records. I met Israel in 1983 at the Ranch House in Aina Haina which he called Ana heima a play on the name of the California town--and he knew he was destined to become somebody beyond Hawaii shores Carroll said in an interview by email from his North Carolina home. It was his word play and vocabulary that caught my ear ... It was his wit--so sharp fast edgy--and his politics. He was pushing even then and I loved it.
Carroll once an Advertiser staffer was a reporter in San Fransisco during the 1960s and 70s where his political consciousness was altered. He responded to Izs occasional riffs on Hawaiian affairs. I applauded any small show of force by oppressed people especially Hawaiians Carroll recalled and the only time I saw a raised fist those days came from a hulking Hawaiian ukulele player who sang like a choir boy in a fundamentalist Christian church.
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