A prolific composer of over 300 songs, many of them Hawai'ian language standards today, John K. Almeida has been described as the quintessential Hawai’ian composer.
Throughout his long career, he was virtually never without a band of his own, and as an instrumentalist had few peers. Considered probably the last of the great Hawai’ian mandolin players, Johnny Almeida had also mastered `ukulele, guitar, steel guitar, string bass and piano by the time he was 25.
Today, Johnny Almeida is best remembered for his characteristically “pure” Hawai’ian melodies. He said his song ideas came to him in dreams at night, or when he was outdoors. The popular "Green Rose Hula", "Green Carnation", "Panini Pua Kea" and "Noho Paipai" were written for hula. Other songs, now standards, are "Maile Swing", "A `Oia" and "Ku`uipo Pua Rose".
It was through his radio shows that he was given the title "Dean of Hawaiian Music.” He used radio effectively to discover new talent, and was instrumental in launching the careers of singers Bill Lincoln (3b) and Genoa Keawe (1a), and steel guitarists Billy Hew Len and David Keli`i (3c). Johnny Almeida also left his mark as a teacher and recording artist for 49th State Records, a company he helped to form.
His defective eyesight from birth and blindness by age ten were determined to be the result of the poisonous maile bush sap. His mother had no time to cleanse her hands before delivering him, alone, on a Pauoha Valley hillside, where she was gathering fragrant maile for leis on the day he was born.
At age four, Johnny Almeida was already active in church and school choirs and organized his own "Waianae Star Glee Club" at age 15. (This group later became "Johnny Almeida's Hawaiians.") As a vocalist, his falsetto voice has been described as "one of the sweetest and highest". He thrilled audiences with his clear high G and A in such solo favorites as "Wahine U`i" and "Waikapu".
From 1922-1927, he was chief musician on Matson Lines ships sailing between Hawai`i and the West Coast, and in the 1930s hosted a popular Hawaiian music half hour on Honolulu's KGU radio.
For decades, Almeida was the most popular folk vocalist in the islands, known as well as a gifted teacher, bandleader, versatile instrumentalist, arranger, and composer. After a 70-year career, over 119 years after his birth, his songs are still enjoyed at hula festivals & Hawaiian music concerts. Almeida is the subject of special attention among scholars of Hawaiian orthography, as many changes in the language, its spelling and phonetics took place during Almeida’s lifetime, only to be followed by even more after his death in 1985.
Numerous lyrical transcriptions document an evolution of Almeida’s relationship to his language; as a native speaker of ka ‘olelo Hawai’i and extremely visible performer, recorder and broadcast personality, his body of work represents a powerful influence on the very landscape of the “listening” Hawaiian experience in the twentieth century.
About 15 years after Johnny’s death (in 1985), his private collection of recorded music came into the hands of Malama Nā Mele. It is the intention of Malama Nā Mele to initiate the digitization of the complete collection by transferring, archiving, and making accessible the precious 172 Almeida 78 rpm transcription discs as the inaugural virtual “exhibit.”