Sol Hoopii

Sol Ho'opi'i (1902-1953) was perhaps the most famous Hawaiian steel guitarist of the twentieth century. The youngest of twenty-one children from Honolulu, Hawaii, he came to the mainland in 1919 as a stowaway on an ocean liner to San Francisco, California, and later began recording in Los Angeles. Sol Ho'opi'i's Novelty Trio often mixed jazz and blues with traditional Hawaiian music. The distinctively rhythmic slide techniques he invented later influenced country music steel guitarists. He appeared in a few movies, such as Waikiki Wedding (1937) with Bing Crosby and some Charlie Chan films. He joined the crusade of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1938, and from then on made few music recordings until his death on 16th November 1953 in Seattle. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.