Waiata Aroha—Maori Love Song

Te Ao Hou, March 1962, Page 53

Waiata Aroha—Maori Love Song Kiwi EA 72. 45 r.p.m. Unfortunately this record does not live up to the promise of its seductive cover. The standard of the various groups featured is patchy and only one item, “E Wawata”, a duet by Piri Lewis and Hohepu Mutu with the Te Pataka Singers, is sung in the accustomed style of the Maori love song. There is some good singing in “E Pari Ra” by the Waihirere Maori Club of Gisborne, but the song is spoiled by the group's manner of singing the certain lines of the song with a parrot chorus in the background chanting “pari ra … pari ra”. I am afraid that the style of singing used by the Amorangi Boys of Rotorua in “E Whakapono Kore Au” is just not my cup of tea at all. The other two groups on the record, the Concert Party of the Second Battalion of the NZ Regiment and the Putiki Maori Club, sing their contributions mechanically as action songs rather than as love songs. ‘Maori Love Songs” is welcome however, featuring as it does a number of different artists rather than one group. Such a record provides a diversity not present on records which feature one group alone and as such should be more popular with overseas visitors.