Singer-guitarist Walter Aipolani, better known as Bruddah Waltah, died Thursday after a long battle with liver cancer. He was 68.
Born on Oahu, “The Father of Hawaiian Reggae” spent a good deal of his youth in Keaukaha and a great deal of his adulthood in Hilo.
In a 40-year-plus career as one of Hawaii’s music superstars, a short list of the Island Afternoon frontman’s hits include: “Keep Hawaiian Lands in Hawaiian Hands,” to the tune of Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain”; “My Hawaiian Car”; “Funny Talk”; “Church in an Old Hawaiian Town”; and “Sweet Lady of Waiahole.”
“Everybody called him ‘Bruddah Waltah.’ I called him ‘Uncle Waltah,’” said Hawaiian music star Mark Yamanaka. “Just to see him around Hilo was awesome. He was one of the people of that generation who kind of embraced me as I was coming up.
“As a musician and as a person, he was just himself — witty and funny and just an overall great guy.”
Aipolani continued to perform after receiving chemotherapy for cancer. He played the West Coast’s Homesick Hawaiians circuit with his band, where he was always a hit, and did lower-key gigs around town with just his nylon-string acoustic guitar and his crystal-clear tenor voice, introducing his hits with, “Here’s another song I didn’t write” and playing everything from traditional Hawaiian fare to covers of classic rock ballads like the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody.”
“He was a unique Hawaiian spirit,” said KAPA-FM afternoon personality Tommy “Kahikina” Ching. “Waltah’s style is rootsy, right here in my yard. He was personal in the way his music came about. It wasn’t about a crowd, a lot of people. It was about me and you.
“In the ’80s, he was part of the start of Jawaiian music which, at first, a lot of people didn’t like. Now it’s a big part of the scene.”
Aipolani’s sister danced hula for Edith Kanaka‘ole, and Hawaiian music filled his childhood home in Keaukaha, but he expanded his musical horizons by listening to rock ’n’ roll and reggae.
“I had my sister make a cassette tape of Bob Marley,” Aipolani told the Tribune-Herald in July 2022. And the Hawaiian reggae pioneer-to-be was in the audience on May 6, 1979, when Marley played at the Waikiki Shell.
“That changed my life,” he said.
Unlike many of the local bands labeled “Jawaiian,” Aipolani and Island Afternoon eschewed ‘ukuleles, going for a sound as close to Jamaican reggae as possible.
News of Aipolani’s passing spread quickly on social media, with scores of tributes from his fellow entertainment celebrities and just everyday folks.
“I will forever miss his ‘Whattup, D?!’” said B97/B93 morning personality Darrin “DC” Carlson. “Rest in love, Bruddah Waltah Aipolani. Mahalo for creating such great music with that sweet, sweet voice.”
“One of the coolest things for me living in Hilo all these years was meeting Bruddah Waltah Aipolani, becoming friends, and then musical colleagues!” added Hawaiian singer-songwriter Kainani Kahaunaele.
In the wake of the catastrophic Maui wildfires and the death last week on Oahu of Hawaiian falsetto vocalist Darren Benitez, Lehua Kalima Alvarez, a Keaukaha native and member of the vocal trio Na Leo, said, “And the punches just keep coming.”
“Bruddah Waltah was da man … with a heart that was even bigger than his talent,” Kalima Alvarez said. “He will be forever loved and a fixture in the soundtrack of my life.”
Among Aipolani’s survivors is his wife of almost 46 years, Thailiana Denise Leionaona Aipolani. Services are pending.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.