Music

Daniel Ho, the Hawaiian American world musician who was nominated in the Best Traditional World Album category for this year’s Grammy Awards, will perform a concert, On A Gentle Island Breeze, for the 55th Pre-Grammy Awards Music Party at Legacy Taipei (傳音樂展演空間) on Wednesday night.

Ho said the nominated album, On A Gentle Island Breeze (吹過島嶼的風), was inspired by a trip he made to Taitung in May of last year. He attended a barbecue banquet, drinking homemade millet wine and hearing Taiwanese Aboriginal music for the first time.

“This experience provided a rich foundation of ideas, motifs, and themes,” Ho told the Taipei Times in an email interview. “Three months later, the album was born.”

For the album, Ho wrote four original ukulele instrumental tracks about his impressions of Taiwan, blending Hawaiian and Taiwanese Aboriginal influences by collaborating with Taiwanese Aboriginal music acts including Golden Melody winning Ilid Kaolo, Puyuma songstress Hao-en (昊恩) and folk musicians Takanow and Long Ge (龍哥). Ho also delivered a ukulele rendition of Ocean (海洋) by Golden Melody award winner Pur-dur (陳建年).

Ho has won six Grammies. His 2011 album Polani was the first Ukulele album to be nominated in the award’s history.

“Working on this project was a wonderful gift,” Ho said about his latest triumph. “I was deeply inspired both musically and personally by the people of Taiwan.”