Andy Iona (born Andrew Aiona Long, January 1, 1902 – November 9, 1966) was an American musician and one of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

's most influential musicians. He was a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

, and

steel guitar A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...

ist. He went to the Kamehameha School for Boys. He was also educated at Henri Berger's Private School of Music in Honolulu. He was a member of the radio station KHS staff orchestra. He went on to form his own group called Andy Iona and his Islanders, which mixed traditional Hawaiian melodies with American swing; the band appeared in films, hotels, and theatres, and on records. He composed songs for the

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

after joining in 1940, and recorded the music for two

Soundies A soundie is a three-minute American film displaying both the audio and video of a musical performance. Over 1,850 soundies were produced between 1940 and 1946, regarded today as "precursors to music videos". Soundies exhibited a variety of mu ...

in 1941. Long toured with

Sonja Henie Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 – 12 October 1969) was a Norway, Norwegian figure skating, figure skater and film star. She was a three-time List of Olympic medalists in figure skating, Olympic champion (Figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics, ...

for 12 years. He married Leimomi Woodds and had three children.

Music

Public domain song: Andy Iona - Pretty Red Hibiscus

* Box set (6 CDs - 112 tracks): The Andy Iona Collection - Andy Iona and his Islanders, Cumquat Records. * Album: Hawaiians In Hollywood: Smooth, Sweet & Swinging 1934-1936: Volume 1 by Andy Iona. * Album: From Honolulu To Hollywood: Jazz, Blues & Popular Specialties Performed Hawaiian Style by King Bennie Nawahi, Sol Hoopii, Andy Iona. * Album: Jazz Goes Hawaiian by Louis Armstrong feat. Andy Iona, Challenge Records.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Iona, Andy American male saxophonists Steel guitarists 1902 births 1966 deaths Guitarists from Hawaii 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American saxophonists American male guitarists 20th-century American male musicians