The prolific little label was responsible for Island Roots II, a compilation of contemporary Hawai`ian music which debuted last year at #5 on Billboard's World Music charts.

This month, the Kaneohe-based company, in partnership with the U.S. division of industry giant Universal Music Group, releases a new collection of contemporary Hawai`ian and island music, slack key guitar, and traditional chants. Pure Hawaiian: Music and Images of Hawai`i will be released on April 24.

Certainly, the scope of this project is impressive. The enhanced CD contains eighteen traditional Hawai`ian tunes, with an equivalent number of photographs and a 24-page full color booklet with liner notes and song translations by Puakea Nogelmeier. Meticulously researched songwriting, copyright and publishing credits are also included, according to John Iervolino, president of Quiet Storm.

With cuts from every decade since the 50s, the music on the CD spans fifty years. "Through our 24-bit mastering, many of the songs sound better than they did on the original masters," adds Iervolino. It's an interesting mix. "12th Street Rag/Sweet Georgia Brown" appeared on the Ledward Ka`apana and I Kona album Jus' Press, released in 1985; until now, it's been available only on vinyl. Other cuts include "Ballad of Keawaiki" from the Peter Moon Band, "Keiki O Ka `Aina La" from Robi Kahakalau, and the long, "live at Hank's place" version of "Hawai`i 78" from the Makaha Sons of Ni`ihau with Israel Kamakawiwo`ole.

The album cover features five classic photographs by Kim Taylor Reece.The eighteen digital photos on the enhanced disc are bundled with self-launching software. Tami Dawson, founder of Photo Resource Hawai`i, served as photo editor and contributed images, as did Randy Jay Braun, David Boynton, and Dave Bjorn.

Plans for a release party still aren't set, according to Iervolino, but Quiet Storm and KINE Radio are planning a Pure Hawaiian concert in Las Vegas on May 19-21, at a luxury hotel. "I think they're chartering a whole plane and giving away half the seats!" he chuckles.

Iervolino conceives the projects and works with a team of five consultants, studying sales performance and radio play, to select the tracks on each compilation. "Universal Music established a series back in the eighties – I think it was called Pure Funk. One of the things we're excited about is the attention we're going to get from the U.S. mainland, with the support of Universal's Pure series."

Will Pure Hawaiian debut as strongly as Island Roots II did last year? Iervolino is cautiously optimistic. "It's like the difference between the sprinter and the long-distance runner," he explains. "Pop music has a very short shelf life; it generates large numbers in a short amount of time. Traditional music sells slowly, over long periods of time. I think this could do both."

The label's next project, due for release on May 15, is a compilation of Hawaiian salsa. Produced by Rolando Sanchez, the album will feature thirteen original tracks from Hawai`i's top Latin recording groups, including Sanchez's own Salsa Hawai`i, Second Time Around, Salsa Aloha, Hilo's El Leo, and a group called Lelolai, direct from Puerto Rico, now stationed at Schofield. Roots Music, Volume III will come out in June. "The rest of the year will pretty much be [devoted to] marketing and promoting our existing releases. We may do one more in October, but if not, we'll have something nice coming out in the early part of 2002," Iervolino says.

Not bad for a guy whose first project, as a disco DJ, was a cassette compilation of dance tunes. It's a format he's gotten very comfortable with. "I just grew into it. Having done compilations as a nightclub jock, it came [easily]. Even as a consumer, I never liked anything that the radio stations played, or how they played it. I was always the guy who came to the party with my own compilations pre-mixed, and everyone always liked them."

Additionally, Iervolino freely admits that his interest in compilations was fueled by his frustration with one of the industry's harder truths. "My skills lie more in administration, promotions, and marketing. When you create new music, you take on the role of babysitter. Working with artists is not an easy thing. While it's important to note that not ALL artists require babysitting, a large percentage of them do."

But he's apparently thinking about making an exception to his own rule. "We're now looking for a group that would fit in well with Quiet Storm Records – a group like Natural Vibrations, Three Plus, or Hapa. They write, record, and play their own music, and they perform live. That takes a great burden off the label."

Groups meeting those prerequisites are invited to send their demos to Iervolino at Quiet Storm Records, 47-715 Hui Kelu Street #1, Kaneohe, HI 96744.

Naturally, bands that require babysitting need not apply.

Crazy Like A Fox?

If John Iervolino is crazy, he's crazy like a fox, for he knows that compilations can go on forever.

Look at the Now That's What I Call Music! collection – the British series, not the pale American version. Over 17 years have passed since the first Now! compilation hit the streets. A whopping total of 46 collections have been released since then – and over 55 million copies have been sold.

Brand recognition is a powerful marketing tool. The first American Now! collection was released in 1998, and Volume VI, released on the 3rd of this month, will probably outperform its predecessor. Why did it take U.S. record companies so long to catch on? Michael Ellison, a writer for The Guardian, a London newspaper, suggests that it might have been a combination of fear and reluctance: "fear that compilations would undermine album sales, and a reluctance on the part of different labels to co-operate on licensing and marketing".

Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts, has made powerful statements about the effect of compilations on the sales of individual artists' own albums. British chart authorities - the voices of the major record labels – apparently thought along the same lines. They ruled that compilation albums were not eligible for the general, sales-determined album charts. The compilations were selling too many copies, and not leaving any room for individual artists' albums. Finally, the compilations got a chart of their own, leaving the standard charts free for the likes of the Corrs, Eminem, and Madonna.

How might the Quiet Storm compilations affect the sales of albums by Hawai`ian artists? If they follow the trend of the Now! collections, buyers will rush to buy individual albums from the artists featured on the compilations. Iervolino agrees; he believes that his compilations will resurrect interest in bands that haven't received much airplay in recent years. "Because we market our albums very aggressively and broadly, it expands the potential market for local artists who don't have the resources and/or the know/how to do that marketing," he adds. "It's really a win-win situation."

By the way, can you guess which label is responsible for the Now! series?

EMI produces the British series, but the American compilations are put together by Universal Music Group… the same company that partnered with Quiet Storm Records on Pure Hawai`ian.

Universal Music Group consists of A&M Records, Decca Records, Decca Broadway, Deutsche Grammophon, Geffen Records, Interscope Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com, MCA Nashville, MCA Records, Mercury Records, Motown Records, Philips, Polydor, Universal Records, and The Verve Music Group. It claims to own the most extensive catalog of music in the industry.