Abstract
I have a special place in my heart for Fijian music—the guitar-driven harmonies sung around the kava bowl in the village or their modern, keyboard-driven, urban club descendants; the percussion-inspired chants accompanying the meke dance; and the uplifting vocal blends of the schoolchildren at their morning assembly or the congregation at their religious services. To try to quench my thirst for this music since leaving Fiji, I've downloaded favorite new renditions from the Internet, begged friends to send CD releases, and even incorporated representative samples into the repertoire of my Honolulu-based Pan-Pacific group, the kava boys band. That being said, I admit that I agreed to write this review with a hope of sharing the feelings that Fijian music inspires in me through writing about a new compilation of what I knew as Fijian music. But, to my surprise, the mesmerizing and inspirational music of Wasawasa by Sailasa Tora is unlike anything, Fijian or otherwise, that I have ever heard before.
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