Gabby Pahinui

04/22/21 - 10/13/80

The late Gabby Pahinui was one of the great 20th century masters of Hawaiian vocal, slack key and steel guitar music--a true working class hero.  Pahinui was a brilliant self-taught musician with a bright falsetto that became raspy with age.  This, coupled with guttural deep tones made him a unique fixture on the Hawaiian music scene.  Pahinui's was the raw, plaintive, earthy and powerful "under-the-stars" backyard music of Hawaii.  His music still strikes a universal chord in the hearts and minds of people--you don't have to be Hawaiian to feel it.

Gabby "Pops" Pahinui was born Charles Kapono Kahahawai, Jr. on April 22, 1921--son of lei sellers.  Gabby's father was full-blooded Hawaiian, his mother Hawaiian-German-Portugese.  Times were hard and his parents sent him to be raised with another Hawaiian couple--Phillip and Emily Pahinui--"pahinui" meaning "big knife."  His hair was kinky--when he used to go swimming the water would just roll off.  Because of that, everybody started calling him "Gabardine Hair"--which evolved into the appellation "Gabby."

As a young boy growing up in Honolulu (on the island of Oahu) he tried, but didn't like stevedoring and instead shined shoes in a Filipino plantation camp and sold newspapers.  Every chance he got, he listened to the musicians in Kakaako--an old working class neighborhood.  When he was 10, he started playing a stand-up bass.  He later learned slack key guitar from a Hawaiian man known to him simply as "Herman."  He then learned to play the ukulele.  Gabby dropped out of school when he was in the 6th grade.  He never learned to read music.

Gabby married Emily Kahua in 1937 and together they had 13 children--10 of whom were alive at the time of his death.

Ironically, though he would eventually become a master of Hawaiian music, jazz was his first love.  He grew up listening to Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, and Django Rheinhardt records--often playing along with the songs on a borrowed guitar.  He used to pick up a chord here and a chord there so that he would be ahead of the game when he played Hawaiian music.

Pahinui's first professional gig was at the Red Skelton Club in 1933.  He started playing regularly at the old Smith Cafe in Waikiki in 1937.  he joined Any Cummings and the Hawaiian Serenaders in the 1930's, playing steel guitar for many years.  In the 1950's, he worked with Eddie Spencer at the old Queen's Surf.  In the early 1960's, Gabby formed the Sons of Hawaii with Eddie Kamae.  In the early years, he earned $1.50 a night, eventually upping his take to $18.50 per week.  By his own count he played more than 200 clubs in Honolulu.  Gabby's musical influence still lives on, though all of those clubs have vanished from the landscape.

Scholars of Hawaiian music cite him as a major influence.  Yet rather than seek commercial success, he played music out of pure love.  Instead of compromising his music, he supported his family by driving a City & County of Honolulu refuse truck for much of his life, until he had an accident on the job.  In the last few years of his life he taught Hawaiian slack key guitar to the youngsters of the community for the County's Department of Parks and Recreation.

His career had its ups and downs and can be separated into three distinct phases: club performer in the early years, recording and concert artist in the middle years and in the years leading up to his death, primary recording force--though he coupled recordings with key concert appearances.  Over the years, Gabby made at least 25 recordings beginning with "Hi`ilawe," a scratchy 78 rpm that he first recorded in 1936.  He recorded it again in 1995 and it quickly became his signature song.

Widespread acclaim eluded Pahinui till late in his life.  In 1978, he was recognized by the state House of Representatives for being the person most responsible for preserving many of the Island's sons--an honor he received while clad in overalls, work shirt and zori (a Japanese-style flat thonged sandal made of rubber--popular Everyman garb in the Islands).  In 1979, he was one of nine persons named "Living Treasures of Hawaii" by the 67th Legislative Assembly of the Honpa Hongwanji (Buddist) Mission in Hawaii.  On May 4, 1980, he won Hawaiian music industry's coveted Na Hoku Hanohano Award for his "Slack Key Medley" off of his "Pure Gabby" album.

Gabby "Pops" Pahinui, pillar of 20th century Hawaiian music, died of a heart attack at 2:27pm on October 13, 1980, at the age of 59.  His music lives on . . .

POSTSCRIPT: Try your hand!  Here's the four tunings used by Gabby on his landmark recording "Pure Gabby--I Just Play the Way I Feel":
 

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