Gabby ‘Pops’ Pahinui: The Heartbeat of Hawaiian Music

A confluence of things, algorithms, and introspection amongst them, compel me to jot down a weblog about Hawaiian music. It’s a idiot’s errand. Books have been written and graduate research programs have been taught about Hawaiian music and the most important gamers who constellate the firmament of beloved performers who’ve solid its trendy and mainstream id. Actually, none shine brighter or extra eternally in that Hawaiian musical universe than Gabby “Pops” Pahinui.

Gabby Pahinui is the primary artist to look to for these focused on understanding what makes music from Hawaii “Hawaiian music”. He had turn into an icon lengthy earlier than his passing in 1980. His slack key tunings, virtuosic approach, and his angelic voice are timeless. His sons carried his legacy faithfully. His reside recordings and studio albums have knowledgeable the strategy and inspiration of 1000’s of Hawaii musicians.

Hawaiian music – what’s it?

Hawaiian songs doesn’t get any extra genuine than something Pops ever performed onstage, within the studio, or in the course of the numerous yard kanikapila classes he led or joined in his lifetime. His work is intently acknowledged by students and Hawaiian musicians alike as pivotal to the Native Hawaiian cultural renaissance of the 1970s. Gabby’s Rabbit Island Music Competition album launched in 1973, which featured his sons and different musicians who would go on to turn into legends of their very own, is a seminal second in Hawaiian music historical past.

I used to be only a child again then, a haole child. I don’t have any authority or credibility to discuss Hawaiian music aside from as a listener, as somebody who grew up listening to Gabby Pahinui’s songs on the radio, and on the data spinning in my household’s residence and the properties of innumerable tutus and aunties and uncles. Gabby’s rendition of “Hi’ilawe” provides me chicken-skin even now via my headphones as I take heed to it whereas I write. I’m proud that a part of my household legend contains an apocryphal story of Pops turning up for my youthful sister’s first birthday luau. Do I do not forget that? No, however I’m completely satisfied to imagine it.

The legacy of Pops

A few years later, I discovered myself working beside Gabby’s son Bla Pahinui at a big Metropolis & County of Honolulu park complicated. Bla was an exceptionally type and beneficiant man, one thing I can solely assume he inherited from his father. We’d play guitar collectively within the evenings, sharing refreshments and tales concerning the a whole lot of youngsters that we taken care of throughout hectic Summer time Enjoyable applications. He taught me not how you can play Hawaiian music, however how you can hear it.  

It’s vital to know the distinction between Hawaiian music and music from Hawaii. Pop famous person Bruno Mars is from Hawaii. Does that make his model of irresistible beats, lethal hooks, and sick dance strikes “Hawaiian music”? Strictly talking, Bruno will not be Hawaiian. Jake Shimabukuro, far and away the world’s most well-known ukulele participant with thousands and thousands of followers worldwide as nicely will not be Hawaiian. However he performs Hawaiian music (and Jimi Hendrix and Mozart and so forth).

I’ve been an expert musician in Hawaii for nigh-on 30 years. I’ve by no means carried out what I’d take into account Hawaiian music in my commerce. Hawaiian music has advanced in these a long time, now encompassing reggae, pop, and hip-hop tropes and affectations. I’d posit that any music made by Native Hawaiian musicians is, by definition, Hawaiian music.

A Hawaiian Airways in-flight video encompasses a sensible blues tune video shot in a area of sunflowers on Maui that options Tavana and John Cruz, two up to date luminaries which can be amongst a big group of musicians who proceed to stretch the definition of “Hawaiian music”. Braddaz Iz, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, captivated the world together with his late-night, one-off rendition of the previous American musical canon requirements “Fantastic World/Over the Rainbow”. It brings tears to thousands and thousands to at the present time. (My headphones are giving me rooster pores and skin once more).

Nonetheless, the music of Gabby “Pops” Pahinui stays, as does the normal musical pursuit of nahenahe, which the College of Hawaii defines as “tender, candy, melodious, as music or a mild voice”. There isn’t a extra vital touchstone to the fantastic world of Hawaiian music than Gabby “Pops” Pahinui. There’s a lot to discover about Hawaiian music, and there’s no higher place to begin the journey than with Pops.