Artist Bio:
Charles Philip Pahinui, known to everyone as Gabby, is revered as one of Hawaii's musical icons, the most naturally gifted and mellifluous of its slack-key guitar players. His death in 1980 at 59 came before the slack-key style became internationally known, but Gabby was already a figure who'd broken out from the islands—the first to do so.
Born April 22, 1921, Pahinui endured a poor childhood in the Kaka'ako area of Honolulu, an area of shacks little better than the terrible favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Survival was a daily struggle, and Gabby shone shoes and hawked newspapers to contribute to the family income before dropping out of school after fifth grade to work full-time. He was, however, a talented guitarist who took to the instrument as though born to it. As he grew he was taught by a man he claimed to have only known as Herman, who also lived in Kaka'ako, and whom Pahinui described as "the greatest slack-key player of all time." Although he never knew his tutor's last name, there's been rampant speculation it was Herman Kane, the father of another slack-key player, Ray Kane, who'd abandoned his family when his son was an infant.
By the time he was in his midteens, Pahinui was working as a guitarist with singer Charles "Tiny" Brown, playing more Hawaiian slide guitar than slack key—a style he managed to pick up immediately. Most of the band's gigs were in bars on the island, and it was almost inevitable that the young Pahinui would begin drinking with the other musicians. It was a habit that he was never able to shake and it contributed to his early death. At the age of 17, while playing volleyball, he met Emily, who became his wife and the mother to his 13 children.
Pahinui cut his first disc in 1946, "Hi'ilawe," for the Bell label, believed to be the first record of a Hawaiian song with slack-key guitar, and he followed it a year later with "Hula Medley," the first recording of a slack-key guitar instrumental. During this seminal period he also recorded the vocal track "Wai O Ke Aniani" and the instrumental "Key Koalu" (a misspelling of "Kī Hō'alu," the Hawaiian term for "slack key"), plus another version of "Hi'ilawe." He quickly became the in-demand guitarist for many others, which led to him appearing on the widely broadcast radio show Hawaii Cats in the 1950s. For all that work, however, money was scarce, especially with such a large family to feed, and the Pahinuis moved to the more isolated and cheaper Waimanalo, about a half hour from Honolulu. Gabby often hosted weekend jam sessions in the town, which remained his home until his death.
He continued to play sessions throughout the '50s, and in 1961, Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio arrived in Hawaii to record an LP of Gabby's work, backed by bass and ukulele. But it was symptomatic of the low regard people had for Hawaiian music that not even one of the leading figures of the American folk revival could interest a label in releasing the album. (The LP eventually appeared in 1978.) Gabby continued to work regularly, including a stint as a member of the seminal Sons of Hawaii, the group that helped to kick start the Hawaiian cultural renaissance of the early 1970s. But at times he was also forced into day jobs, laboring with a pick and shovel on a road crew—a position he ended up holding for 14 years, until an accident forced him to quit.
It was only when he formed the Gabby Band that he really began to make his mark. Beginning in 1972, Gabby and Co. made four albums. Initially Pahinui was backed by four of his sons, but the group soon expanded to include several other players like Atta Isaacs and Sonny Chillingworth. The influential American guitarist Ry Cooder heard one of their early discs, and in 1975 traveled to Hawaii to record The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band Vol. 1, where he not only produced but also added guitar. The record—Pahinui's first to reach outside the islands¬—brought him fame, but it really came too late. The years of drinking began to catch up with him. He died on October 13, 1980, leaving behind a rich legacy of music that's continued by his sons, many of whom play professionally.—Chris Nickson
