Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 7, 1 July 2012 — GABBY-KAPILA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GABBY-KAPILA

Rooted in the legacy of Gabby Pahinui, two festivals play on

By Lynn Cook Connect the words slack key or Gabby with the word "festival" and somebody says, "Oh, yeah man, I was there!" Then you ean expect that everyone in earshot will ehime in and wax poetic about the experience of their dad, unele, sister or their own tweaked-to-perfection memory. The questions iiy: what year you went, where, who played? Then the really big question, "Did you ever hear Gabby?" The beauty of the moment is that it's not relegated to history. For both the uninitiated and for the diehard

fans, these legendary island music moments continue on. The fifth annual Gabby Pahinui Waimānalo Kanikapila happens Saturday, Aug. 11, followed on Aug. 19 by what's heeome a longstanding island tradition - the 30th annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival in Kapi'olani Park. Both events are free, last the better part of the day and are possibly the most user-friendly music events ail year. Think family. Think T-shirts, slippers and sunscreen, low-back heaeh chairs and plate luneh, with back-up sound from the rhythm of the oeean. One festival is good, two is even better. Treat yourself.

JUST GABBY The question is, if 150 musicians get together to play music, what's the result? For the past four years the answer would be the Waimānalo Kanikapila. Gabby's son Cyril Pahinui and his wife, Chelle, have worked to

put on a party in classic Gabby style. Back in the day, as they say, weekends at the Pahinui home in Waimānalo were one long jam session. Word would go out: Gabby was playing. The yard would fiil with guys with guitars. If you eame late you followed the line of parked piek-up trucks and the sound of Gabby's voice - somewhere between a buildozer and a train wreck, with moments of falsetto that made everyone cry. Hard work, a dozen kids and a hard life took Gabby away early - born in 1921, he died in 1980 at the young age of 59. Musicians who were in his backyard never forgot. Those who were not even bom have a second ehanee to know the sound of Hawai'i's slack key magic. Cyril says he started the soon-to-be 5-year-old festival to honor his dad, to keep the backyard-style kanikapila alive. He says the day is reaily not a concert, "Musicians just want to eome to hang together, to play with maybe not even the guys in their band" They play for ifee. They jam and stay all day and the audience is the beneficiary. Hanging out in the open pavilion at Waimānalo Beach Park, the musicians are very accessible. Any fan ean eome up and gush a compiiment. If they have a musieal question, it gets answered, often by half-dozen of their music heroes. The talent line-up is pages long, not including spontaneous moments when another guitar is "just what's needed," adding length to every per-

Gabby Pahinui Waimānalo Kanikapila > When: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat., Aug. 11 > Where: Waimānalo Beach Park, Gabby Pahinui Pavilion > Cost: Free, $15 T-Shirt supports festival costs >Starring: 150 musicians, including Jerry Santos, Haunani Apoliona, Jeff Peterson, Dennis Kamakahi, Sonny Lim, Cyril Pahinui, Greg Sardinha, PeterMoon, Bla Pahinui, George Kuo, Alan Akaka, Gary Aiko, David Kahiapo, Walt Keale, Mike Kaawa, Jessie Kalima 'Ohana. > Plus: hula, educational eommunityorganizations, cultural displays, lomilomi, and food booths with proceeds supporting athletic and communitygroups >Added event: Aug. 10, Friday, 1 p.m. Slack Key/'Ukulele Workshop at pavilion > lnfo: gabbypahinui.com Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival - "Ū'ahu Style" > When: noon to 6 p.m. Sun., Aug. 19 > Where: Kapi'olani Park, Waikiki > Cost: Free > Starring: Ledward Kaapana, Dennis Kamakahi, LT Smooth, Ho'okena with Glen Smith, Nathan Aweau, John Cruz, Brother Noland, Maunalua with Bobby Moderow, Paul Togioka, Hi'ikua, George Kuo, Stephen lnglis, Kaukahi, Patrick Landeza, Alani Yamauchi, Asa Gample, Makana > Plus: food booths, shave iee, festival T-shirts, artists' CDs and DVDs, and a chanceto win a newTaylor guitarand Kanile'a 'Ukulele > lnfo: slackkeyfestival.com. Festivals will also be held in Kona, 'Ewa Beach and Lihu'e in September, 0ctoberand November, respectively.

www.oha.org/kwo | kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAiiAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

In this undated photo, Gabby Pahinui, left, teaches his son Cyril, foreground, in the yard of their Waimūnalo home as Joe Gang looks on. - Courtesy: David Comwell

formance. The list includes dozens of Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award winners. Cyril says, "The only musicians not playing have a gig somewhere else." Before the event Chelle and Cyril, with help frommany volunteers, elean the park and power wash the pavilion, dedicated to Gabby. They even paint it when the City and County has a paint budget. The sale of Gabby T-shirts helps fund the musicians' food and security. Chelle says: "The term 'eollectors' item' is no joke. We saw a first year shirt listed on eBay for $500. Warning, we don't reprint." JUS' PRESS That's what Ledward Kaapana says when he describes the art of slack key guitar playing, "strings slack, jus' press." Milton Lau, mastermind behind three decades of the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival on O'ahu says, "just relax." The fes-

tival began in 1982 as a grand opening for the City and County of Honolulu's McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Park. Lau and artist Kauka de Silva ran the pavilion. With a makeshift stage built of boards from the wood pile, a huneh of ti plants and a very simple sound system, Lau says, "We dressed the plaee up and invited some of the music 'greats' of Hawai'i to eome play kl hō'alu, slack key music." The intent of the concerts was to honor the great Gabby "Pops" Pahinui. Word got around and the fans eame, packed so close together that it was easy to say, "Can you pass these pūpū to my aunhe over there, and help yourself." The music went far into the night with Raymond Kane, George Kuo, Keola Beamer, the Mākaha Sons and the Pahinui brothers. Even when the stage went dark, fans wanted to stay and talk music. The famed piano man George Winston of Windom Hill recording eame and fell in love with slack key. He wanted to record the music so he created Dancing Cat Records. Nominations and Grammy Awards for slack key followed for CDs by Rhythm & Roots, Mountain Apple Co. and Winston's company as well. "We looked for sponsors to help with costs, to help the musicians, to get better sound," Lau says. Cox Radio, Hawaiian 105, the Honohihi StarAdvertiser, OHA, Outrigger Hotels and other partners stepped up to help. ' 'We never imagined it would go on for 30 years," he says. When they outgrew McCoy Pavilion, the concert moved to Waterfront Park, to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and finally to the broad expanse of Kapi'olani Park. Lau has shared the wealth of music, adding a festival on Maui, Hawai'i Island, Kaua'i and for the first time since 1993, festivals will be retuming to West Coast cities in California, Qregon and Washington. "The amazing thing," says Lau, "is that the feeling has never changed. No matter where we have a concert, it's laid back kl hō'alu!" ■ Lynn Cook is a loeal freeīance journaīist sharing the arts and ailtnre ofHcwaVi with a gīobaī audience.

Hawaiian songs named to National Recording Registry Gabby Pahinui's 1947 recording of "Hula Medley" and Sol Hoopii and his Novelty Five's 1938 recording of "Fascinating Rhythm" have been inducfed intothe Libraryof Congress' National Recording Registry. The two songs are forever enshrined in the registry as "cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures," the library said. Pahinui made some of the first modern recordings of slack key, including "Hula Medley." Hoopii, meanwhile, applied steel guitar to traditional hulas, ragtime, jazz and pop in the 1920s when the steel guitar was enjoying national popularity, and "he and his peers influenced blues and country slide guitarists," thelibrarysaid. Recordings by Donna Summer, Prince and the Revolution, Dolly Parton, Bo Diddley, the Grateful Dead, interviews with former slaves and an 1888 Edison Talking Doll cylinder were also inducted. There are now 350 recordings in the registry, whieh annually inducts 25 sound recordings that are least 10 years old.