Gabby Pahinui immortalized in bronze

Gabby “Pops” Pahinui, the late Hawaiian slack-key guitarist, already has had named after him a festival, a park pavilion and a crater on Mercury.

Now a 7-foot statue, unveiled Friday at the Waikiki Beach Walk, adds to the tribute. Pahinui joins a list of local treasures popular enough to be immortalized in bronze. Waikiki statues have previously been erected to honor Hawaiian waterman Duke Kahanamoku, peacekeeper Mohandas Gandhi, Hawaiian vocalist Alfred Apaka and members of the Hawaiian royal family, including King David Kalakaua, Prince Kuhio and Princess Kaiulani.

This latest statue, which cost more than $150,000 to create and install, came about through a partnership between Outrigger Enterprises Group and the complex’s owner, American Assets Trust Inc., to mark the 10th anniversary of the Waikiki Beach Walk and honor its commitment to music.

“We have a whole chronology of Hawaiian music in the corridor by Roy’s that we installed when we opened the Waikiki Beach Walk,” said Barbara Campbell, Outrigger leasing agent. “We already have some good strong roots with Hawaiian music. The statue ties it all together.”

The statue created by Honolulu sculptor Kim Duffett, is called “Kanikapila,” or jam session, because it depicts Pahinui as he would have been during a jam session at his Waimanalo home on Bell Street, where his son Bla Pahinui said hundreds would gather to listen, learn and play. He’s dressed in the overalls that he favored during his Sons of Hawaii band days. He sports his trademark kinky hair, which daughter-in-law Kathleen Pahinui said earned him the nickname “Gabby” because it behaved like gabardine when it got wet. The pose is from a favorite photo taken by his son Cyril Pahinui, who won a Na Hoku Hanohano award earlier this month for “Hi‘ilawe,” the slack-key guitar album named for the song his father first recorded in 1946.

“It was during his time that this new renaissance of Hawaiian music came about for the young people to have a role model,” said Kuuipo Kumukahi, a Hawaii Tourism Authority board member and Hawaiian culture manager for the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. “We all kind of know the same songs, but maybe he knows something more and everyone shares. That in and of itself is the magic. If we didn’t have that, we probably wouldn’t have a whole generation of local people looking at Hawaiian music as a way of life.”

Kumukahi said the way Gabby Pahinui played music and lived his life made him a “grass-roots hero.” Raised in a working-class Kakaako family, Pahinui learned to love music, which led him to develop ties to Waikiki. As a young man he took the streetcar to Kapiolani Park to watch local musicians. When he grew up he played in a variety of Waikiki haunts, including Queen’s Surf, the old International Market Place and Duke’s.

A grade-school dropout, Pahinui worked for the city’s pick and shovel crew and as a rubbish man. Despite the challenges, his talent helped him become the father of slack-key guitar, or simply “Pops.”

His son Bla Pahinui, who was in attendance, said his father was self-taught but could play any string instrument, the piano and flute, and any other instrument that interested him. His ear was so strong that he picked up on nuances that no one else could, Bla Pahinui said, recalling that his father was once in Los Angeles playing with a studio band when he identified a sour note played by a professional violinist.

“The whole studio turned and looked at my dad with a mean look, but sure enough it was off by just a fraction. Before my dad left, all of the musicians bowed to him. Ry Cooder said he never saw anything like it,” Pahinui said.

The “music gene” in the Pahinui ohana is very strong, said Kathleen Pahinui, wife of Bla Pahinui.

“He was an absolute musical genius, there’s no other word,” she said. “He was immensely creative. He never played the same song twice in the same way. His albums today sound as fresh as they did in the 1970s; they are amazingly complex. He was creative in taking songs and giving them a fresh spin, a new look and feel. He was a terrific guitar player.”

Bla Pahinui said the Bell Street kanikapila days helped his father further his talents by giving him a chance to experiment.

“Every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday all the musicians would be at my father’s house, and a lot of them didn’t go home until Monday,” he said. “Eventually it got so popular that the tour buses would come and police would put out cones. “

Kumukahi said she remembers being 15 years old and “trudging through cow pies just to go see him and Auntie Genoa (Keawe) performing. They had that wow factor. They influenced a whole generation.”

Gabby Pahinui died in 1980 at the age of 59, but three of his sons — Bla, Martin and Cyril Pahinui — went on to become successful musicians. He even had an impact on the legendary Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole, better known as Bruddah Iz, said Sean Dee, Outrigger executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

Bruddah Iz first met Gabby and the Sons of Hawaii at Steamboats in Waikiki, where they would invite him up on stage with his ukulele. He dedicated his successful “Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World” medley to Gabby.

“In the opening moments of the song, you hear, ‘K, this one’s for Gabby,’” Dee said. “We were playing albums trying to decide who to honor. We considered Don Ho, Bruno Mars and Bruddah Iz, but that dedication inspired us. It gave us the confidence to go back to the team and say that the selection of Gabby was an obvious one.”