Hawaiian music legend Palani Vaughan died Thursday at the age of 72.
Vaughan, inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2008, is best known for albums honoring King David Kalakaua.
Forming the King’s Own, he studied, composed, published, recorded and performed tributes to Kalakaua and Hawaii’s monarchy, releasing four albums in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Vaughan released the “Ia ‘Oe e ka La” series on his own label. The third was voted Best Traditional Album and Best Produced recording in 1978 for the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards; the fourth volume earned him Male Vocalist of the Year in 1981.
He received the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
“Our Vaughan ‘Ohana is grateful for everyone’s love and support and are focusing on spending time together,” his family said in a written statement. “Beyond his accomplishments and the music he shared that the world could enjoy, he was our makuakane, the most loving grandfather, our Papalani, and a caregiver to his parents and so many.
“He loved his people, our ali‘i, and these islands. He was steadfast and dignified to the last in land disputes, and for our lahui Hawai‘i.
“He was a great teacher nurtured by great teachers, and touched so many with his music, his words, his spirit. He was selfless, ha‘aha‘a, believed in prayer, loved and cared for our kupuna. He listened to their voices on the wind, shared their lessons, and ensured they will always be heard and carried on.”
Vaughan was easily recognizable, sporting a mustache and thick mutton chops a la Kalakaua most his life. But in his early years as a performer, he was fresh-faced and clean-shaven.
At the University of Hawaii, Vaughan and classmate Peter Moon made plans to record an album together.
In 1967 Don McDiarmid Jr. produced “Meet Palani Vaughan &the Sunday Manoa,” with singer Vaughan and Sunday Manoa founding members Peter Moon, Cyril Pahinui and Albert “Baby” Kalima Jr.
His first solo album, “Hawaiian Love Songs,” released in 1970, “positioned him as the likely successor to the late Alfred Apaka as the romantic golden voice of Hawaii,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin writer John Berger wrote in 2007. “But Vaughan chose to put his personal commitment to honoring the legacy of King Kalakaua ahead of commercial success.”
The album was a collection of mostly popular hapa haole standards, and “Vaughan does a wondrous job,” Berger wrote, including “My Little Grass Shack,” as a laid-back ballad, and “Kaua i ka Huahua‘i” (“Hawaiian War Chant”), as a seductive love song.
Born May 27, 1944, Frank Palani Vaughan Jr. went on to become a central figure in the Hawaiian renaissance.
His most important legacy as a songwriter and recording artist is his four-album series honoring Kalakaua. The standard portrayal in the ’60s and early ’70s had been of a carefree “Merrie Monarch.” The albums corrected the misrepresentation and documented Kalakaua’s commitment to preserving and perpetuating traditional Hawaiian culture, embracing modern technology and defending the Hawaiian people.
Vaughan’s commitment to publicizing the king’s true legacy ended his own career as a mainstream showroom entertainer, but he did so willingly.
Former Gov. John Waihee said he appointed Vaughan in 1993 to the planning commission for the centennial commemoration of the overthrow of the monarchy because of his knowledge of Kalakaua and the protocol involved.
“We’re going to miss him a lot because he really put himself into it,” he said. “It wasn’t just the music, it was the history around it. His music was special, but it was all part of really learning what was authentic.”
Vaughn “believed in the future independence for Native Hawaiians,” he said. “It was all in his own way. He wasn’t a joiner. It was finding about it, singing about it.”
“It wasn’t so much about the politics,” he said. “It was the way he lived his life.”
