Eric Lee grew up with the music of the late Palani Vaughan. Now, after recording music by Vaughan, working and performing with the elder musician, and years of immersion, Lee will lead a musical tribute to Vaughan on Sunday.

Lee will share the stage at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki with Vaughan’s daughter, kumu hula Hiwa Vaughan, her Halau Hula Ka Lehua Tuahine, and three other musicians who share Lee’s respect for Vaughan and his legacy: Kawika Kahiapo, Kimo Artis and Kalanikai Artis.

The “Waikiki by Moonlight” concert is presented in Vaughan’s honor by the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

VAUGHAN, A highly honored Hawaii musician, died unexpectedly two years ago at age 72.

Lee, now 44, met Vaughan in person 10 years ago, when Lee approached Vaughan at a Hawaiian music event in Waikiki.

The younger musician wanted to ask permission to record a song Vaughan had written — not because it was legally required, but because asking a songwriter’s permission is the Hawaiian way to do things. It shows respect, and it’s an opportunity to learn as much about the song and its kaona (hidden meanings) as the writer is willing to share.

“It was back in 2008, when I was starting my first solo recording,” Lee recalled. “It was called ‘Crossroads,’ and I wanted to do one of his songs, ‘Ku‘i Ka Lono.’

“I went up after the show to introduce myself, and he was very gracious. He was very kind about giving me his blessing,” Lee said, calling from his home base in Honolulu after a working weekend in Japan.

“He sent me this highly detailed background — it must have been two or three pages long. Everything that led up to him composing the song.”

Vaughan liked Lee’s version. He invited Lee to become one of the King’s Own, the musicians who performed with Vaughan.

Lee was hesitant. His priority was building his solo career, he said, and he didn’t want to “short-change” Vaughan by having divided commitments. But Vaughan respected Lee’s priorities, and arranged for Lee to became an “in and out” member of the group.

Lee and Vaughan worked together for a time, beginning in 2009. Lee ultimately did go his own way, focusing on his solo career, but they had begun playing music together again in the year before Vaughan’s death.

“I was with him in rehearsal the day before he passed,” Lee noted. “It was a real shock. One day he was with me, the next day he was not.”

Kahiapo and the Artis brothers are also former members of the King’s Own. They are coming together again to perform Vaughan’s songs, in his honor.

“It was really cool when the Hall of Fame came around, and then Hiwa (Vaughan) asked us to come back again,” Lee said. “We got together last Thursday to go over some of the material and it was very nostalgic and very cool.”

BY ANY criteria, Palani Vaughan — born Frank Palani Vaughan Jr., on May 27, 1944, in Honolulu — made important and unique contributions to Hawaiian music.

Vaughan was attending the University of Hawaii when he started talking with another UH student, Peter Moon, about doing something different with Hawaiian music. With Cyril Pahinui and Albert “Baby” Kalima Jr., they founded Sunday Manoa — important innovators of the musical Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1960s.

Hula Records president Don McDiarmid Jr. produced the group’s first album, “Meet Palani Vaughan & The Sunday Manoa” in 1967 as a two-acts-in-one project with the thought that Vaughan could go solo.

Three years later, after Pahinui had been drafted and sent to Vietnam, Mc­Diarmid introduced Vaughan as a solo artist with “Hawaiian Love Songs,” a collection of hapa-haole standards that could have made Vaughan a successor to the late Alfred Apaka in terms of style and international appeal.

Vaughan found another calling.

Turning his back on showrooms, Vaughan committed himself to correcting the widespread public perception that Hawaii’s last king, David Kalakaua, had been a frivolous “Merrie Monarch” whose primary interests were alcohol and parties.

In 1974 Vaughan recorded and self-produced “Ia ‘Oe E Ka La,” an album of songs about Kalakaua and the events of his reign.

Vaughan documented Kalakaua’s importance as a royal patron and promoter of traditional Hawaiian culture.

He celebrated Kalakaua’s embrace of modern technology — ‘Iolani Palace was illuminated by electric lights when the White House was still using oil lamps. And he reminded the people of Hawaii that Kalakaua had struggled mightily to fend off the enemies of the Hawaiian people and maintain Hawaii as a free and independent nation.

Vaughan released “Ia ‘Oe E Ka La Volume II” in 1975.

The first two albums in the series were released before the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards were created in 1978, but a third volume won two Hokus in 1978. A fourth earned Vaughan another Hoku in 1981.

His commitment to perpetuating awareness of Kalakaua’s full legacy remained steadfast in the decades that followed.

Vaughan received the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Lee, whose own full-length Christian album, “Let the Light Shine Upon Me,” was released last week, describes Vaughan as “one of the pioneers.”

“His music was really way before his time, and he was one of the pioneers of carrying on the (Hawaiian) Renaissance back in the day,” Lee said.

“When he went off on his own, his music was, just — wow! His contributions to Hawaiian music were phenomenal.”