Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 8, 1 August 2013 — Let's play music! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Let's play music!

When Cyril Pahinui takes a break in the middle of his Wednesday gig at the Kani Ka Pila Grille at the Outrigger Reef, it isn't really a break. Fans swarm around him, wanting him to autograph a CD, and request that he play his famous song, "Hi'ilawe" - "just one more time." Then there are the fans who want to tell him they onee met, heard or played with his legendary dad, Gabby "Pops" Pahinui. Cyril Pahinui chuckles and says, "Some of these boys were hardly born (during my dad's time) but you never know, maybe their dads played with my dad." And, maybe it is just the love of slack key and a collective memory of the music that led the renaissance of Hawaiian music. When his break is pau, Pahinui steps back up on the stage and strums the first note. Chatter stops.

Cold glasses of Longboard lager sit untouched and the anticipation is so thick you could spread it on toast. In Waiklkl or Waimānalo, Las Vegas, San Francisco or Seattle, the power of Cyril Pahinui's slack key seems universal. One big pieee of news in Pahinui's world is the response to his DVD, Let's Play Music. The film will eonhnue to play on PBS and is slated for two nahonal filmfestivals and showings at Pahinui's slack key workshops on the continent. Pahinui, a multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano

Award-winning musician, also teaches a series of workshops at Bishop Museum. Chelle Pahinui, Cyril's wife, whom he calls the "organizer of everything," says, "Our nearly-paid-off Mālama Loan from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs assisted us in producing the DVD." Let's Play Music - Slack key with Cyril Pahinui anel Friends celebrates the music of Gabby "Pops" Pahinui. There is no doubt that the DVD will create a new generation of slackkey guitar memories of laid back music in Waimānalo, nestled between the beach and the Ko'olau Mountains. Cyril Pahinui is joined by his two protegees, Jeff Au Hoy and Peter Moon Jr., now playing and touring with Pahinui. Also featured on the DVD: Roland Cazimero, Palani Vaughn, Kawika Kahiapo, Dennis Kamakahi, Mike Kaawa, Sonny Lim, Greg Sardinha and Kunia Galdeira. 'Ōiwi TV's Nā'ālehu Anthony directed the DVD, with Leanne Ferrer of Paeihe Islanders in Communications as executive producer. Pahinui says that back in smallkid days, with four sisters and five brothers: "None of us got music lessons. If we wanted to learn we just had to listen." When his dad shared something new he would expect Cyril to practice, then, "The next time I played, I could tell he was listening to me to see if I had mastered it." Cyril is using the same techniques teaching Au Hoy and Moon. Judging by audience response at live performances, they are mastering every lesson. The OHA loan reaches further with recording to begin soon for a new CD, to be released next year, featuring his "boys." Cyril Pahinui has always had a day job, with his first being the breakfast eook for his dad. "I would get up at 4 a.m. and eook for him just so I had some time with him before he went to work." He says that serving in Vietnam changed his whole life. "I found out that generals were only human. I treated them like an unele and thought, 'This guy no look like us but he's OK.' "I eame back, worked, played music and raised a family and now I have 18 grandkids!" He says, "I

am 'quote' retired from my day jobs but working all the time." He tours, teaches, records and, with his wife, produces one of the great music festivals in Hawai'i. Not only do they put together the daylong concert, they elean the Waimānalo Beach Park and the Gabby Pahinui Pavilion, scrub and paint the public bathrooms, set up and take down, and Cyril plays music all day. He says: "The musicians eome because they want to play with other musicians - around 150 of them. Sometimes they play with their usual group, sometimes they just jump in with someone they admire or someone who needs another band member." The sixth annual Gabby Pahinui Waimānalo Kanikapila is free. The sale of Gabby T-shirts helps to fund food for the musicians and to reach the goal, sometime in the future, to create and install a bronze statue featuring the Pahinui family. "We think Pops would like that." ■ Lynn Cook is a loeal freelance journalist sharing the arts and culture ofHawai'i with a global auāienee.

Sixth annual Gabby Pahinui Waimānalo Kanikapila WHERE: Waimānalo Beach Park, 41-741 Kalaniana'ole Highway WHEN: Aug. 10, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. WHAĪ: 150 musicians, hula hālau, community anel educational booths, cultural demonstrations, food vendors and $15 GabbyT-shirts ADMISSION: Free INF0: www.gabbypahinui.com Also see Pahinui at these shows: > Fifth annual Seattle Slack Key Festival Nov. 10, 2-6 p.m., $30-$125 īowne Hall, 8th Ave., Seattle, Washington > Weekly performances in Waikiki Kani Ka Pila Grille, 0utrigger Reef on the Beach Wednesdays, 6 to 9 p.m.

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Gūbby Pūhinui

Cyril Pūhinui