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The Sons of Hawaii was a Hawaiian musical group that became popular among mainstream audiences from the 1960s through the 1990s.
In 1960 they opened at the Sandbox in Honolulu and were soon the highest-paid Hawaiian group in the Islands. [1] In 1961 they released their first album, "Gabby Pahinui with The Sons of Hawaii."
The group was originally formed in 1960 under the leadership of Gabby Pahinui with members Eddie Kamae, Joe Marshall and David "Feet" Rogers. Each of these musicians came to the group with years of experience in not only Hawaiian music, but many other kinds, such as American swing, jazz and Latin rhythms.
In the 1940s through the 1950s, traditional Hawaiian music was hard to find. Most music played for the many visitors on the islands was tropical ballads, typically found in Hollywood musicals.
After hours, local musicians would get together and play the traditional Hawaiian music for themselves. These "jam sessions" were generally at luaus, parks, and a popular place for the local musicians, Charley's Cab, a cab driver's retreat next to the Hawaiian Electric building. Many of Charley's drivers at the time were Hawaiian musicians. This was the cab stand where Eddie Kamae got his start performing for others.
A few years after the group was formed they went their own separate ways until the middle to late 1960s when they reformed with the members Kamae, Marshall, Rogers, Atta Isaacs and Bobby Larson.
During this time, Kamae revitalized the music by going to the rural countryside and learning from the old-timers both the music and meanings. The rural folks shared with him old family songs and their meanings. Burl Burlingame of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin describes this as:
By the end of the 1960s the group included Kamae, Marshall, Rogers, Sonny Chillingworth and Zulu, who acted on Hawaii Five-O . In 1970, the group reassembled once more, this time to make another album. To the original four musicians was added ukulele master Moe Keale.
In 1973, Kamae brought the group back together, minus Pahinui, and added a young Hawaiian singer-songwriter named Dennis Kamakahi (Grammy Award-winning recording artist and music composer). This was the fifth Sons of Hawaii incarnation.
On November 16, 1985, Eddie Kamae and the Sons of Hawaii were featured on A Prairie Home Companion , along with the Kahelelani Serenaders, Taj Mahal with Carlos Andrade and his band, and the Kamehameha High School Glee Club, as well as Chet Atkins and Johnny Gimble plus the show regulars. This is one of their few live recordings. Songs played by The Sons of Hawaii include "Hanakeoki", "E Hihiwai" and the classic "Ulili E (Sandpiper)".
In 1989, the seventh and final incarnation of the Sons of Hawaii consisted of Kamae, Marshall, George Kuo, Braddah Smitty, Dennis Kamakahi; sometimes Gary Haleamau and steel player Paul Kim would join them. When Joe Marshall died, Ocean Kaowili became the bass player. This was the last Sons of Hawaii, as Eddie Kamae retired in 1992. [1]
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The music of Hawaii includes an array of traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop. Styles like slack-key guitar are well known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of Hollywood soundtracks. Hawaii also made a contribution to country music with the introduction of the steel guitar. In addition, the music which began to be played by Puerto Ricans in Hawaii in the early 1900s is called cachi cachi music, on the islands of Hawaii.
Philip Kunia Pahinui, known as Gabby Pahinui, was a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music.
Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. This style of guitar playing involves altering the standard tuning on a guitar from E-A-D-G-B-E, which has been used for centuries, so that strumming across the open strings will then sound a harmonious chord, typically an open major. This requires altering or "slacking" certain strings, which is the origin of the term "slack key". The style typically features an alternating-bass pattern, played by the thumb on the lower two or three strings of the guitar, while the melody is played by the fingers on the three or four highest strings. There are as many as fifty tunings that have been used in this style of playing, and tunings were once guarded fiercely and passed down as family secrets. In the early 20th century, the steel guitar and the ukulele gained wide popularity in America, but the slack-key style remained a folk tradition of family entertainment for Hawaiians until about the 1960s and 1970s during the second Hawaiian renaissance.
Edward Leilani "Eddie" Kamae was one of the founding members of Sons of Hawaii. He was a 'ukulele virtuoso, singer, composer, film producer and primary proponent of the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance.
The Hawaiian Renaissance was the Hawaiian resurgence of a distinct cultural identity that draws upon traditional Kānaka Maoli culture, with a significant divergence from the tourism-based culture which Hawaiʻi was previously known for worldwide. The Hawaiian Renaissance has been pointed to as a global model for biocultural restoration and sustainability.
Dennis David Kahekilimamaoikalanikeha Kamakahi was a Hawaiian slack key guitarist, recording artist, music composer, and Christian minister. He was a three-time Grammy Award winner, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.
Leonard Keala Kwan Sr (1931–2000) was one of the most influential Hawaiian slack-key guitarists to emerge in the period immediately preceding the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance of the 1970s. He made the first LP of slack key instrumentals, co-wrote the second slack key instruction book, and composed a number of pieces that have become part of the standard repertory. Most players will include Kwan, along with Gabby Pahinui, Sonny Chillingworth, and Atta Isaacs, on a list of the most significant players of the older generation.
Donald David Guard was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. Along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, he was one of the founding members of the Kingston Trio.
Peter Moon was an American ukulele and slack-key guitar player.
Wilfred Nalani "Moe" Keale was an American musician of Hawaiian music, a ukulele virtuoso, and an actor. He was the uncle and major musical influence of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.
Owana Kaʻōhelelani Mahealani-Rose Salazar is an American musician and activist. She is thought to be the only female steel guitar player in Hawaiʻi trained by Jerry Byrd.
The Guitar and Lute Workshop (GLW) was a manufacturer of custom guitars, ukuleles, and period stringed instruments based in Honolulu, Hawaii between 1970 and 1976. The workshop was known primarily for the talented luthiers employed in either construction of guitars, or the musicians that taught at the workshop or that used guitars made at the workshop. Additionally, an independent piano restoration and tuning business operated above the workshop floor and studios for at least two years. The GLW was notable as a nexus of activity supporting native Hawaiian musical cultural discovery during the Second Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s such as restoration of the musical instruments belonging to former Hawaiian royalty which are now curated by ʻIolani Palace. Key Hawaiian musicians such as Keola Beamer and Kapono Beamer got early boosts to their careers at the GLW.
Patrick Landeza is a contemporary Hawaiian slack key guitarist. He is the first mainland-born Hawaiian to win a Nā Hōkū Hanohano music award. He was born in Berkeley, California on June 23, 1972.
The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F. Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham. The building was designed in an Italian Renaissance Revival by architect Lincoln Rogers of Los Angeles, who also designed the Hawaii State Art Museum (1928). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and restored by Architects Hawaiʻi Ltd. in 1980.
Cyril Pahinui was a slack-key guitarist and singer of Hawaiian music.
Mekia Kealakai was a musician, composer and conductor of the Royal Hawaiian Band, as well as musical director of the Kawaihau Orchestra and Glee Club.
Alan Akaka is a Hawaiian steel guitarist and educator. The son of former congressman and senator Daniel Akaka, he has taught at several schools and is in charge of the Hawaiian music school Ke Kula Mele. In 2014 he successfully led a petition to prevent the ukulele from being named the official state musical instrument, arguing that the steel guitar was more reflective of Hawaiian tradition.
The Descendants (Music from the Motion Picture) is the soundtrack to the film The Descendants, released, three days before the film on November 15, 2011 by Sony Classical Records. The film uses Hawaiian music, featuring artists including Gabby Pahinui, Ray Kane, Keola Beamer, Lena Machado, Sonny Chillingworth, Jeff Peterson, Makana, Dennis Kamakahi, and Danny Carvalho. The soundtrack was acclaimed by music critics for its use of Hawaiian music and received a nomination for Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.
David "Feet" Rogers was a Hawaiian lap steel guitar player and inductee into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
