Gabby Pahinui - Early Career

Early Career

Gabby landed a gig as a back-up guitarist for Charley 'Tiny' Brown. He quickly mastered the steel guitar (Kika Kila; Hawaiianized English for "guitar, steel") without ever learning to read music. Because most musicians of the time only played in bars, Gabby also formed a drinking habit that stuck with him throughout his life.

At the 1st Annual Seattle Slack Key Guitar Festival, Cyril Pahinui related a story about how Gabby got his name. In his early career, he played steel guitar with an orchestra. The standard costume for the gig was gabardine pants—hence his name.

Though a master of the steel guitar (invented in Hawaii before Blues slide guitar), Gabby is most known for his mastery of the traditional Hawaiian slack-key guitar (Kī Hō`alu -"key slackened"- downtuned, usually to an open-string chord with low bass notes, then finger-picked) and his beautiful, expressive vocals. Gabby learned slack-key from Herman Keawe whom Gabby acknowledges as being "the greatest slack-key player of all time." Herman, like Gabby, lived in the Kaka'ako area.

Gabby married Emily at age 17 in 1938. They had ten children, four daughters and six sons.

In 1946, Gabby made his first recording, "Hi`ilawe," for the Bell Records label. This may be the first record of a Hawaiian song with slack-key guitar and it inspired many local musicians. The following year came "Hula Medley," the first record of a slack-key guitar instrumental. During this period he made two other influential sides for Bell, the vocal "Wai O Ke Aniani" and the instrumental "Key Koalu" (a misspelling of "Kī Hō`alu"), plus another version of "Hi`ilawe" for Aloha Records.

Gabby played with many of the great bands and musicians of his time, including Andy Cummings, Lena Machado, and Ray Kinney. He also appeared on Hawaii Calls, a popular international radio show that began in the 1930s. Eventually, Gabby moved Emily and the children to Waimanalo, Oahu, which had become a popular second home location for many musicians. The all-weekend jam sessions at the Pahinui home were legendary.

Examples of his session work from the late 1950s through the 1960s can be found on the two volumes of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar (Waikiki Records 319 and 320) and two more LPs titled Kani Ka Pila! Let's Play Music! Volumes 1 and 2 (Hula Records 517, 1966; Hula 531, 1969). These are combo recordings (steel guitar, slack key guitar, uke, bass, vocals, sometimes percussion) made with bandmates such as Atta, Barney, and Norman Isaacs, Charles Kaipo Miller, and a young Peter Moon, and they reflect the style of nightclub music popular around Waikīkī at the time.

A 1961 solo session organized by Hawaii-raised Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio features just Gabby, with bass and `ukulele backing, doing some of his classic material, including new versions of three of his four 1946-47 tracks. No record company was interested in the material, however, and it was not released until 1978. The final package was Pure Gabby (Hula 567), a two-record set, one LP consisting of the music and the second of an interview conducted by Guard.

Despite his success, Gabby still had financial trouble. He made ends meet by working for City and County of Honolulu road crews, doing pick and shovel work alongside fellow Hawaiian musician Eddie Kamae.