Gabby Pahinui

Gabby Pahinui played a foundational role in shaping Hawaiian slack key guitar traditions. His sole internationally distributed album, Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1, stands as the only such release in his catalog, yet Hawaiian slack key players and American guitarists such as John Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Ry Cooder still carry echoes of his approach. In an early-'90s conversation, his son James "Bla" Pahinui, himself an accomplished slack key guitarist, noted, "My dad got away with a lot of stuff because it worked. He touched so many people because he shared what was in his heart in such an honest and direct way."

Pahinui produced the earliest slack key recordings in 1946. He guided his band the Sons of Hawai'I through subsequent decades until the early '70s, at which point he assembled a fresh ensemble that included his sons Charles, Cyril, and James. The group’s initial path to wider recognition opened when Ry Cooder journeyed to Hawaii in 1975 to capture Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1 across two weeks of sessions held at Pahinui’s residence in Kona, a house long used for nightly jam sessions. That same year Pahinui appeared as a guest on Cooder’s album Chicken Skin.