Cyril Pahinui – Straight From the Heart
Cyril Pahinui, born April 21, 1950 grew up on the remote Windward Coast of O‘ahu on Hawaiian Homestead in Waimānalo. The Pahinui home on Bell Street was a gathering place for the top Hawaiian musicians. Jam sessions of mythological proportions lasted for days. It was here that Cyril learned music in the traditional way, nana ka maka; ho‘olohe ka pepeiao, pa‘a ka waha, by listening and watching some of Hawai‘i’s foremost musicians, including his dad, music legend Gabby Pahinui. Cyril began participating in these kanikapila from the time he could hold a ‘ukulele, at 7, learning ki ho‘alu, and by age 12, performing professionally and soon after, recording on five of his father’s best known releases.
In addition to playing ‘ukulele, steel guitar, and banjo, Cyril has mastered 17 distinct kī hōʻalu tunings, many developed by his father or taught to him by slack key masters Atta Isaccs, Sonny Chillingworth, Ku‘i Lee and Leonard Kwan. Cyril specializes in Major C tuning (C-G-E-G-C-E) developed by Leland “Atta” Isaacs to accompany Gabby’s own variation of C tuning. This combination of tunings is a distinguishing aspect of Gabby’s exceptional arrangements that Cyril continues, while adding his own finesse to this distinct, impressive, and challenging style.
Having received the gift of Hawaiian music from his elders, Cyril views it as his kuleana to carry their legacy into the next generation. Over a career spanning five decades, Cyril has dedicated his efforts as a performer, teacher, and cultural ambassador to perpetuating his family’s innovative, yet deeply rooted approach, to Hawaiian music.
Cyril has toured world-wide, played Carnegie Hall twice and is now recognized as one of Hawai‘i’s most gifted guitarists and recognized singers. Cyril works to pass on Hawaiian music traditions, especially to Hawai‘i’s rural communities and at-risk youth through teaching, mentorship, and coordinating festivals and workshops with other master artists. the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and The Arts Cyril completed eight years of apprenticeship work under the Traditional Folk Arts program. With further inspiration from long-time friend, the late George Lanakilakeikiahialii Na‘ope at the Na‘alehu Theatre mentorships led to the Hawaiian Music Master Youth Outreach and Community Reinvestment and the instruction of thousands of local students including weekly classes taught over the past 5 years in 3 Waimanalo Schools.
Cyril has recorded on over fifty albums with many of Hawai‘i’s best known musicians including Peter Moon, Palani Vaughan, Aunty Genoa Keawe, Meveen Leed, Dennis Kamakahi, and Jeff Peterson. Three of these recordings received Grammy Awards and two others Grammy nominations. Cyril has been recognized with 19 Nā Hōkū Awards and in 2014, he received the Nā Hōkū Hanohano, Lifetime Achievement Award. He continues to make an ongoing contribution to Hawai‘i’s traditional music with his soon to be released collection of recordings, Cyril Pahinui MARKETPLACE.
Cyril has served on the Board of Directors of the Pacific North West Chapter of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY) and on the Board of Governors for the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts (HARA). In 2012, Cyril received the 2013 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellowship for Music and the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award of the First Peoples Fund in support of his teaching. In 2014, Cyril received the Duke’s Ho‘okahiko Award, honoring those who, live, exemplify and pass on the traditions. Cyril was also honored with the 2017 National Endowment for the Arts, Heritage Fellowship Award, the highest award for traditional Arts in American.
As a slack key guitarist, Cyril’s technical virtuosity, rhythmic adaptations, and instrumental harmonics impart the soul of Hawaiian music, and his beautiful, emotive, and well-recognized voice renders an intimate picture of his Pacific island home. Although there are many who have supported Cyril’s musical journey, the highest honor he pays is to his father, Gabby, who taught him his craft, encouraged him to continue, and inspired his greatest achievements. In the late 1990s, when Cyril first walked onstage at Carnegie Hall, he announced, “Dad, we made it.” Cyril has indeed “made it”—as a recording artist, ambassador for traditional Hawaiian music, and master of kī hōʻalu guitar. As he was taught to play “straight from the heart”, he is still thinking every day about making his father proud.
Message from the David Malo Chair, Doug Yee and Nalani Blaisdell
