Sons of Hawaii

The Sons of Hawaii was a Hawaiian musical group that grew popular to 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. 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 Hawaiian Electric building. Many of Charley's drivers at the time were Hawaiian musicians. This was the cab stand that Eddie Kamae got his start performing before others.

A few years after the group was formed they tended to go 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 '60s the group included Kamae, Marshall, Rogers, Sonny Chillingworth and Zulu, who acted on Hawaii Five-0. In 1970, the group reassembled once more, this time to make another album. To the original four musicians was added ukulele master Moe Keale.

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