Hawaiians want to honor island music with hall of fame

HONOLULU -- Rock 'n' roll, country, jazz and gospel music all have halls of fame to honor and remember their greats. Now a group in Honolulu wants to build a Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and Museum to showcase and preserve the islands' music.

Established in 1994 but with no permanent home, the project exists as a "virtual" Hall of Fame on a Web site and in traveling exhibits. So far it has honored more than two dozen musicians and groups.

The newest honorees were inducted last month at an annual benefit concert. They were the late slack-key guitarist and singer Gabby Pahinui, and the late singer, composer and band leader Ray Kinney.

Genoa Keawe, inducted in 2001, is the sole living honoree.

Traditional Hawaiian music began with chants, which were set to music after Western contact, said Harry Soria, a music archivist and member of the Hall of Fame's advisory board.

Hula was the chant's visual aspect, so Hawaiian music originally was mostly for hula, he said. Instruments such as steel guitar and ukulele later helped the dancers tell their story.

"Hawaiian music is the vehicle that has carried Hawaii's oral history," Soria said. "It is the traditional music that has brought the world to Hawaii."

The hall of fame organization's exhibits, enclosed in glass and native koa wood, are occasionally displayed in libraries, hotels and other locations on Oahu.

"We are still looking for a permanent site, where we can call the shots by ourselves and are not guests of someone else," said Marjorie Scott, the project's founder.

Joseph Paikai, president of the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and Museum Inc., said having a real hall would help "acknowledge those who have made a contribution to the music of Hawaii and perpetuate that with the younger generation."

The organization is developing a fund-raising program, Paikai said, and is looking for a corporate sponsor.

Honolulu's Bishop Museum had been considered as a site but doesn't have enough room, said Scott, who worked in public relations in Arizona before moving to Hawaii in 1984. She fell in love with Hawaiian music on her first visit to the islands, in 1972.

Scott came up with the idea for a hall of fame when she worked for the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association and discovered that there was no one place to find background information on Hawaiian music.

She visualizes a library and computer center where people could find the words to a song or learn about a particular instrument.

"It would have small rehearsal booths, teaching areas and a small auditorium for concerts, lectures and films," she said.

Haunani Apoliona, another advisory board member and a musician with the group "Olomana" for 20 years, said she appreciates that the hall recognizes early Hawaiian chanters, not just modern musicians.

"It shows that we have to go back to the source, and it reminds us of our heritage," she said.

The inductees, selected by an advisory board of musicians, include performers, composers and music historians.

They represent three historic periods in Hawaiian music: the chant, or oli, which was the basic form of musical expression before the arrival of Europeans in 1778; the monarchy period, from 1810-1893; and the post-monarchy period.

The Hall of Fame organization also is developing an educational program for schools.