Searching for David "Feet" Rogers and Gabby Pahinui with Bobby Ingano

On Tuesday, January 23, 2024 Bobby Ingano and I went on an impromptu outing to visit the final resting place of two great Hawaiian musicians, David "Feet" Rogers and Gabby Pahinui at Hawaiian Memorial Cemetery in Kaneohe, Hawaii.

Both David "Feet" Rogers and Gabby Pahinui were original members of the band "The Sons of Hawaii". "Feet" was a mentor and father figure to Bobby in his youth.

Bobby and I both had to fly out to the mainland the very next day (Wed), but discovered at the last minute that both had Tuesday morning open.

We had been talking about going to Feet and Gabby's grave to pay our respects for a long time. I had not been home to Hawaii in over 10 years. My trip home to Hawaii was cut short due to a family emergency back on the mainland. This outing was a short window of opportunity during my last full day in Hawaii. So, Uncle Bobby and I just went for it in the true "go for broke" Hawaiian style.

Prior to the start of the video, we had to go to the Admin Office because we had no idea where the graves were located. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Gabby was buried in the "Musicians Area". What? "Musician's Area"? There actually is an area where many of the great Hawaiian Entertainers of yesteryear are buried very close to one another. They had it all planned out on their own. Andy Cummings, Benny Rogers, and Atta Isaacs were names that were very close by to Gabby Pahinui's grave. It warmed our hearts to know that these individuals not only greatly contributed to Hawaiian music and culture, but they actually loved and respected each other such that that they all planned to be buried close to one another in death.

In the true "go for broke" style, I just had some basic camera gear and pressed the record button. Unfortunately some of the audio is distorted as the recording level for one of the mics was too high. I was using a DJI mic which has 2 wireless lavaliers, and I planned to use separate tracks for each mic so I could mix/blend them if one audio track was not good. Alas, since I was using an iPhone 14 Pro Max with a lightning connection, the lightning connection can only handle Mono recording, so both lavalier mics were recorded as a single Mono track and are unable to be separated. I had only discovered this in post production. I did the best I could to make do with the audio.

Having said all that, if you go back and listen to the original recordings of Feet and Gabby playing steel guitar, you'll hear that their steel guitars will distort when they "dig in". In a weird twist of fate, the slight distortions are actually apropos to what a listener could experience had they heard a Hawaiian steel guitar player perform 50-60 years ago.

Though not perfect, this endeavor comes from both of our hearts. Both Bobby and I have great Aloha and respect for Feet and Gabby. We not only wanted to play for them, and thank them, but we also wanted to document us doing so for posterity so that we could share it with future generations, and any lover of Hawaiian music.

To my knowledge, no one has ever taken the time to go out to the graves of Hawaiian musicians, play for them, and share it on YouTube. This might be a first, and I'm glad I was able to do it with Uncle Bobby. I'm super proud of him, and I'm proud to be from Hawaii.

To any future generations of the musicians of Hawai'i: always remember where you came from. Hawaiian music truly is uniquely special. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Also, Hawaiian music is something that is beautiful and meant to be shared. You don't have to be ethnically Hawaiian to be Hawaiian in your heart, and to play the music of Hawaii authentically.

The most important thing is to be a caretaker of this beautiful music and pass it on to the next generation.

0:00 Starting the search for Feet's grave
0:26 Start at the waterpipe
0:46 We find Feet's grave
1:46 Grabbing Feet's Rickenbacher Bakelite
3:02 Setting up
5:10 Tuning up
6:00 Adjusting audio levels
6:40 Bobby warms up with "Kanaka Wai Wai"
8:40 He Ono
9:55 Aloha 'Oe
12:20 Aloha Braddah Feet
12:48 Akahi Ka Manene
13:43 Kawika Slack Key
15:47 King's Serenade
19:25 Feet's Rickenbacher Bakelite
20:25 What Feet means to Bobby
21:54 Pops Rogers
25:08 Setting up near Gabby
25:19 Kaleleonalani
26:21 Lei No Ka'iulani
27:52 Kaleleonalani
29:24 Hi'ilawe
33:34 Blue Hawaiian Moonlight
40:08 How D'ya Do
42:35 Bobby's words for Gabby
43:10 Wrapping Up