Background
Cyril was born in the Waimānalo area of Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the son of Hawaiian guitarist (and Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame inductee) Gabby Pahinui.
Cyril was born in the Waimānalo area of Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the son of Hawaiian guitarist (and Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame inductee) Gabby Pahinui.
In 2013, Cyril received a fellowship from the Native Arts & Culture Foundation to produce Let"s Play Music!
Cyril began to play the ukulele at the age of 7 and learned how to play guitar from watching his father play with other Hawaiian musicians such as Leland Isaacs Senior and Sonny Chillingworth. He joined his father"s band in the early 1970s, and performed on his father"s early recordings for Warner Brothers Records. At the age of 19, his musical career was interrupted when he was drafted into Vietnam, where he served as a sergeant and section chief in the 101st artillery.
He has contributed to more than 35 Hawaiian musucial releases and three Grammy Award-winning compilations of Hawaiian music His 1994 album 6 & 12 String Slack Key won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award for Instrumental Album of the Year, and his 2007 album He"eia won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award for Island Music Album of the Year. In 2014, he received a Nā Hōkū Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award for perpetuating the craft of slack key music through performance and teaching.
