COURTESY OF JAY JUNKER Gerald Lester Byrd on PBS Hawaii's "Na Mele" program.

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Musicians pay tribute
to beloved Jerry Byrd

The steel guitarist was a mentor
to many young artists

The ashes of Gerald Lester Byrd were scattered offshore from the Elks Lodge on Kalakaua Avenue yesterday morning, carried by the tradewinds that also lifted the evocative strains of his steel guitar during his years playing in Waikiki.

Jerry Byrd's pure vibrato tone on the steel was -- and continues to be -- a signature sound of Hawaiian music and a siren call for visitors across the Pacific, the manifestation of his love for his adopted home in the islands.

Born March 9, 1920, in Lima, Ohio, Byrd's remarkable journey to Hawaii was a trip on wings of music, as the title of his autobiography said. At the age of 12, he first heard the steel guitar in a music act from Hawaii that was part of a traveling circus. He remembers he was hypnotized, and as quoted in the "Na Mele" PBS Hawaii series, "I knew that's what I wanted to do -- was learn to play whatever that was, I didn't know yet. So that's how it started and I've never really stopped."

Complications due to Parkinson's disease ultimately stopped the 85-year-old Byrd, who died April 11. But his spirit and music live on in the local entertainers and former students of his that performed at the memorial yesterday.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN AKAKA The "Byrd's Nest" at Jerry Byrd's 80th birthday party in June 2000 at The Willows had Byrd, center, surrounded by past students, most professional steel guitarists in their own right: Casey Olsen, left, Alan Akaka, Greg Sardinha and Isaac Akuna.

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"He's in a heavenly place," said his widow, Kaleo Wood, who helped coordinate the memorial her late husband had planned beforehand. "Now he gets to orchestrate the music with past greats like Bennie Kalama, Sol Ho'opi'i and Dick McIntyre. Jerry's done it all, accomplished it all, and I'm happy for him. While I'm sad for my loss, I know he's getting a good send-off today."

Their daughters, Lani Fosbinder and Luana Byrd, both from his former home of Nashville, Tenn., flew in for the service, and both said even though familial sacrifices were made when he decided to move to Hawaii, they understood his deep, abiding love for Hawaiian music and his desire to give back to the culture that had given him so much.

Before the program, Byrd's longtime band partner and friend, Hiram Olsen, along with Dennis Keohokalole, accompanied former students of Byrd's, such as Olsen's son Casey, Greg Sardinha and Alan Akaka, all reputable steel guitarists in their own right.

Also throughout the morning, people like Gary Ako, Eddie Kamae, Owana Salazar, Kanoe Kaumeheiwa Miller, Kimo Kahoano, Karen Keawehawai'i and Nina Keali'iwahamana all paid tribute to Byrd in either song or dance. Kahoano said he was "a haole man with a Hawaiian soul ... and what a legacy he has to share with us today." Danny Kaleikini both quietly spoke and sang in Hawaiian, leading those gathered through the hymn "Ekolu Mea Nui."

Aaron Mahi started the program with his own remembrances of the taskmaster that was Byrd, followed by a prayer. Personal remembrances were offered by people like Byrd's friend Dewitt Scott from Oklahoma, who told an amusing tale of how he was egged on by fellow guitarist Buddy Emmons (who traveled with them to a steel guitar convention in Tokyo) to cut Byrd's guitar's strings, only to be found out later due to Byrd's "clairvoyant" relationship with his beloved instrument.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN AKAKA An early photo of Jerry Byrd with guitarist Danny Kua'ana and an unidentified bass player.

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Former students Isaac Akuna and Akaka followed. Akuna put his kumu's importance to Hawaiian music in a historical context. Byrd -- formerly an in-demand country music session player back in the Music City -- was one of the few steel guitarist in the litany of players (dating back to Joseph Kekuku in the late 1800s) who "came back," as it were, to the islands. Because of his Waikiki gigs in the 1970s, and all the young steel guitarists he hand-picked to teach on a one-on-one basis, Akuna said Byrd was a historic icon who had an impact on the Hawaiian cultural renaissance and was responsible for the revival of the art form of the Hawaiian steel guitar.

Akaka then read a letter of condolence from his father, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka.

On Thursday, Alan Akaka said: "Jerry always stressed musicality -- that was his greatest lesson to me. He used to say, 'Music is what you do between two notes.'"

He added, "What I especially liked was that he would share stories with me, like the one of how, when he was a teenager, he stayed in a movie theater in his hometown all day, one day, just to hear the opening theme to a movie called 'Paradise Isles,' and the steel guitar player Sam Koki, who was living and working out of Hollywood. It was just for that opening section, that steel guitar glissando. Jerry took in a few showings, figured out how Sam played, ran home and emulated on his own guitar."

Now Jerry Byrd's playing continues to be an inspiration for steel guitarists worldwide. In a card inserted in the memorial's program, Byrd credited God, "who has given me a long life in which to play my music and who, I believe, showed me the way at every turn, even selecting the instrument that I thought I should play."