It’s been more than a decade since Jeffrey Aholo Apaka left the entertainment business to care for two ailing grandparents, but when Hilton Hawaii exec Jerry Gibson asked him to be the host of an informal two-hour Sunday afternoon gig at the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Tapa Bar, the "retired" performer couldn’t refuse.

As Apaka puts it, "I’m part of the hotel’s DNA. The music, the Apaka genes, the voice, will always be in my blood."

Apaka’s father, Alfred Apaka, one of the greatest Hawaiian singers of the 20th century, headlined famed industrialist Henry J. Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village Hotel in the 1950s. Kaiser and his second wife, Alyce, were two of Alfred’s biggest fans.

The elder Apaka had both a superb voice and commanding stage presence. Hapa-haole songs were his forte. Dressed in immaculate white and wearing a red carnation lei, he was a romantic and thoroughly masculine counterpart to the "hula girl" stereotype of island women.

Kaiser thought Apaka could cross over into the American pop market and committed his immense resources to making it happen. Apaka had recorded an album that showed his command of American show tunes and filmed the pilot for a national television show that had been sold to a sponsor when he died of a sudden heart attack on Jan. 30, 1960. He was only 40.

A year later, Kaiser sold his Hawaiian Village to Conrad Hilton. The hospitality firm is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the acquisition. Having Jeff Apaka sing hapa-haole standards around the corner from where a statue of his father has stood since 1997 is an astute acknowledgement of the property’s links to the "Village" Kaiser opened in 1955.

JEFF APAKA, 65, wore contemporary aloha attire when he opened at the Tapa Bar on July 24 for an open-ended run. It was what is known in the business as a "soft opening" with little publicity and no media blitz, but the bar area was comfortably full. He opened with three classic hapa-haole songs — "My Hawaiian Song of Love," "Lovely Hula Hands" and "Show Me How to Do the Hula" — then let his musicians take over for a while so he could work the room table by table, catching up with friends and welcoming first-time visitors to Hawaii.

The three musicians individually would count as headlining acts in many venues: Gary Aiko, lead vocals and acoustic bass guitar; Kaipo Asing, vocals and guitar; and Scot Furushima, steel guitar. Hula dancer Kawena Mechler added an all-important element on several numbers.

Apaka introduced each song with a bit of the back-story about who wrote it and when. After all, many people know what inspired Andy Cummings to write "Waikiki" and where he was when he wrote it, but many others do not.

"What I try to fulfill in what I’m doing at the Hilton is bring a little bit of knowledge to the audience … and bring back the entire melodic flow of the natural music that had been written as Hawaiian music (and) that was spread throughout the continental United States," he says. "As you know, a lot of our composers are right from here, and a lot of composers are from afar — maybe a lot of (local) artists don’t know who they are or who wrote the song or any of their background."

APAKA SAYS his father never suggested he consider a career in entertainment.

"He never once mentioned to me about following in his footsteps. I was 13 when he passed on. I was in a military school up in San Rafael, Calif., at that time — there wasn’t even music at the cadet academy. After junior high school in the military school, I graduated from Beverly Hills High School (where) I became a madrigal singer, I got into choir, I got into musical comedy (and) I did musicals."

Apaka says he planned on becoming an actor, but while he was studying acting in New York, he got a call from Sonny Burke, a record industry veteran who had worked with his father. Apaka quit smoking to protect his voice, went to L.A. and started working with Burke and arranger Don Costa. He was signed by Capitol, a major national label, and recorded an album, but when the label pruned its roster, he was one of the casualties.

Apaka enjoyed much more success as an entertainer here. He headlined the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the Hilton Hawaiian Village and elsewhere, and enjoyed doing it — until his father’s father and his mother’s mother needed him to step in as their caregiver. They have since died, and he is now director of community relations for the Waikiki Community Center.

In recent years he presided at the Hilton’s annual commemoration of his father’s birthday.

"I’ve come full circle, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to follow in Dad’s footsteps again, coming back (to the hotel) and this time doing the songs made popular by my favorite Hawaiian singer, Alfred Apaka," he says.

"I’m called the ‘son of a statue’ now, but wearing white and a red carnation, that’s not me.

"I will say this is probably going to be the last turnaround (for me). I don’t really care to be an elderly person performing, (but) I want to continue to bring back the Waikiki that used to be."