Olomana’s Jerry Santos returns to Hilton Hawaiian Village

The Shakespearean adage “all’s well that ends well” is appropriate this weekend as Jerry Santos — officially “Olomana’s Jerry Santos and Friends” — opens a new engagement at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort

Santos, along with Haunani Apoliona, Ku‘uipo Kumukahi and Ryan Tang, will appear at the Paradise Lounge Friday and Saturday for inaugural shows at the refurbished venue, along with some special guests.

Just last month, social media was raging with reports that the hotel had ended Santos’ long engagement at the Waikiki landmark, where he had been a cornerstone performer. The revered local musician is known for a series of remarkable local songs and albums with his 1970s-originated group Olomana and an extended musical partnership with Apoliona.

“They let me know two weeks before Christmas that the current management decided the Tapa Bar, where I’d been for the last 10 years, would be better suited to a contemporary kind of rock music format, with a sports bar kind of effect. Our closing night was going to be the 29th,” Santos said.

“They told me on a Friday evening. I announced it to the audience, and by Monday afternoon they had gotten so much blow-back that they asked me to come down and have a meeting with them,” he said. “They said they weren’t trying to get rid of me; they were just trying to move me to a quieter place.”

After hearing from Santos’ many fans on Oahu, the Hilton asked Santos to return to the venue where he’d played between 1993 and 2008, restoring the stage, lighting and sound system at the Paradise Lounge. The lounge was renovated in 2014, and features a full bar and a small-plate menu.

“I’ve always been hesitant about taking my foot out of the door (in Waikiki), in terms of Hawaiian music,” Santos said. “So we felt we would give it a try.”

Santos has been an advocate for Hawaiian music since 1974, when he created Olomana as a duo with Robert Beaumont. Their success in creating a distinctive blend of Hawaiian and acoustic American folk music propelled them to success after success.

Olomana’s third album, “Come to Me Gently,” won six Na Hoku Hanohano Awards in 1982, several months after Beaumont’s death.

Santos decided that the best way to honor that legacy was to continue — but not as a duo. Two of the musicians who had worked on “Come to Me Gently” — percussionist Willy Paikuli and bassist Wally Suenaga — were invited to become official members of the new group.

With the addition of Apoliona (guitar/vocals) Olomana became a quartet. They waited almost 10 years to record; in the meantime Santos and Apoliona released Hoku Award-winning solo projects.

Olomana released an album, “E Mau Ana Ka Ha‘aheo,” in 1991 that received three Hoku Awards the following year. The quartet, as well as founding member Beaumont, received the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

“Olomana is really not in existence any more,” Santos said. “Willy and Wally both have health problems, so its really gotten down to where I’m advertising it as “Olomana’s Jerry Santos and Friends” — Ku‘uipo Kumukahi with her own background in music, and Haunani Apoliona and Ryan Tang. Guest entertainers are a big part of the evening; guest dancers are a big part of the evening.”

Among the guests who showed up for Santos’ final show at the Tapa Bar last month were members of Genoa Keawe’s ohana, Hoku Award-winner Kama Hopkins, kumu hula Kawaikapuokalani Hewett and 35 of Santos’ classmates from Kamehameha.

“And at the end of the day I’m grateful for the support that friends, family and community gave to keeping us there,” Santos said — “but I really want it to be more about keeping Hawaiian music. The main thing for me that’s important is that hotels make their life’s blood off of Hawaiian culture, language and intellectual property, and Hawaiians have to be included at the table.

“I think Waikiki is at its most healthy when there is a connection for the people that come. That’s what I try to do.

“I try to make it so local people feel comfortable in the space and visitors who come feel like they’re getting something authentic. That’s why I keep my foot in the door.”