Kaulana Pakele, lead singer of Mana‘o Company, dies at 47
COURTESY DANNY KENNEDY
From left, Kaulana Pakele, Frank Sua, Kaiea Chung and Danny Kennedy of Mana‘o Company.
JOHN BERGER / JUNE 2007
Kaulana Pakele, lead singer of the band Mana‘o Company, died on Memorial Day, the Honolulu Medical Examiner confirmed today.
Kaulana Pakele, lead singer of Mana‘o Company, apparently drowned while swimming off of Makaha Beach Park on Memorial Day.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office this morning confirmed the death of Pakele, 47, of Kapolei.
Honolulu Emergency Medical Services reported that residents and off-duty lifeguards brought an unresponsive, 47-year-old, male swimmer to shore shortly after 6:30 p.m. Monday.
They performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and shocked him with an AED — or automated external defibrillator — until first responders arrived, said Shayne Enright, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.
Paramedics took him to an emergency room in critical condition.
The Medical Examiner’s Office did not have a preliminary cause of death.
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Last year, Mana‘o Company celebrated its 30th anniversary. The band’s remakes of “Drop Baby Drop” and “Degrees in the Shade” made them one of the leaders of Jawaiian music that was popular in the islands in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In 2001, Mana‘o Company restructured and Pakele joined the band as lead singer. He joined founding members Danny Kennedy, John Baricuatro, Jr. and Salaam Tillman.
The following year Mana‘o Company won Album of the Year, Contemporary Album of the Year and Single of the Year at the Hoku Awards for “Spread A Little Aloha.”
In 2003, a second recording of “Aloha” credited to Mana‘o Company & Friends won single of the year.
Along with keyboard player Frank Sua and drummer Kaiea Chung, Kennedy told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last year that more Mana‘o Company music was forthcoming.
