For more than 60 years, the Tau Moe family served as Hawai'i's unofficial but always warmly received musical ambassadors.
Tau Moe, the son of a Mormon missionary, was born in Samoa in 1908 and raised, after age 11, in La'ie. He learned steel guitar from M.K. Moke and performed with three of his uncles and his soon-to-be wife, Rose (a Kohala native), in the traveling band Mme. Riviere's Hawaiians. Riviere, a French university professor, took the group on an extensive tour of Asia that lasted from 1928 to 1934.
After the group disbanded, Tau, Rose and 5-year-old daughter Lani, who sang, danced and played 'ukulele, formed a trio. They toured India, Egypt and the Middle East and Europe. (The group's popularity led to an obligatory if uncomfortable meeting with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.)
When World War II broke out, the Moes left Europe and traveled through the Middle East in hopes of returning to Hawai'i via Baghdad. The plan was scuttled when the bombing of Pearl Harbor halted traffic in the Pacific, forcing the family to remain in India for the duration of the war.
The trio became a quartet not long after second daughter Dorian was born in 1945. "The Aloha Four" continued to perform in Europe and Asia, making numerous radio and television appearances, through the 1950s, '60s and '70s before returning home to La'ie.
While the family filled a large role in sharing Hawai'i's music with the world, they were also influential, thanks to Tau and Rose Moe's interest in early Hawaiian music, in helping the local music scene maintain a traditional grounding as it assimilated a variety of outside influences.
Rose Moe died in 2000 at the age of 92; Tau Moe died in 2004 at the age of 95.
