"I consider him one of the best bass players Hawai'i ever produced," said Paulo, a pianist. "Edd and I had such a rapport that he could follow whatever I did, and I could anticipate whatever thoughts he had in his mind. It was uncanny."

"We saw him at the hospital a few weeks back, and he had lost so much weight and shaved off his beard," said Akemi Paulo, wife of the pianist and the featured singer in the Paulo group. "He told Rene, 'Pops, maybe we can play some songs' " for the patients.

Vocalist Jimmy Borges said Shonk had a manner that put everyone at ease. "He had such a warm way of connecting with musicians and singers," Borges said. "He knew how to say things in a nice way, always making everyone comfortable."

Shonk was the musical director and principal arranger for Borges' "Honolulu Lady" album, produced by Bob Nagatani, "and Edd was so easy to work with. With the bass in his paws, it almost looked like he was playing an 'ukulele; the way he handled it, the way he played it, he produced a beautiful and precise sound."

While his deteriorating health prevented Shonk from active performances, he was still involved in producing, with Nagatani, a posthumous album release by the late Alan Naluai, the one-time member of The Surfers group.

"That album will be my father's last project," said Edward Andrew Kalani Shonk. "He was always supportive of everyone."

Shonk was born in Honolulu on Sept. 29, 1933. After graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1952, he studied music for two years at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

His stellar musicianship became evident when he joined the Joe Castro Trio early in his career and supported the likes Armstrong in a Basin Street gig in New Orleans.

With Paulo, he embarked on regular tours. And in Island engagements, he played with a number of local favorites, from the late Ethel Azama to Azure McCall, providing his inimitable bass flavor in jazz-tinged arrangements.

Shonk had other little-known passions: stock car racing in his souped-up Bonneville in Kahuku, learning to fly an airplane at Mokule'ia and earning his pilot's license.

Besides his son, Shonk is survived by a daughter, Theresa Lynn Ku'uipolani Dickerson of Indiana; sisters Lois Saunders, Betty Snow and Gladys Frasier; and three grandchildren.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at Kahikuonalani United Church of Christ, at 757 Ho'omalu St., in Pearl City, with visitation from 9 a.m. Aloha attire is suggested.