“He was the quintessential Puerto Rican renaissance man.”
That’s how Bub Pratt, entertainer and owner of Kukuau Studio in Hilo, described Gabriel DeSilva, a 72-year-old Pahoa man police said was the victim of a possible drowning Sunday morning at Kehena Beach in Puna — an account disputed by more than one other source.
Those sources say doctors told his family there was no water in DeSilva’s lungs, and it’s just as possible he had a seizure or heart attack and fell into the water.
What’s not in dispute was DeSilva’s prowess as a musician and painter. DeSilva was a fixture at the Kehena drum circle as well as the Monday evening jazz jams at Kukuau, playing congas and flute.
“He brought with him a lot of expertise and training, and he was a fantastic drummer and an artist, a visual artist, as well. He was a sweet guy who listened to people and tried to cooperate with people,” said Walter Greenwood, a professional musician who participated in the Kehena drum sessions, which Greenwood said could sometimes be contentious.
“Everybody wants to be in charge, but nobody wants to listen to anybody else. But Gabriel was one of those steadying influences,” Greenwood said. “I’ve never, ever heard a mean or accusatory word out of his mouth, and whenever he spoke up at Kehena, it was always trying to smooth over a tense situation.
“He was a peacemaker.”
Sherri Thal, a teacher and professional musician, described DeSilva as “a brilliant man.”
“When Gabriel lived in Kehena, he would walk down the street at sunrise, playing beautiful music on his flute,” Thal said. When Thal learned DeSilva had a degree in fine art from Rhode Island School of Design, she encouraged him to become a substitute teacher at Pahoa High School, where she was teaching.
“I brought him in to my class to talk with my students,” she said. “He was a really good storyteller; the kids were really rapt. And they were inspired that a kid from a poor neighborhood could make it.”
Thal echoed Greenwood’s account of DeSilva’s positive influence on the Kehena drum circle.
“I was a bit shy to play drums with the people down at the beach, and he would defend me,” she said. “He was an artist, so he had that artist’s sense and sensibility and sensitivity to the people around him. And he was loved. I loved him because he was such a character. And he had a lot of depth.”
DeSilva grew up in New York City’s Spanish Harlem in the same building as Fantuzzi, a single-named singer-songwriter with an international following who also has a home in East Hawaii. They became inseparable friends during childhood and remained so for life.
“We always called each other ‘brother,’” said Fantuzzi, who also continued to call DeSilva by his childhood nickname, “Lito.”
“I would say it’s a gift from God that we get the heart to be artists and loving beings that make an effect on people’s lives,” he said. “We were born with it, both of us, and finding each other was like finding a good wife. It’s an eternal brotherly love affair. He is my bro, forever. It’s not over.”
Fantuzzi said he, DeSilva and some other neighborhood kids were fortunate enough to meet a man named Warren Smith — who’d been an English teacher and owned a recording studio — who became a surrogate father to them.
“We come from a very challenged situation, with drugs, crime and violence galore,” he said. “Somehow, the influence of this man taking us to Broadway plays, a farm in Iowa, Niagara Falls, Connecticut — just taking us around and having us around — he educated us. We became educated beings.
“Warren gave (DeSilva) a job at his recording studio. And his recording studio in Times Square. So, we were meeting famous actors and musicians when we were little kids.”
Fantuzzi said he doesn’t believe in death being the end and is hoping to one day meet up again with DeSilva and “play music with him, joke around, hang out and paint.”
DeSilva leaves behind several children. An autopsy is pending.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.