One of Tonga’s greatest musicians, Bill Sevesi (born Wilfred Jeffs), passed away yesterday April 23. He was aged 92. Bill Sevesi was an early pioneer of modern Pacific Island Music and is credited with popularising and introducing the Hawaiian guitar key to Tonga and other Pacific Islands. Bill also introduced Tongan music to the airwaves for the first time. He was inducted in the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Born and raised in Tonga, Bill Sevesi was the son of Josephine Cook and New Zealander Wilfred Jeffs Snr. At the age of 9, he emmigrated to New Zealand, where as a teenager learned and mastered the electric guitar. He later formed the iconic band "Bill Sevesi & the Islanders" and began recording music in 1949. Bill served for the New Zealand Army during World War II and saw active service in Italy.

Bill talked extensively about his musical career in the 1992 documentary Song of the South Seas – the life and music of Bill Sevesi. In the memoir he described his passion for Pacific Island music when he was growing up in Tonga. He said, “As a child I would follow musicians all over the island, especially at Christmas time. They moved on the back of a truck and they would drive from village to village, house to house, entertaining the people. And like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to these people. I couldn’t keep away from them."

During his career, Sevesi recorded and worked with a multitude of artists, many of whom had recorded for Viking. They include Sione Aleki, The Samoan Surfriders, George Tumahai and Daphne Walker. He had a makeshift garage/recording studio in Mt Roskill, Auckland.

Sevesi won numerous awards and honours, including the Queens Service Medal for public services in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours, the Jerry Byrd Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) from the Steel Guitar Players Hall of Fame in Missouri, and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New Zealand Pacific Music Awards in 2006.

In 2009 he was presented with the Nostalgia Award from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand

Sevesi was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame as APRA's 2015 inductee at the 2015 APRA Silver Scroll Awards in September 2015.