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| NYUkeFest 2006 - Carolina Ukulele Strummers - CUKES - Ukulele - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
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Tiki Joe Approved 
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Chris and any others who may be interested, I have been eagerly anticipating attending the NYUkeFest for the past year. In fact, my wife and I had purchased Early Bird tickets #1 and #2!!! Before leaving for the event, I printed out the entire schedule from the website and planned every workshop and program that we would attend in order to ensure that none of those that we wanted would be missed. We left our home in NC Wednesday morning and arrived in NY at noon on Thursday (check-in time was 3:00 pm so we walked to the theatre and checked out the restaurants in several directions). We had booked our stay at Hotel 17, which is within a pleasant walk of the Theatre for the New City, where the events were being held. I was a little unsure of the hotel at first, as the bathrooms are shared rather than each room having it's own. I need not have worried. The rooms, though small, were clean, had nice firm beds and each room had it's own sink. There were four bathrooms on each floor - and these were the cleanest, neatest bathrooms I have ever had the opportunity to use! OK, lets get to the good stuff. Understand that the following is just my schedule. There were four theatres in constant operation with other programs and workshops, but I could not attend everything. Thursday night's program was American Novelty with Pops Bayless, and Uke 2079 written by Uke Jackson with music by the very talented Jay Rattman (2006 jazz composer of the year). If you can talk Jay or UJ out of a copy of their song "Ukeland", how about sending me a xerox of it? I think they could sell the music book for their show. Friday workshops were Voice of Uke (Fred Fallin), Chord Melody (Joel Eckhaus), Blues Chord Progressions (Pops Bayless). I had also planned Guide to Uke Chords and Advanced Guide to Chords (both Curt Sheller) but time did not permit. My wife attended the Beginner Uke workshop (Jim Beloff), and then recieved a separate private lesson during the next hour (she was the only true beginner in the class, and a lefty besides - thank you, Jim). Friday night programs included Bliss Blood and the Moonlighters, Shorty Long, Akamai Brain Collective with Abe Lagrimas Jr, the Mad Tea Party, Lil' Rev, and Uke Jackson and the Radio Aces. I believe Victoria Vox also performed this night, I can't quite remember for sure which night it was. Saturday workshops were Building Uke Technique (Lil' Rev), Beginning Melody (Kailin Yong), Exploring the Fret Board (Brad Jones), Strumming and Chord Enhancement (Brittni Paiva), Fingerpicking Styles (Aaron Keim) and Open Tuning (Ron Gordon). Saturday programs were Folk Uke, James Hill, the Boulder Acoustic Society, Jim Beloff, Brittni Paiva and Mr. Sunshine. Sunday afternoon programs included Triboro with Evy Mayer, the Hoppin' Haole Brothers, Hulabilly, Fred Fallin, Gerald Ross, Lightnin' Wells and Uke Jackson and the Radio Aces. Our Sunday evening program schedule was planned, but my wife was totally exhausted from the intensity of the four days (and quite honestly, so was I) so we had a nice dinner and just collapsed in the hotel room for the evening. Drawings were held during the programs and some very nice ukulele "door prizes" given away, a couple dozen of them. Also, a Koaloha concert was presented to the winner of the "open mic" contest, a very nice prize indeed. There were numerous vendors at the UkeFest, some on different days and some for the whole event. I have to tell you about one in particular. Michael Aratani (musicguymic) had the most awesome ukulele display anyone could ever imagine. He must have brought over a hundred ukuleles, and I will guarantee you that there was not a bad one in the bunch - I know because I played nearly every one! I had a particularly hard time keeping my hands off the G String Ukes. Yes, I bought a G String soprano and spoke with Michael about having a custom concert built. I had purchased some Ko'olau Low G Concert strings from him before the UkeFest. Those were put on my Jenny Concert, for the Open Tuning workshop and I really like them a lot. Oh yes, I also brought home some T-Shirts, books and CD's. Opportunities like this just don't come along often. Dang, I forgot to get one-a-them kazoos though. And I missed my chance to get a Hula Girl tassel thing. I had never heard of Lil' Rev before, and did not know what to expect. I don't want to say any one performer is better than another, it's just one I did not know about. I was very pleasantly surprised and hope he will be at future events. If there are any performers listed here that you haven't heard of, take it from me that you will enjoy their workshop or performance if you ever have the opportunity to attend one. Every workshop and every performance throughout the entire event was absolutely TOP NOTCH!!! I could not single out any one as better than another. Would I go back next year? - IN A HEARTBEAT!!! Uke Jackson did a SUPERB job in planning and scheduling the best of everything available. As I understand it, there may be some T-Shirts still available, and the sale of those would help get next year's UkeFest started. Lets all put NYUkeFest 2007 on our schedules. Joe  Last edited on Tue May 2nd, 2006 11:07 pm by Tiki Joe |
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musicguymic Approved
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Thanks for the mention Tiki Joe and I had a great time at the festival. Uke Jackson had a great lineup of performers and everyone I met was so nice. Just the way I thought ukulele players are...warm friendly and fun loving. I have to mention two in particular that just touched My better half and me...Andy Andrews from California and his crooning of wonderful songs to us and Fred Fallin from Chicago whose great little songs and antics almost reminded me of Jack Benny. I hope everyone enjoyed all the different ukuleles to try...I tried to bring all the Hawaiian Manufactures with me but a box of Kamakas got lost in the shuffle. I'll be ready to go back again anytime. michael--da musicguymic
____________________ WOW I got another Uke!!!! |
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uke jackson Approved
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tj, thanks for such a thoughtful and in depth analysis of the fest. it was great to meet you and your wife. mike, we'll be watching for you walking thru the door just about a year from now.
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UkeForever Approved 
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Uke Jackson, I'm dying to find out if you will be selling DVDs of your musical. Count me in if you will be doing that! ~Rockwell
____________________ Don't let the door hit 'ya where the good Lord split 'ya. John Rockwell's Crazy Songs 
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honu Approved
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Thanks for the update, Tiki Joe. And hope you have fun with your new uke acquisition...G-String Soprano. I've got two G-Strings: Concert and Tenor with fishman pickup. Both are really sweet.
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uke jackson Approved
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UkeForever wrote: Uke Jackson, I'm dying to find out if you will be selling DVDs of your musical.only when it's made into a movie. i believe jason is going to air one clip/song from the concert readings at the fest on mud tv.
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Cukes Approved 
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Sounds like it was fabulous, Joe!! Thanks for such an explicit run down of the events. You'll have alot to share with the rest of us Cuker's. Look for a date to be posted for June - please try to make it so you can fill us all in with the details and teach us what you learned! Chris
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| ezFolk Forums > Ukulele > Carolina Ukulele Strummers - CUKES > NYUkeFest 2006 | |
