|
Kate Bush 'bans ukulele orchestra from using hit song'
from Ananova.com
06/03/03
A ukulele orchestra is claiming Kate Bush has banned them from covering her hit single Wuthering Heights. The
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain had hoped to feature the track on a new CD which is just finishing production.
A demo CD by the group, produced by classical guitar star Richard Durrant, is already a hit with Radio 2 presenters Johnny Walker and Steve Wright. Both are said
to be battling to be the first to play it on their shows - but only if Ms Bush allows The Ukes, as they're known, to release it, reports The Argus.
Click here to read the entire story.
Time, demographics right for ukulele rebellion
By Mark Lane
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
06/01/03
"Don't tell anyone you do this," my daughter advised me.
Being a parent of teens is often like enjoying the services of round-the-clock
image consultants. This is helpful on occasion, but does not always make for robust self-esteem.
And how was I getting embarrassing? What was I doing that more judgmental
sectors of our culture might deem eccentric?
I was only playing a stringed instrument.
OK. It was a ukulele. The child was mortified.
Click here to read the entire story.
Ukulele Love
Hulabilly reclaims Hawaiian music. Seriously.
by Brita Brundage - April 17, 2003
Fairfield County Weekly
 The year was 1916. The ukulele had
made its debut at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and Hawaiian music was bigger than Elvis, Michael Jackson and The Beatles.
College kids went wild for ukuleles by the '20s, sending manufacturers into a frenzy, and soon blues musicians were playing
steel guitars with Hawaii-like slides, jazz musicians tinkered with slack key guitars; Hawaii was on its was to becoming the most important state in American popular music.
Click here to read the entire story.
Stomping Through the Tulips
Carmaig de Forest Makes the Ukulele Blitzkrieg Bop
By Geoffrey Himes
February 12 - February 18, 2003
 When Carmaig de Forest performed at
the Roots Café in December, he looked like a high-school science teacher. A slim man with thinning brown hair and a well-worn face, he wore a dark tie and a white
shirt, a shiny dark blazer, and thick amber-frame glasses. And he played the ukulele, the four-string instrument that resembles the result of a science experiment called
"The Incredible Shrinking Guitar."De Forest, though, didn't play the ukulele in the sweet Hawaiian style of all those beach movies; he played it with the choppy
rhythm of an Elvis Costello or Johnny Ramone but moved up an octave.
Click here to read the entire story.
It may be a fluke, but we're suddenly hot for the uke
Monday, January 6, 2003
By MARGO HORNER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
 Bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains,
Nirvana and Pearl Jam made Seattle famous as the home of angry white men with guitars.
But in basements of trendy music stores here, a different kind of sound is brewing.
Think Tiny Tim.
Believe it or not, the ukulele is hot
Click here to read the entire story.
He champions cause of the humble ukulele
By Meg Eldridge
For the Pocono Record
12/02/02
DELAWARE WATER GAP — Uke Jackson loves ukuleles.
He collects them. He plays them. He is even forming a social club to promote them.
Starting this Tuesday at 7 p.m., those who strum their favorite four-string or have an interest in the small Hawaiian instrument, will get together monthly to harmonize.
Click here to read the entire story.
Electrified ukes: 'a delicate rage'
Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader
By Heather Svokos Herald-Leader staff writer
November 15, 2002
You've gotta give it to William Preston Robertson. Not only did the Lexington
-based filmmaker conceive a documentary about renegade ukulele players, but he then managed to convince fellow filmmaker Sean Anderson and
photographer Frank Doring along with him in this odyssey of oddity. Not to mention Holly Hunter.
Click here to read the entire story.
Harrison's guitar gently weeps again
Former Beatle's pal Jeff Lynne produces posthumous CD
November 9, 2002
 "George bequeathed it," says veteran producer Jeff
Lynne of the late George Harrison's posthumous CD, Brainwashed, explaining how the former Beatles guitarist's final, unfinished opus ended up in his hands.
Lynne, one of Harrison's closest friends, is the musical mind behind the Beatles-inspired progressive rock outfit Electric Light Orchestra and
was the bandmate of Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison in the late 1980s rock supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys. He
is on the line from his home in California, where he first listened to the raw tapes that Harrison, who died a year ago from cancer, had asked him to turn into an album.
Lynne, who had produced Harrison's 1987 Cloud 9 album, was with his friend "near the very end, as he was slipping away.
"I'd sit beside him and play some ukulele very quietly. He'd wake and smile. ... I half expected him to tell me I was doing it wrong. George was
passionate about the ukulele. He played it brilliantly, studied it and collected hundreds of vintage instruments. There's not much you can
do with a ukulele that doesn't sound happy. I think that's why he liked it."
Every track on the album has a ukulele buried deep into the rhythm parts, he adds.
Click here to read the entire story.
VH1, Comcast Announce $400,000 Donation to Support Music Education in
Baltimore City Schools
by Nakia Herring
Baltimore Times
November 4, 2002
VH1 and Comcast announced a donation of $400,000 worth of musical
instruments to the Baltimore City Schools. The donation is to help restore music education to 16 schools in the district.
The VH1 Save The Music campaign started in 1997. A goal of ten years was set to bring music participation to at least one million kids. Since the campaign
more than $21 million dollars worth of musical instruments have been donated to 900 public schools.
The students and invited guests had a treat when Edwin Mulitalo of the Baltimore Ravens came and spoke of how music was a great influence
to him growing up. He even brought his ukulele and sang the song ''Up on the Roof'' with his brother Frisco Mulitalo for the audience.
''We recently lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but today I feel like a winner. When I was young, music was a big part of my life. My father played the
trumpet, I played the trombone. I play the Ukulele now, but every time I play the ukulele it makes me happy. When I look at the young children, I
see that music makes them happy,'' said Edwin Mulitalo of the Baltimore Ravens.
Click here to read the entire story.
Cranston couple helps assemble
world-class ukulele collection
By Eyewitness News (WPRI)
Oct 20, 2002
CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) - It’s a long way from this blue-collar town to the warm sands of Waikiki.
Yet in a modest home on a quiet street, Sue Abbotson and her husband, Dave Wasser, have assembled a shrine to that most Hawaiian of instruments: the ukulele.
Abbotson and Wasser are part of a consortium of ukulele nuts who have assembled one of the world’s largest collections, including rare and historic
“ukes” dating back to the dawn of the instrument.
They hope to one day find this stockpile a permanent home in the planned
Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, along with books, recordings, photographs and various bits of Hawaiiana.
Click here to read the entire story.
Ukulele strikes a new chord
By Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Originally published October 1, 2002
HONOLULU -- In the beginning there was the guitar, and the guitar ruled. There
was Eric Clapton playing his hymn to "Layla," there was Jimi Hendrix celebrating the national anthem on his Stratocaster, George Harrison gently
weeping on six strings. In the middle of all that came Tiny Tim, strumming what could have been described only as a musical mutant: four sweet little strings
and a diminutive body you clutched to your chest like a baby.
It had a C chord you could play with one index finger and you tuned it by singing
a ditty on open strings: "My Dog Has Fleas."
The ukulele captured the national imagination—for about as long as it took Tiny
Tim to tiptoe through the tulips in 1968. By the 1970s, the little ukulele was once again set aside in favor of its more muscular six-stringed sibling. It was put
away in garages, sold at flea markets, relegated to tiki torch hotel lounges in Hawaii and classics such as "Princess Poo-Poo-Ly Has Plenty Papaya (And
She Loves to Give It Away)."
In testament to the enduring power of the ridiculous over the transcendent, the
ukulele—not as melodious as a banjo, not as elegant as a mandolin, an instrument upon which power chords sound like wind chimes—is making another comeback.
Click here to read the entire story.
Ukulele:
Four men, one instrument,
four styles, one basic love
09/27/02
By Wayne Harada
The Honolulu Advertiser
 Like the four strings of an 'ukulele, Benny Chong, Gordon
Mark, Jake Shimabukuro (pictured on left) and Byron Yasui each produce melodic sounds in differing styles. In the past year or so, they've been strung together in shows, on TV
and yes, on a just-out CD.
Click here to read the entire story.
Musician, banker Eddie Bush dead at 67
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Honolulu Advertiser
09/12/02
 Ukulele player extraordinaire Edward "Eddie" Bush died Tuesday at age 67, just as his musical star had begun to
shine brightly again.
Click here to read the entire story.
About The Ukulele Occasional
BY RICHARD DEFENDORF
Of The Examiner (San Francisco)
09/09/02
The Ukulele Occasional, a biannual periodical that debuted a couple of weeks ago, has the personality of a ukulele.
The Occasional is small -- a 6-by-9-inch softcover book -- but it packs a lot into its 128 pages: profiles, pictures, interviews, histories, reviews and playing
tips. Like the ukulele, the Occasional is entertaining and, sometimes, a little goofy.
Uke fans will eat it up. During the past decade or so, the small four-string
guitar has attracted a large number of serious musicians but also a lot of people who like the instrument because it seems less daunting (and more portable)
than the six-string guitar. Like most musical-instrument fans, uke players seem to love arcana. And they relish the novelty aspects of ukedom, although some
say they could do without the kitsch. Whatever. The Occasional feeds these passions.
Click here to read the entire story.
Producer apologizes for Harrison album
07/11/2002
 The producer of George Harrison’s posthumous album
has apologized for going against the late Beatle’s wishes and making it posher than he wanted.
Jeff Lynne admitted he had made the album
Brainwashed far more glossy than the raw sound Harrison actually asked for.
He said he put the extra polish on the songs to be released later this month - to do them justice.
The album, unveiled to critics in the UK last night, features Harrison playing his beloved ukulele on the old standard The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea. Jools
Holland, Joe Brown and session man Herbie Flowers who famously added the legendary bass-line to Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side also feature.
That was was the one that reeked of my dad, said Dhani, George’s son.
That was what he was like all the time around the house, just playing the
ukulele and singing. He’d play everything on the uke, anything and everything.
Click here to read the entire story.
Geoffrey R. Rezek of Darien, CT, Elected to Ukulele Hall of Fame Board of Directors
CRANSTON, R.I., May 9, 2002 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum (UHoFM) officially elected Geoffrey R. Rezek, 60, to its Board
of Directors. Ukulele player, enthusiast, and collector, Geoffrey R. Rezek lives in Darien, CT, with his wife, Jacqueline.
Click here to read the entire story.
Fun friends, silly songs and a lot of ukuleles
04/28/2002
 Elvis played one. So did Arthur Godfrey, Marilyn
Monroe, George Harrison, and, of course, Tiny Tim. Even John Lennon's mother played the ukulele (properly pronounced oo-ka-lay-lee).
The ukulele has had its moments in the spotlight -- in the '20s and then again in the '50s -- but all along, operating just below the mainstream radar, there
has been an active subculture of ukulele maniacs in Hawaiian shirts, strumming and plucking their brand of quirky good-time music.
Steve Wasser fell under the spell of the ukulele in 1990 in the Newark, N.J., airport; he was en route to an annual gathering of friends at Mardi Gras in New
Orleans. One of those friends, Tom, met Wasser at the airport carrying a ukulele and a songbook he got as a joke gift for his birthday. He was not musically
inclined, but he brought it along, thinking they could have some fun with it.
Click here to read the entire story.
|
APRIL 28, 2002 -- OSGOOD FILE -- CBS SUNDAY MORNING
UKELELE
It's a look at the amazing history
of the ukulele, from its earliest days in Hawaii, through the ukulele crazes of the '20s and the '50s, and into the present day, where ukulele devotees like Jim Beloff and the Battinelli family Ukesters preach the gospel according to uke. It features, among other luminaries, Oliver Hardy, Arthur Godfrey, and Tiny Tim.
Charlie Osgood interviews Jumpin' Jim Beloff, himself a singer/songwriter, and collector of ukes, who teaches Charlie how to play the
ukulele, and we visit the Roxbury Middle School in Stamford, where 4th graders also learn how to play.
|
Fountain of Uke
By Toni Logan
April 25, 2002 -- Special to the San Francisco Examiner
What do you call a professional ukulele player with a pager?
An optimist.
A bad joke here, a patronizing chuckle there -- it's all part of the ukulele legacy.
The other part of the legacy is that this charming, diminutive guitar has a lot of fans, from novice strummers and pickers to professional musicians, collectors
and expert luthiers.
Click here to read the entire story.
Jimi Hendrix's Father Dies
04/18/02
SEATTLE (AP) - James Al Hendrix, who introduced his son, acid-blues-rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, to music, is dead at age 82 after a long battle with congestive heart failure.
Hendrix, a former Golden Gloves boxer who worked as a plumber, electrician and gardener before retiring because of poor health in 1979, died in his sleep at home Wednesday.
In 1999, Hendrix wrote "My Son Jimi," a book about his oldest son, a 1960s music icon who died when he choked on his own vomit from a drug overdose in 1970 at age 27.
Hendrix was chairman of Experience Hendrix, a family company run by his adopted daughter, Janie L. Hendrix.
As a boy, steeped in the blues recordings of Muddy Waters, Robert
Johnson and others favored by his father, Jimi Hendrix taught himself to play an old ukulele his father had given him.
Colleagues remember entertainer Moe Keale
04/17/02
By Mike Gordon and Wayne Harada
Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writers
 The entertainment community yesterday remembered Moe Keale as a witty, soulful musician and singer with jokes and songs to share.
Moe Keale was a musician, singer and actor.
Keale, the 'ukulele stylist who entertained audiences with his acting and music for more than four decades, died after a heart
attack Monday. He was 62.
Click here to read entire story.
April 2, 2002 -- (from BBC News) -- Sir Paul McCartney paid an emotional
tribute to his late wife Linda and his Beatles bandmates, John Lennon and George Harrison, as he kicked off his US tour. The star fought back tears as he
performed Harrison's classic song “Something” on a ukulele.
Sir Paul sang to 15,000 fans at the Oakland Coliseum, near San Francisco, on
the first stop of his Driving USA tour - his first US tour in 10 years.
He told the audience Harrison often used to entertain friends on a ukulele and
was a great fan of George Formby.
"George was a great ukulele player and whenever you went to his house, he'd
play it at the end of the night. I showed him I could play the song on the ukulele and tonight I'd like to do it now as my tribute."
Peace Activists Converge at Good Friday Arcata, CA Rally
March 31, 2002 -- (from San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center) -- Good Friday Peace Rally draws 40 plus actvists in Arcata, CA in solidarity
with Palestine and other victims of U.S. aggression... One protestor played his ukulele and sang John Lennon's "Imagine" and Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind."
 March 26, 2002 -- LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) -- With a
shark biting on his leg and thrashing him about in the water, Hoku Aki started tearing at the most sensitive part of the shark he could reach -- its
eyes. On Tuesday, the 17-year-old sat in a hospital bed strumming a ukulele as he talked about the attack in murky water off Kauai that cost him one of his feet.
South by Southwest music festival: rock 'n' roll wonderland
Kenneth Smith & Stephen Chupaska
University Wire; Chicago; Illinois
March 21, 2002
(The Daily Aztec) (U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas -- For a week every spring, Austin, Texas, becomes the center of the rock 'n' roll universe as hordes of music folk
descend on the city for the South by Southwest Festival.
This year's festival ran from Wednesday, March 13 through Sunday, March 17,
as industry folk of all stripes rubbed shoulders with journalists, musicians and fans in the city's dozens of venues as everyone rushed from parties to showcases to a two-day trade show.
Despite a lower-than-usual attendance and the unofficial nomenclature of this year's festival as the "No Star SXSW" (due to a lack of high-profile, bonafide
rock stars showcasing), the festival was an incredible experience for most of those who attended.
Sure, there's networking to be done, plenty of swag to collect and copious
amounts of liquor to wash down heaping helpings of free Texas-style barbecue, but more than anything, SXSW remains about the music, with everyone
scrambling to witness their favorite artists or hoping to catch the next big thing.
Tempo scoured this year's showcases from Rio Grande to Red River and
points beyond to bring you the best SXSW offered this year. Following are some of the greatest -- bands to watch for in the year ahead and some old favorites. .....
 ....Petty Booka -- Anyone whose heart didn't
absolutely melt as Petty and Booka, two ukulele-playin’, hula dancing beauties from Japan, sang, "Ukulele Lady," is in need of a defibrillator. Every
second of the show, which also included covers of "I Fall To Pieces" and "Do You Wanna Dance," was heart-rendering beautiful, the girls syrupy,
sweet voices pouring deliciously over the accompanying music, dueling ukuleles backed by upright bass and steel slide guitar. Their unabashed love of traditional country and
western, Hawaiian folk and rock is filtered into incredible music you have to hear to believe.
RALPH SHAW: Table For Two
CD Review
By John P. McLaughlin
Vancouver Province
03/19/02
Order from http://www.ralphshaw.ca
The North Shore's Ralph Shaw calls the ukulele the happiest instrument on earth and, sure enough, the smiles just seem to emanate from his second indie
release. Ever invoking the spirit of English music hall star George Formby, Shaw has introduced a number of his own songs this time out, including the
sweet "Be My Lover" and the positively lilting "I Just Wish I Was In Love," co-written with co-producer Geoff Gibbons. But he really shines on pre-50s
material such as the timeless "I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)." British as a crumpet, the man is a ukulele god.
A funky American hybrid instrument helps tell a story set in Albania
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Monday, March 18, 2002
By Glenn Jordan, Staff Writer
BRUNSWICK-- In ancient Illyria, birthplace of Homer and a land that became
Albania, oral history was passed down on important occasions by singers known as rhapsodes, who would be accompanied by a long-necked, single
-stringed instrument called a lahuta. Barbara Truex makes do with her mother's banjo-ukulele.
"It's a great-sounding ethnic instrument," said Truex, who composed all the
music for a new play called "Matching Shadows with Homer," opening Friday at The Theater Project. "It's got this little plunky nylon-string sound."
Click here to read the entire story.
Renowned Swartz Creek craftsman takes pride in creating ukuleles
Sunday, March 17, 2002
By Elizabeth Shaw
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Swartz Creek - By day he's a graphic artist designing automotive ads. By night he's the undisputed ukulele king of Swartz Creek.
But you'd be ill-advised to consider a Tiny Tim joke at Dave Talsma's expense: This consummate craftsman has an international reputation as a professional
luthier (string instrument maker), with his handmade string instruments commanding prices from $500 to well more than $1,500.
Click here to read the entire story.
Ukulele tells American story
John Christoffersen, Associated Press Writer; AP Worldstream
March 8, 2002
STAMFORD, Connecticut -- The four-string instrument is tiny but tells a big story of America in the 20th century and even evokes fantasies of paradise.
The ukulele, long overshadowed by the guitar and keyboards in popular music, is finally getting its due. The Stamford Museum and Nature Center is billing
"Ukulele Fever: The Craze That Swept America" as the first exhibit on the history and social significance of the ukulele.
"It's the people's instrument," said Jim Beloff, who wrote a book on the ukulele and helped organize the show. "It's a wonderful instrument to be reconsidered now."
Click here to read the entire story.
Organizing Your Own Personal Collections
NEAL CONAN; Talk of the Nation (NPR); Washington
January 7, 2002
NEAL CONAN, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.
It's a new year and time to live up to that resolution of getting a grip on your stuff;
those books spilling off the shelves, the Depression-era glass vases crowding the garage, the vintage fabric jamming up the linen closet. Whatever your
private collecting passion, there comes a point where you either impose a principle of organization or you simply give up and drown.
Our first caller is Randy, who's on the line with us from Chicago, Illinois.
Mr. RANDY CLIFFORD (Caller): Hi.
CONAN: Hi.
Mr. CLIFFORD: My name's Randy Clifford. I have over 700 ukuleles.
Click here to read the entire transcript.
The Duke of Uke
By Dave Scheiber, Times Staff Writer
St. Petersburg Times
January 21, 2002
A renowned guitar maker from Clearwater is playing a new tune these days, having gained international fame for making ukuleles. Yes, ukuleles. He's as surprised as you are.
 CLEARWATER -- In his little shop on Drew Street, Augustino LoPrinzi quietly
carries on the craft he learned more than a half century ago. He shaves and shapes exotic strips of wood from Italy to India to Brazil into guitars that can cost as much as a new minivan.
Andres Segovia has played a LoPrinzi in concert. Leo Kottke, Dan Fogelberg and Larry Coryell own one. Christopher Parkening just placed an order.
Given his high-profile client list, LoPrinzi was at a loss three years ago when he was asked by his agent to build an instrument for someone named Ohta-san.
This virtuoso, whom LoPrinzi had never heard of, didn't want a guitar.
Click here to read the entire story.
Exhibit Celebrates Ukulele's Popularity
Vancouver Province
By Mary Ellen Botter
January 6, 2002
Think of petite, curvaceous music stars and Brenda Lee, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross and Christina Aguilera leap to mind.
But before they glittered in the spotlight, another shapely hitmaker stood out: the ukulele. And an exhibit opening Feb. 2 at the Stamford Museum and Nature
Center in Connecticut will put the four-string, guitarlike instrument centre stage once again.
"Ukulele Fever: The Craze That Swept America" will display more than 100
ukuleles from private collections nationwide, plus art, sheet music and advertisements featuring the beloved "uke." The exhibit will explore its
association with such performers as '50s television star Arthur Godfrey, '60s pop singer Tiny Tim and Beatle George Harrison. The uke's screen
appearances with Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot and with Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii will get a nod.
Instruments shown will trace the nation's century-long fascination with the ukulele, ignited in the Hawaiian Pavilion of the 1915 Panama Pacific International
Exhibition in San Francisco, the museum says. No doubt, the link to the gentle aloha spirit sprang from there (the uke is often considered Hawaiian) but the
instrument really is rooted in the Portuguese braguinha.
Portability and ease of play propelled the ukulele into theatres, dorm rooms,
barracks and living rooms nationwide as vaudevillians, flappers, crooners, collegians, soldiers and families embraced the little songster. A "how-to" video
in the exhibit promises to teach viewers to play the ukulele -- in 61 seconds.
Among one-of-a-kind instruments to be seen in the show will be the mother-of
-pearl 5K Daisy (1923-24) created by the owner of the Martin Guitar Co. for his wife. And, yes, Tiny Tim's strum-box named "Miss Vicky" tiptoes into the show.
Hawaii's role in the ukulele's rise to star status will get a nod in a companion exhibit, Hands-on Hawaii, which aims to teach children aspects of the islands in addition to its music.
Ukulele Fever will continue through May 26. Tickets are $6 US for adults, and $4 for seniors and ages 4 to 14. Children 3 and younger are admitted free.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. The museum is at 39 Scofieldtown Road in Stamford, in southwestern Connecticut. Contact: 203-322-1646.
A Big Man's Ukulele, Plucking Heartstrings
12/16/01 -- The Washington Post
 In life, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (pronounced "Ka-MA-ka-VEE-vo-oh
-lay") was a giant, a man of more than 700 pounds who could make the little ukulele sing as sweetly as his own falsetto. In death, he has emerged as
the Bob Marley of Hawaiian music, a gentle ambassador who presented himself as informally as a lazy island afternoon but was as emotionally incisive as the deepest bluesman.
Click here to read the entire story.
Passion for diminutive ‘uke’ brings big reward
08/01/01 -- By Susan Tordella, The Littleton Independent
 Littletonian Robert Wheeler strums one of the many ukeleles that he has
accumulated over the years.
Robert Wheeler distinguishes between his 200 accumulated ukuleles in the same way wine connoisseurs identify the best wines — by their bouquets.
" If they’re 50 years old, they smell like history, " said Wheeler, founder of Ukulele Consciousness. Although he declines labels such as expert or collector,
Wheeler is known throughout the country as both. " There’s no one else like me, " he said.
Click here to read the entire story.
UKULELE TEACHER MAKES MUSIC MORE THAN A SPECTATOR SPORT
05/28/01 -- The Hartford Courant
To the unhip, the ukulele is a geezer's guitar, a four-stringed cousin to the kazoo and washtub bass. But Chuck Robison's seventh-graders know better.
Every Tuesday and Thursday since January, a dozen otherwise typical middle-schoolers have spent their last period at Kellogg Middle School learning old
-time songs and making music on ukuleles.
"I never heard of the ukulele before," said Matt Hills, 13, a "ukulist" since
January who'd just strummed and sung "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," "Red River Valley" and other old tunes never, ever heard on MTV. "I enjoy it," Matt said.
Click here to read the entire story.
HAWAII'S UKULELE GOES RESPECTABLE - EVEN HIP
05/25/00 -- The Record (Northern New Jersey)
HONOLULU The ukulele, an island icon for more than a century, is picking up in popularity, especially among young islanders. It's also hot in Japan and is
catching on with West Coast youths. "Every ukulele that is made is out the door," says Fred Kamaka Jr., whose family has been making the instruments since 1916.
Click here to read the entire story.
He's kooky for ukes, and that's no fluke!; Ultimate enthusiast strung out on ukuleles
10/02/98 -- The Boston Herald
There is no doubt ukuleles have served as an important prop in entertainment history. Tiny Tim, Don Ho, even Jiminy Cricket (well, not the cartoon, but Cliff
Edwards, the man who provided his voice) all held tiny ukes above their chests during some, if not all, of their acts. Since ukuleles are responsible for more
than a few successful careers, it's only fitting that the tiny instrument get as much respect as its bigger, badder, hipper cousin, the guitar. And this weekend, it will.
Click here to read the entire story.
Ukulele-strumming singer Tiny Tim dies at age 64
12/02/96 -- Lancaster New Era (PA)
 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Tiny Tim's one hit became his swan song. Nearly three decades after he first
crooned "Tiptoe Thru' the Tulips" in his trademark falsetto voice, the ukulele-strumming singer fell ill while performing his signature tune and died.
Tiny Tim had recently said that he was born April 12, 1932, making him 64, although over the years he had sometimes fibbed about his age.
His widow, Susan Khaury, said he cut short "Tiptoe" during a benefit for the Woman's Club of Minneapolis and told her he was not well. She
was trying to help him back to their table when he collapsed.
Click here to read the entire story.
Ukulele Could Be Making a Comeback
Morning Edition (NPR); Washington
March 9, 1993
(Transcript of a radio interview.)
NEAL CONAN, Host: Tune in for some serious ukulele music, after headlines from Jean Cochran.
JIM BELOFF, Editor, Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Favorites: [singing] `Tiptoe to the
window, by the window, that is where I'll be. Come tiptoe through the tulips with me.'
CONAN: Jim Beloff was prowling through the aisles of the Pasadena Rose
Bowl Flea Market about a year ago when he says a Martin tenor ukulele jumped out and said take me home. He did. Then he tried to find some ukulele music so
he could practice on his new four-string, but that was not so easy. It took some detective work, but Beloff finally located a few out-of-print ukulele songbooks in
an old music shop. What he found enchanted him. So that we may all share in his treasure, Jim Beloff has published 30 of his favorite tunes in a new book
called Jumpin' Jim's Ukulele Favorites.
Click here to read the entire interview.
|
