I’m “conducting” a half-hour set at the “Make Music NY Ukulele Mass Appeal” event a week from this Sunday, on June 21, from noon to 3pm at Tucker Square in Manhattan, 66th & Broadway.
The event, a general jam-along and also an attempt to set the YouTube record for ukulele players singing “Stand By Me,” is being organized by “Hilo” Greg of Agent 99. Here’s an email he sent today to friends:
=========
Howdy all,
Just a quick reminder that the Make Music NY Ukulele Mass Appeal is coming up NEXT SUNDAY, June 21, 12-3 at Tucker Square, 66th & Broadway. It’s a 3-hour uke jam as part of the Make Music NY festival. I’ve recruited some guest conductors to keep things rolling, and have also put together a PDF songbook. You can get it here:
P.S. On a purely shameless note, I have a video in the NY 1 Music Video Star Contest (with Holly and Joe from Agent 99) that could use a few more clicks! Here it is
REMINDERS:
Bring: Uke, songbook, kazoo, music stand, bottle of water, camera, friends
Don’t bring: Guitars, dobros, banjos, mandolins, amps, mikes, or anything electric, or rain!
Subway: 1 to 66 St.-Lincoln Center
Restrooms: Should be open in Barnes & Noble (4th Floor)
It’s been over a week since NY Uke Fest 2009 (May 29-31), and I’m just getting around to this post.
In short, it was amazing. All seem to agree this was the best NY Uke Fest ever. The Fest’s founder Uke Jackson passed over the reigns this year to Ken “Bari” Murray. Ken did an amazing job pulling the Fest out of the ashes after Uke dropped it when the venue The Zipper Factory closed with no notice.
With roughly four months before the Fest’s summer date, Ken found a great twin venue, Baruch College and Gershwin Hotel, and packed the stage with great performers, and packed the place with attendees who stayed up Friday and Saturday till past 3am jamming their hearts out. The workshops were hit and miss — some great performers aren’t necessarily great teachers, but I guess that’s the nature of a festival.
The highlights of of the show were the Friday and Saturday night concerts, as well as the after-party jams that followed. I left both nights around 4am. This video gives a flavor of the scene.
My favorite performances included:
By far, the highlight of the show was the festival’s best player, 101-year-old jazz master Bill “Tappy” Tapia. He performed multiple times throughout the weekend, including workshops and jamming till past 3am both Friday and Saturday nights in the back room of the Gershwin Hotel. His mind far sharper than mind, and he’s a great story teller, such as a long anecdote about smoking grass only once in his life, back stage with Louis Armstrong. Incredibly, he quite playing ukulele in favor of the guitar in his 20s and he picked it up again only in the last few years, in his 90s.
Small World Project, a very cool trio from Montreal who do some kind of modern jazz featuring Sébastien Dufour on uke. His workshop, incidentally, was the best I had. Various video clips.
Mihana, Hawaiian star singer, musician and actress and the nicest person you’d ever meet in your life.
Quasi-celebrity Nelly McKay, who was meant to be the headliner Friday night, but she came late, and instead of an audience of 200, she had just about 40 of us who lingered and were on site when she showed. By her own admission she’s hardly the best ukulele player of the show, but on the other hand she IS a ukulele player, and she sings beautifully and she’s funny and pretty and does a cute crooked thing with her mouth.
Brooklyn’s own Les Chauds Lapins, specializing covers of French jazz-era hits
Lauded throughout the conference as greatly responsible for the current ukulele revival for his many uke arrangement song books, Jim Beloff sang two amusing original compositions “Not Yet” and “Old in New Mexico” (the latter together with his wife Liz).
Cape Cod-based Tripping Lily, a lovely combo with tight harmonies of brothers Demetrius and Alex Becrelis (variously on ukes, guitarts, mandolin and vocals) and the comely Monica Rizzio on uke, vocals and violin.
The one disappointment of the fest was the vendor turnout. There were a handful of good sellers there, but not nearly the number of instruments to choose from as previous shows. It’s understandable with the late changes in venue and timing that several vendors didn’t have time to commit. But they should realize the Fest is back in a big way and plan on attending in force in 2010.
Some gear I bought that I’d recommend included Uncle Zac’s Ultimate Chord Inversion Chart For Uke and the mini percussion Rhythm Ring (letting you keep rhythm while you strum). Also, check out GoChords.com, an other exhibiting vendor, a web site that lets you easily put uke chord charts to lyrics.
Lots of videos of the fest at YouTube with the tag “nyukefest2009″.
I’ve been meaning to write this post for weeks, but I’m a terrible procrastinator. Anyway, there’s still almost a week left to register for one of the funnest events of the summer (in my humble opinion): NY Uke Fest!!!
I went last year. It was a blast. I had several non-uker friends attend and really enjoy themselves. And — what ho! — one of them started playing uke thereafter as a direct result!
NY Uke Fest is approaching NYC institution status, celebrating its fourth year in 2009. Actually, it’s under new management: fest founder Uke Jackson passed the torch this year to Ken “Bari” Murray this year. I’ve gotten to know Ken pretty well in the last few months, and he’s a great guy. Everyone I know in the NYC uke circuit is very happy the fest will continue in such great hands.
The three-day festival is a uke-tastic combination of a great vendor expo, workshops for a wide range of styles and techniques, and a line-up of terrific performers, including:
Julia Nunes, aka Jaaaaaaa, YouTube uke phenom, who grew up in Fairport NY but curiously shares the name of Manuel Nunes, who is generally credited as the inventor of the ukulele, a cabinet maker from Madeira, Portugal, who moved to Hawaii in 1879 where his homeland’s instrumet was a bit hit
Only 200 seats for the evening concerts; not sold out yet, but almost, so buy your tickets now! Tickets available for 1, 2 or 3 days, and even half days. Discounts for advanced online orders.
I made a pilgrimage today to one of the world’s best stores for sheet music, Colony, in Times Square, for this book of great songs from the ’30s. Specifically, I bought it for “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”
I figured with the Great Recession and all we should dust off some of those Depression-era favorites and that song came to mind. So I looked it up on YouTube, found this clip below of the definitive version by Crosby, with a great montage of era photographs.
Jesus, it’s a powerful song. I have no illusions about doing Crosby’s version any justice, but I’ll work on it. Will probably take quite a while to learn.
OMG, how super adorable! SweetAfton23, aka Molly, aka The Artist Formerly Known as SweetAfton23 and frequent subject of Bruner.net’s UkeTube series, performing with her mom! Sweets and I have exchanged a couple of emails, and she mentioned in one her mom’s a music teacher. Sound is a bit crackly, but they were too jazzed about getting it in one take to fix it.
Our dear friends Matt and Chris got married last weekend. We love them! More photos. They worked together at the neighborhood’s best restaurant by far, Pisticci, until the fell in love and moved to LA a couple years ago. But they still came back here to get married because the Pisticci crowd’s draw was that strong. At least half of the wedding was current and former staff, and a handful of other regular customers, such as ourselves. Pisticci is owned by a beautiful couple and they trend towards employing beautiful people, as evidenced in these photos.
Haven’t posted here for a while, so I’ll keep it simple and stick with UkeTube. I don’t know the band or the song these guys are covering (Wire, 1978 song “I Am The Fly” from the LP Chair’s Missing), but this version by Gus and Fin (aka GUGUG) is fantabulous. And on a T.V. Pal, no less!
Nothing profound to say, but I want to be on record saying the inauguration of Barack Obama today has indeed inspired me. I believe this man could inspire us to further greatness. It’s been a while since I felt inclined to declare so publically I was proud to be an American, but today it’s a cynch. Rah President Barack Hussein Obama! Rah America!
* I swear to blog the Bruner, the whole Bruner, and nothing but the Bruner, so help me golly-gosh! The rantings/ravings and other pointless blather found within these pages constitute the opinions of only this particular Bruner, no one else (such as my employer, persons identified within, yadda, yadda).
Posted by Rick E. Bruner | 
No Comments
