Results for "ukulele"

The Moonlighters

THE MOONLIGHTERS have been a part of the New York City jazz and pop music scenes since they formed in 1998. Based around a core of harmonized vocal duets backed by warm acoustic instruments including Hawaiian lap steel guitar, ukulele, guitar and bass, they explore traditional and classic tunes with a unique, romantic approach that is appealing to listeners of all ages. They have released 5 cds and toured Europe 3 times.

Bliss Blood and Al Street

Bliss Blood is a musician and songwriter from Houston, Texas. She moved to New York City, New York in 1996. She sings and plays ukulele in a duo with guitarist Al Street. They have released 2 cds and are currently recording their third. She also leads the 1920s jazz-themed New York City group The Moonlighters, formed in 1998. The Moonlighters have released five cds, and toured Germany four times. She has recorded six albums from 1988-1995 with Houston experimental rock band Pain Teens. She has also appeared on recordings with groups including The Melvins, Exit-13 and Angels of Light.

Jake Shimabukuro

Though many still have trouble pronouncing his last name and the instrument he plays, Jake Shimabukuro (she-ma-BOO-koo-row) is becoming recognized as one of the world's top ukulele (oo-koo-LAY-lay) musicians. His latest release, My Life (Hitchhike Records 1108) is an EP that features six brand-new ukulele arrangements of Jake's favorite tunes by Sarah McLachlan, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Cyndi Lauper, wrapped around the classic "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". On this heartfelt and beautiful recording, Jake respects the originals while integrating his own soulful, one-of-a-kind interpretations

Buster Keaton

Born: October 4, 1895

Buster Keaton was almost literally "born in a trunk." His parents had stopped in Piqua, Kansas in early October, 1895 while performing with a traveling medicine show. Myra Keaton missed playing the saxophone at the October 4th performance when Buster arrived, delivered in a boarding house just across the street from the site of the evening performance. Young Keaton began appearing on stage with his parents at a tender age, became a child vaudeville star on Broadway, and earned a reputation as a comic genius in the world at large with a body of classic silent film comedy. He died in California in 1966

Paul Hemmings

Viewing music through a wide-angle lens, Paul Hemmings utilizes the unassuming ukulele to fuse together elements of modern jazz, free improvisation, and American roots music into a signature sound that has been called “bold, beautiful, and full of promise.” He has released six albums on Leading Tone Records, including outings with his ukulele-fronted jazz trio, The Paul Hemmings Uketet, and critically acclaimed recordings with saxophonists John Tchicai and Eric Alexander. His proclivity for crossing musical boundaries led All About Jazz to write, “Hemmings’ mixture of cultures, influences, and genres, exploring the edges of harmony and rhythm, is remarkably fresh and a complete success.” Based in New York City, Paul performs regularly as leader of The Paul Hemmings Uketet, the dynamic ukulele-bass-drum team he uses to interpret his own original compositions and renditions of modern standards

John King

Born: October 13, 1953

John King adored Hawaii, though he lived there for only a few years as a boy. The “Hawaiian room” in his Florida home was stuffed with hundreds upon hundreds of hula dolls, leis and other artifacts. He once owned 400 Hawaiian shirts, more than enough to wear a different one every day of the year

Cliff Edwards

Born: June 14, 1895

Cliff Edwards got his start in show business as a teenager in St. Louis where he sang in movie theatres and saloons. While singing in the saloons he began to accompany himself on the ukulele and developed a style of improvised singing, which he called "effin". "Effin" sounds a lot like the human voice imitating a hot trumpet or kazoo solo. Edwards had a wonderful voice with at least a three octave range and he would inject his "effin" solos into his songs in the same way that a Jazz musician would take a solo. A good argument can be made that Edwards 1922 recordings with Ladds Black Aces and Bailey's Lucky Seven are the first recorded examples of scat singing, but some Jazz critics would disagee and point back to Gene Greene's 1911 Victor recording "King of the Bungaloos"

The Blue Dahlia ~ Dahlia Dumont

Born: October 6, 1984

Dahlia Dumont, leader of The Blue Dahlia: vocals, ukulele-player, singer-songwriter. Brooklyn-girl, but a nomad at heart, Dahlia Dumont traveled the world from an early age, always absorbing the cultural and musical influences in her path. Her Eastern European heritage and her years as an anthropology student and teacher in France and Senegal shaped her musical palette, and in 2012 she created her project The Blue Dahlia. The Blue Dahlia: Lyrics in English and French, French and Mexican accordion, klezmer violin, warm and joyous rhythms of reggae, ska and Latin America, the sensual voice of jazz and French chanson