The Waiakea Intermediate School has a Ukulele Band which had its 40th anniversary in 2010. The school still offers this ukulele band as well as a concert band. The band plays pieces like Hilo March, Under The Double Eagle March, Jingle Bells, Carol of the Bells an has made tours to the USA and to Japan. I have not found newer videos of this ukulele band, but I found that the band still plays from time to time.
It’s fun to watch the boys and girls play with their ukuleles and dance a difficult dance from the Philipines.
Waiakea Intermediate Ukulele Band 2009-2010
Playlist Waiakea Intermediate Ukulele Band Playlist
The Canadian singer Coeur de Pirate (pirate heart) has sung the song Umbrella together with Julien Doré in thr French TV Show Taratata.
This is a great example of a song that is accompanied by just a ukulele.
Coeur De Pirate & Julien Doré “Umbrella” // “Pour Un Infidèle” (Live On Taratata Juin 2009)
Les duos et reprises de Taratata sont l’occasion unique pour les interprètes de revisiter un titre d’un autre répertoire. Julien Doré, familier de l’exercice, s’était associé avec la chanteuse Coeur de Pirate (Béatrice Martin) pour rejouer au ukulélé le titre phare de Rihanna : “Umbrella”.
Orignal Song “Umbrella” by Rihanna.
Album Good Girl Gone Bad – 2007
TARATATA N 319 (Diff. France 4 le 12/06/09)
Coeur de Pirate sings mainly songs (chansons) in French language. She is mainly popular in Canada and in France.
If you like French chansons you can listen to the playlist with songs by Coeur de Pirate on the CBC site.
Béatrice Martin (born September 22, 1989), better known by her stage name Cœur de pirate (French: pirate heart) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. A francophone from Montreal, she sings mostly in French and has been credited with “bringing la chanson française to a whole new generation of Quebec youth”.
Artists including Devendra Banhart, Katie Melua, and Ayo made their French TV debut on the show. The show’s chief lighting technician, Jean-Philippe Bourdon, was awarded two Sept d’or in 1994 and 1995.
The show features unique duets and highlights new artists and uses different presenters for each episode. These aspects, and the general emphasis on original music, led the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel to identify Taratata as a uniquely creative show on French TV in April 2009.
Some days ago I have listened to a radio show with historical recordings, a show that did especially include a set of recordings by Roy Smeck – The Wizard of the Strings. Two pieces recorded in 1928 were followed by an interesting set of live recordings from 1977 . Maybe my favorite song from this radio show is I want my momma in which Roy Smeck makes his steel-guitar talk.
This is the complete list of songs form this radio show:
Roy Smeck – ukulele ; Henri Klickmann – piano
12th Street rag
Needle Type disc N-138
1928
Roy Smeck – octachorda ; Carson Robison – guitar
Twilight echoes
Needle Type disc N-136
1928
Roy Smeck – electric Hawaiian guitar ; John Goodman – guitar
Third man theme
live at ENHS
1977
Roy Smeck – electric Hawaiian guitar ; John Goodman – guitar
Roy Smack was one of the super stars of the 1920s and 1930s. He took part in the very first movies with sound recording, and he also was one of the first to use some multi track recording techniques. This can be seen in the following video where Roy Smeck plays four different instruments:
Another great movie shows Roy Smeck’s imitation of “Bill Robinson’s Tap and Stair Dance”. Roy Smeck uses his ukuulele as a fantastic drum set replacement.
Roy Smeck could play the ukulele and the harmonica at the same time, and without any device to hold the harmonica. He just holds the harmonica with his lips and plays it – you can see this in the following video after ca. 4:40.
Two days ago I have discovered the following concert on the CBC concert on demand site. This is a niceconcert to lead you to the coming christmas holidays:
Christmas Dinner with Dala
Darlings of the Canadian music scene, these JUNO nominees have released five albums and toured extensively across North America for the better part of a decade. They performed Christmas music plus some of their favourite original songs-in their trademark perfect harmony–at the NAC Studio in Ottawa. The audience really felt like they were hanging out in Dala’s dining room, laughing constantly at their between-song banter.
(This concert is no longer available)
One of the pieces I have discovered in this concert is the old Canadian christmas tune Huron Carol (see my next post in this blog).
The name Dala has been constructed form the names of the two members of Dala – Da: Amanda Walther and La: Sheila Carabine.
On the Dala homepage you can read the following:
Juno nominees and winners of the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year, Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine of Dala write and sing in harmony best described as angelic. These two best friends met in their high school music class in 2002; they have since released five albums and toured extensively across North America. Darlings of the Canadian music scene, Dala are now poised to bring their fresh brand of acoustic pop music to the world.
This is an interview with Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther about their great harmony singing, hocke, the left handed ukulele and more. Especially you can experience the their great sens of humor, their loughing and smiling:
DALA on harmony and hockey
The Canadian duo DALA–Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther–got two standing ovations at the Sanctuary series in Chatham, NJ. Their songs have wit and depth, they harmonize like sisters and, being from Canada, they’re just so…nice. In this interview after the show, they reflect on harmony– musical and otherwise–and talk about Sheila’s strange ukulele and the Stanley Cup finals. Video by Kevin Coughlin for MorristownGreen.com, May 21, 2011.
Moon River
Dala July, 9, 2011
Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine play guitars, ukulele, piano and also glockenspiel in some songs.
ukulele
