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Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
 Posted - 05/03/2006 : 11:31:08 AM
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Any Taropatchers go to the Ukulele Festivals last weekend? I was not able to go to the one in New York City.
Did you have fun? What'd ya do? What were the highlights?
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Andy |
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lance
Aloha
1 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2006 : 1:17:16 PM
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I went with 3 kids and wife. We just missed the 12 year old who was supposedly jammin'. We weren't there the entire time. The space for listening to music was too small. The sunshine after all the previous rain was amazing. I got sunburned. The shave ice line was moving so slowly, I think it was 1 hour long. :-(
My 6 year old was stoked about the music! We're now more actively keeping our eye open for something to replace his $40 Hilo soprano uke with something bigger but not too expensive that we have to worry what he's doing with it. We're leaning towards a fluke since other threads seems to indicate it's very durable. |
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Konabob
`Olu`olu
USA
928 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2006 : 6:01:55 PM
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Shirley and I went to the New York uke fest, and had a wonderful time. Coming from the island of Hawaii (total population around 200,000) New York was a real experience!
We really enjoyed playing with all kinds of musicians - much different than the Hawaiian crowed that we are used to out this way. A talented young woman named Victoria Vox (http://www.victoriavox.com/) asked me to back her up with my Kona Walkingstick Bass. Her voice was so pure and sweet, I could hardly play at times. We met many fascinating musicians from all parts of the world. Shirley really love the Moonliters with Bliss Blood and Mike Neer. The Fabulous Heftones were a class act, and we also enjoyed the Boulder Acoustic Society's live performance. The Hawaiian stage was a little sparse (5000 miles from Hawaii, one might expect that) But Brittni Pavia put on a number of really fine shows and also got to go to the top of the Empire State Building. Gordon Velasco was the host for the Hawaiian stage and pulled together a couple of fine kanikapilas after performing with his halau/band. He must have a lot of energy... he kept on going and going. He and his ohana even helped Shirley and I flag down a taxi!
We also wandered around the city, eating all kinds of great food that we never find in Hawaii. The people of New York were very friendly to us, and were always willing to help us get our directions, or give recommendations.
As an ukulele event, this one focused on performers. There were a lot of great musicians, and performances were constant throughout the whole weekend. I would have liked to see a room set aside for people to just get together and jam. Whenever there were scheduled musical events, those of us in the hallway/vendor area would be invited to stop playing or take the music out on the street. Maybe next year, a jamming room? The vendors were all great people, and I enjoyed meeting them. Uke Jackson and his crew worked tirelessly (sleeplessly?) the whole time. I don't know how many people attended, but it seemed like at least 500. Since there were lots of performers, many people came who were not musicians at all, but simply enjoyed the music.
The high point for me was playing bass for Victoria Vox, but I imagine that for many people it was hearing James Hill.
James Hill put on a fantastic concert, which had everyone spellbound. He played 2 classical pieces that he wrote, and when the music ended, you could have heard a pin drop... until the hall exploded with Bravo! and Hana Hou! There was a lot of good buzz about Shorty Long, but we didn't manage to catch his performance.
One disappointment - we missed seeing you Andy!
Aloha,
-Konabob
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Konabob's Walkingbass - http://www.konawalkingbass.com
Taropatch Steel - http://www.konaweb.com/konabob/
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Konabob2+Walkingbass |
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Dominator
Lokahi
USA
115 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2006 : 8:24:34 PM
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The Hayward fest was a lot of fun this year. Toebone and I hooked up on Saturday for the workshops and concert at DaSilva Ukulele Co. and then took in the Uke Fest in Hayward on Sunday. The weather was good but the sun was hotter than I realized. I ended up getting burned pretty good.
It was great to see Tonya, Dave from Petaluma, and Tiki King again. We missed Tom B. and Andy Andrews and Kona Bob as they were in New York. Got to meet some new folks and it was a pleasure to meet Ken Potts from KP Ukulele in person. He spent a fair amount of time critiquing the mahogany tenor I made last October.
Most of my time was spent outside in the courtyard either jamming or just visiting with folks. I caught the last three performers in the auditorium including Steven Espaniola and Bryan Tolentino and the Side Order Band. The auditorium was very hot and stuffy. No circulation at all. I had to go outside and get some water and fresh air and missed the last two songs, however the music was piped to the outside. Steven’s voice was sounding great and Bryan and SOB backed him up. Bryan was great as usual.
It was a great ukulele weekend but the highlight for me was when, during the evening concert at DaSilva’s, Bryan invited me to join him on stage to play the title track from his CD, Ka `Ukulele Lele, that I had transcribed a couple of months back. It was a very nice gesture from a very gracious person. Thank you Bryan. Here is a link to a video of Ka `Ukulele Lele.
http://www.ukeland.com/~dominator/Images/ka_ukulele_lele.wvx
Oh yes, it was really good to hangout with Toebone for two days………….drinking beer and jamming in the hotel till almost 3:00am in the morning. I won’t tell you how my head felt in the morning. Ha!
Dominator
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www.dominator.ukeland.com
www.myspace.com/dominatoruke
Practice makes Practice Perfect! |
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