The Builders

Mike jokingly said the other day that a lot of the people who come to him to build ukes are there because they can't play the uke. While I know I'm no Jake Shimabukuro (do yourself a favor and check out that link), I like to think I'm not incapable of carrying a tune, but it is true that we are not exactly a group of ukulele virtuosos. There are six of us. You already know me. Here are the other five (pictures of each of them in today's photos):

I've mentioned Phil before. He lives in Torrance, California, and he and his wife have been to Hawaii 28 times over the course of their 33-year marriage. I'm impressed by both of these numbers. Since my first day of class, Phil has become sort of my tour guide here in Honolulu. He knows what's on the beaten path and what's off of it here and I've gotten a lot of great tips from him about what to do. Phil claims his ukulele repertoire is fairly limited, but his wife says he is capable of mangling any song ever written.

Peter is retired military and now lives in Texas. He's served in Korea and Vietnam, and I think he has an endless supply of ukulele-themed t-shirts, which makes me jealous. Oddly enough, Peter was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Erasmus Hall, the first school I taught at. He also looks a lot like Ernest Hemingway, and if that isn't cool I need to have my cool-o-meter recalibrated.

Kazuo is here from Japan to build with Mike. Kazuo is an amateur cabinet maker and has built a few ukes before, so he is handier with the tools than most of us. Whenever I lose track of what I'm doing, I always look over at Kazuo's work. (Is that cheating?) The fact that there are many Japanese people in Hawaii--both living here and visiting--makes it unsurprising that there is someone all the way from Japan in the class, but it is even less surprising if you know how popular the ukulele is in Japan. I wish I could explain why this is. There are plenty of possible explanations, but no one seems to know exactly. I think it's because those tiny Tokyo apartments make the contrabass impractical. Kazuo is also a pretty good player, especially considering he's only been playing for a year and a half. I'll be in Japan this fall for a three week fellowship (check back to this blog in October!) , so I hope to see Kazuo when I'm there.

Albert was born in Hawaii but now lives in Gardena, California, "where the poor people live." He's 81 years old and has been retired for 20 years. Combining that with the fact that he used to work for the L.A. Department of Water & Power pretty much makes me think that the movie Chintown is based loosely on his life.

Now, I said that we are not exactly a bunch of ukulele virtuosos, but there is one exception in the class: Taimane, a 17-year-old high school senior-to-be. Like I said, I'm no Jake Shimabukuro (click that link too), but Tiamane has studied with Jake and with Jake's brother Bruce, who's no slouch himself (I tried to catch Bruce at his regular Saturday night gig this weekend, but it turns out he's in Japan this week). Chalk it up to coincidence again, or maybe it's another it's-a-small-world-when-it-comes-to-the-ukulele thing, but when the guy I rented my apartment from found out I was coming to build a ukulele, he told me I should definitely check out a girl who plays in front of the Pacific Beach Hotel every Friday night. I'd never heard of her, but it was Taimane he was talking about. She's building a uke as part of her senior project for graduation. Phil and Peter recognized her the second she walked in, and Kazuo has even seen her in Japan, so she's the real deal, and I'm apparently just ignorant. She's even on the cover of this issue of Oahu's Midweek, for crying out loud. I had hoped to catch her playing last Friday, but the rain kept me away.

Even though I missed seeing Taimane play, I had so much fun this weekend that I was starting to think the only thing that could make this trip any better is if I could have seen Don Ho when he was still alive. Trick question:

Q: How long has Don Ho been dead?
A: He's not!

True, he had to go to Thailand late last year for a lifesaving procedure, but the man is still putting on a show at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel (three times a week!). And, after a drive around the island yesterday, I went to see the Ho Show last night. Honestly, I just wanted to say I had seen Don Ho, and didn't expect much (I mean, even Don himself made a few references to his own mortality during the show), but I ended up really enjoying myself. Not only is Don a charismatic (if not lively) showman, the talented young artists who perform during the show to give Don a break were all excellent. One of them in particular stole the show. Guess who it was: Taimane. I'd been dying to hear her for a week, and now that I got the chance, I was beyond impressed. She was like Eddie Van Halen only cooler (because Eddie doesn't play uke).

Even better was that Don's band last night included Benny Chong, widely regarded as the world's best jazz ukulele player. He plays with my music theory teacher, Byron Yasui, every Thursday and Friday (also at the Pacific Beach Hotel), so I'm planning to see him do his thing later this week, but he performed a solo last night that really made me look forward to seeing him as the star of his own show on Thursday.

Today I glued the kerfing to the inside of my uke and glued the back on. I haven't cut the sound hole yet, so the label I attached to the back of the uke is sitting right now in a perfectly dark wooden box. I can't wait for tomorrow to make the soundhole and let my label see the light of day again.

[view today's photos]