ukULeLe

ukULeLe

Daniel Dixon

TheUkuleleJustMakesPeoplesmile.

Dixon

. Dix

on

. M

cKay

with Dixie Dixon and Jayne McKay

The World’s

InstrumentFriendliest$15.99 U.S.

Music

“You can’t play the blues on a ukulele.”“Anyone who plays the ukulele can’t be all bad.”“It’s the ukulele that brings us together.”

The humble ukulele is making a comeback. People are discovering there’s something special about it—a sweet, simple, friendly quality that makes you want to slow down, listen, and join in. Read this book and you’ll become a believer too.

Find out about:{ The ukulele’s history, from Europe to Hawaii to California and beyond{ The ukulele, Tin Pan Alley, and the Roaring Twenties{ What current musicians like Jake Shimabukuro are

discovering about its possibilit ies{ The popularity of ukulele clubs{ Ukulele makers, from old companies to new

one-man operations

ConTenTsOverture

From Portugal to Paradise The Uke Goes Hawaiian: 1879–1915

California, Here I Come Mania on the Mainland: 1915–1920

Give My Regards to Broadway The Uke, Tin Pan Alley and the Roaring Twenties

The Music Goes ’Round and ’Round The Great Early Players

Makin’ Whoopee The Pioneer Makers and Manufacturers

Happy Days Are Here Again The Resurgent Ukulele: 1945–1953

Say It with Music Contemporary Virtuosos And Personalities

Give Me a Ukulele Present-Day Manufacturers and Custom Makers

I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store) Today’s Collectors of Yesterday’s Ukes

Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here The Modern-Day Craze of Ukulele Clubs

There’s No Business Like Uke Business The Ukulele Trade in the Twenty-First Century

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Nobody really kNows how, why or when Tin Pan Alley

acquired its name. One fact, however, is

certain. It was never an actual alley or even

a specific street address. Like Hell’s Kitchen

or the Bowery, it designated a sort of

neighborhood.

The original site seems to have been

a cluster of offices that border Union

Square at East Fourteenth Street in

Manhattan. That was somewhere

around 1900. By 1914 it had moved

uptown to West Twenty-Eighth

Street between Broadway and

Fifth Avenue, twelve blocks

closer to the Theatre

District.

But Tin Pan Alley was

more than just a location. It was also a culture.

The Uke, Tin Pan Alley and the Roaring Twenties

GIve My Regards to Broadway

“Crazy Words, Crazy Tune” is a classic example of a Tin Pan Alley nov-elty song: “There’s a guy I’d like to kill/If he doesn’t stop I will/He’s got a ukulele, and a voice that’s loud and shrill./’Cause he lives next door to me/And he keeps me up till three/With his ukulele and a funny melody.”

m Four ukes from collector Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s col-lection. Starting out with a $1 thrift-store uke, Sandor now owns nearly four hundred instruments ranging from plastic novelties to rare and valuable antiques.

MKnown as the “Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele,” Jake Shimabukuro has boosted the uke to a new and rarefied level. Playing on an amplified uke, Jake has covered rock tunes by the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Led Zeppelin, in addition to playing blues, jazz, folk, bluegrass, and classical.