The New York Ukulele Ensemble was founded by playwright and novelist Uke Jackson. [1] The ensemble'smMembers included: Heather Lev, Katie Down, Debra Sherline, Holly Duthie, Christina Liao, J Walter Hawkes, Greg Gattuso, Uncle Zac, and Uke Jackson. The line up was all ukulele, including soprano, concert, tenor, baritone and bass ukuleles, and banjo ukes.
The group's first CD, Ukulele Street, which included performances by additional ukulele players, was released in 2007.
Appearances by the New York Ukulele Ensemble included New York City's Art Parade and the thirty-first annual Village Halloween Costume Ball at the Theater for the New City in 2007, and the Gershwin Hotel's Living Room Series and the New York Ukulele Fest, which was founded by Uke Jackson, in 2006. The group went on a hiatus in 2008 and in 2009 Uke Jackson sold the New York Ukulele Fest to a promoter.
The New York Ukulele Ensemble performed original songs and tunes drawn from a variety of music genres. Their music is meant to present audiences with entertainment that frequently challenges cultural suppositions.[ citation needed ]
The ukulele, also called a uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) is a British musical ensemble founded in 1985 by George Hinchliffe and Kitty Lux. The orchestra features ukuleles of various sizes and registers from soprano to bass. The UOGB is best known for performing musically faithful but often tongue-in-cheek covers of popular songs and musical pieces from a wide variety of music genres taken "from the rich pageant of western music". The songs are often performed with a reinterpretation, sometimes with a complete genre twist, or well known songs from multiple genres are seamlessly woven together. Songs are introduced with light hearted deadpan humour, and juxtaposition is a feature of their act, the members of the orchestra wear semi-formal evening dress and sit behind music stands, in a parody of a classical ensemble.
Gregory A. Hawkes is an American musician who is best known as the keyboardist and founding member of the American new wave band the Cars. Hawkes is credited with helping popularize new wave and synth-pop in American popular music as a member of the Cars.
The Langley Ukulele Ensemble is a ukulele ensemble from Langley, British Columbia in Canada. The ensemble is internationally renowned and considered to be one of the top ukulele performing ensembles in the world. They were prominently featured in the 2008 award-winning document film, Mighty Uke. The group is composed of 20 musicians, aged twelve to eighteen years, who perform 50-80 concerts a year. The group was originated in 1981 by Peter Loungo using the J. Chalmers Doane's musical program in the 1970s that reached over 50,000 students across Canada and the United States. They have performed in Canada, Florida, Texas, California, Nevada, the Pacific Northwest, Japan and Hawaii. The ensemble was named Langley's Entertainer of the Year for 2005, and Musical Director Peter Luongo was named Langley's Leader of the Year for that same year.
Theater for the New City, founded in 1971 and known familiarly as "TNC", is one of New York City's leading off-off-Broadway theaters, known for radical political plays and community commitment. Productions at TNC have won 43 Obie Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. TNC currently exists as a 4-theater complex in a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) space at 155 First Avenue, in the East Village of Manhattan.
Daniel Bennett is an American saxophonist, based in Manhattan, who is best known for his folk jazz music. He describes his idiom as "a mix of jazz, folk, and twentieth century minimalism." The Daniel Bennett Group was voted "Best New Jazz Group" in the New York City Hot House Jazz Awards. Bennett has performed in Broadway and Off-Broadway, and he has made commercial recordings in New York City.
The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is a non-profit membership-based developmental theatre located in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays.
Molly Lewis is an American musician who is known for her ukulele playing and who rose to prominence on the Internet. She plays both covers and original songs. Her original music consists of comedic songs that deal with relevant pop culture topics. She is currently signed with DFTBA Records through which she released her first EP I Made You A CD... But I Eated It.
Victoria Davitt, better known by stage name Victoria Vox, is a singer, songwriter and musician specialising in the ukulele. A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Vox now resides in Costa Mesa, California when not on tour.
Gerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music – Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded seven solo CDs. Ross currently tours as a solo act performing and teaching ukulele and steel guitar at festivals and music camps.
Lyle Joseph Ritz was an American musician, known for his work on ukulele and bass. His early career in jazz as a ukulele player made him a key part of the Hawaii music scene in the 1950s. By the 1960s, he had begun working as a session musician, more often on double bass or electric bass guitar. His prominence in the Los Angeles session scene made him a part of the Wrecking Crew, an informal group of well-used Los Angeles–based musicians. Ritz contributed to many American pop hits from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Starting in the mid-1980s, a rediscovery of his earlier ukulele work led to him becoming a fixture in live festivals, and a revival of his interest in playing the ukulele. He was inducted into both the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007.
Jim Beloff is an American musician. He is a leading proponent of the ukulele. After working in the music industry in Los Angeles, he discovered the ukulele and became an advocate of the instrument. He established Flea Market Music, publisher of the Jumpin' Jim's ukulele songbook series. Beloff's songbooks and instructional books, DVDs and promotion and marketing of his family's Fluke and Flea ukuleles have contributed to the popularity of the instrument. He is also a singer-songwriter and has recorded several solo CDs as well as two with his wife, Liz.
May Singhi Breen was an American composer, arranger, and ukulelist, who became known as "The Original Ukulele Lady". Her work in the music publishing business spanned several decades. Breen was the driving force in getting the ukulele accepted as a musical instrument by the American Federation of Musicians. In 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the Ukulele Hall of Fame.
Mighty Uke: The Amazing Comeback of a Musical Underdog is a documentary film about the ukulele. It combines graphics, photographs, interviews and performance footage to tell the story of the ukulele and its recent resurgence in popularity.
John Senator Marvin was an early American recording artist and musician, starting in 1924 and covering a twenty-year period for many record labels.
Flea Market Music is an American company which publishes and sells ukulele-related books and music.
Uke-Hunt is a ukulele-based cover band fronted by Spike Slawson from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Although both this and the Gimmes are cover bands, they have very different approaches. While the Gimmes generally pick non-rock songs, rock them out and speed them up to turn them into punk music, the songs picked for this band are generally upbeat songs that are then slowed down and mellowed out.
James Patrick Baron, also known as Tiki King, is an artist, musician, and luthier. He was an artist in the tiki revival scene of the early 1990s. As a luthier he created the pineapple cutaway double octave ukulele and has designed ukuleles for celebrities such as Greg Hawkes and Bette Midler. He released three solo ukulele CDs as well as one with his lounge band Tiki King and the Idol Pleasures. He currently plays bass drum and ukulele in Tribal Celtic band the Wicked Tinkers who have released a total of nine albums.
Stephen DiLauro aka Uke Jackson is an American playwright, novelist, newpaper reporter, art writer, and ukelele player.