Posts Tagged ‘Ukulele Players’

The Five Most Popular Ukulele Players

Friday, February 19th, 2010

The Ukulele is usually related to the wonderful country of Hawaii because it is usually accustomed to play that kind of songs. A ukulele appears like a small guitar and even comes in a variety of designs. Even though the sound resembles that of Hawaiian tunes, it is presumed that the ukulele dates back more than 100 years plus has origins in Portugal. It was initially exposed to the United States in 1915. Renowned ukulele players started utilizing this instrument to perform early kinds of folk music. Here are the five most popular ukulele players.

The legendary George Harrison, a member of the famous the Beatles band loved to play the ukulele. He was one of the most influential as well as the most admired musicians of the twentieth century. His last album, created before his untimely death on November 2001, featured him playing with a Banjo ukulele. A lot of Uke fans all over the world mourned when he died for he was a great champion for such instrument.

George Formby, Jr., OBE, a singer as well as a famous comedian is popular for playing with a banjolele, a banjo-like instrument, plus performing an assortment of light, comical songs. He was the son of a famous musician as well and took over the act of his father who died in 1925. All throughout his act, he included the ukulele and became one of the successful musicians in the United Kingdom in World War II. He was honored with OBE in 1946, and continually played with the ukulele until he died in the year 1961.

Cliff Edwards famously know as “Ukulele Ike” is a famous singer and musician who was very popular in the year 1920’s to 1930’s. He was best known for his jazzy renditions of pop standards as well as novelty tunes. He was primarily responsible for the fame of the ukuleles in 1920s who favored playing with the American Martin Ukulele. He first loved to play with soprano sized ukuleles, and in the later years played with large tenor ukuleles. His last album entitled “Ukulele Ike” was released before his death in the year 1971.

Tessie O’Shea is another famous ukulele player with an enthusiastic personality who always favored to play the ukulele-banjo. She was born in England yet migrated to the United States wherein she performed in a lot of films as well as stage plays. She was one of the several popular female ukulele players and was known for playing the ukulele-banjo with power, confidence and entertainment.

Jake Shimabukuro is a young ukulele musician coming from Honolulu, Hawaii. He is famous for his combination of the elements of jazz, rock, Hawaiian, and pop music.  He is popularly called as “Jimi Hendrix of the ukulele”. Among his famous albums were Sunday Morning, Walking Down Rainhill, Crosscurrent, and Dragon (released October 2005). He also has an instructional DVD entitled “Play Ukulele Loud”.