Bill Tapia, a virtuoso ukulele player from Hawaii who performed for the US troops during the Great War, died in his sleep Friday at home in Westminster, California. The “Duke of Uke” was 103. He bought a ukulele at age seven for 75¢ after he heard musicians playing the instrument at a neighbor’s house and became fascinated with them – the ukuleles, not the neighbors. He taught himself to play and later would teach tourists onboard ocean liners, including Shirley Temple and Clark Gable. Later still, he switched to banjo and guitar and from Hawaiian tunes to jazz. In 2004, back with the ukulele, Tapia was inducted into the Ukulele Hall of Fame. “He is truly an amazing jazz soloist,” said Dave Wasser, a director at the Hall. “He has a very smooth, graceful kind of style with the ukulele. It’s the kind of really soft, light touch that you get from somebody that has been with an instrument for many years.” In his 90s, Tapia released a couple of albums, Tropical Swing and Duke of Uke. “I was brought up with a ukulele,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2007, “and I guess I’ll end with a ukulele.” He was still playing, teaching, and touring past his hundredth birthday. (More via LA Times)
