Dear about a million people,
Yes, I’ve heard Taimane’s Toccata. I featured it here and this was the reaction.
Hugs and smooches,
Al
P.S. Taimane’s new one is in this week’s round-up along with Te Ava Piti from Raiatea, The Cotton Dons (one of whom inherited a love a uke from his granddad Joe Brown) and more besides.
Sinfonico Honolulu – Sympathy For The Devil
Taimane embodies just about everything that’s wrong with the ukulele music nowadays. Well, everything except fat guys playing hawaian music, talentless youtube cover songs and indie hipsters.
And I was just going to ask you about Taimane’s Toccata, too, Al. Did you like her jellyfish video? I did. But when I think of players like Taimane and Jake, the guitarist comparisons I sometimes arrive at are with people like Roy Buchannon and Danny Gatlin. Enormous talents that never quite had the enourmous careers that their talents should have earned them. They just didn’t slot into the music world comfortably.
When you’re Jake and Taimane just what do you do with the ukulele when you can do pretty much anything with it? Hard to say, isn’t it. You
wouldn’t fit comfortably in a band, especially a uke band, because the other members wouldn’t approach you in talent. You’d get bored. And your ego would demand something more.
You could keep putting out solo albums, but
topping yourself from album to album would
get increasingly difficult. You’d run the risk of being such an outlier vis a vis other ukers that while they’d always admire your facility on the instrument, you’d be seen increasingly as
irrelevant to them. Yes, Taimane’s great, but I’m still trying to learn how to play I’m Yours, so her greatness is something not quite attached to the rest of the ukulele world. Every so often we’d check in with her (or she with us), but that would be it.
Which reminds me, Brittni Paiva is filming for a new DVD, so the notes to a recent video tell me. Should be interesting to see what she’s been up to and what she’s doing with the instrument these days. Sweet Soubrette is
gearing up for a tour with her band next month and has a video out asking for donations.
Am not about to rejoin the fight over TUKUO, here. It’s all been said (especially just recently) before. No one ends up looking good and neither does the instrument.
Unless the Italian’s have a new Mick Jagger,
the one they do have has toned himself down
from earlier Stones’ covers. You picked the best one from their recent postings to highlight here, too.
Hey!
Thanks for this website, very helpful!
I’m a beginner and your e-books have helped me a lot!
:)
And by the way I just LOVE Taimane, she’s awesome!
I have to say I quite like taimane, toccata and otherwise. She is obviously very technically proficient, yes, but she also has a intersting sound. And as Howlin Hobbit said I also quite like the carnivale-esque vibe she’s going for. I tend to be a little impatient with purely intrsumental stuff but I could listen to her, sure.
As for the rest, you gotta love eugene. He often picks intersting maybe slightly forgotten tunes which is cool.
Sinfonico Honolulu were good too, maybe not as good as UOGB or the Wellington Uke orchetsra but very enjoyable all the same. I never really got stuck into this issue about this “imposter” Uk uke outift as it all seemed it a bit daft after a while.
The cottondons are certainly very talented, great rich sound with only basic recording equipment it seems. Very good.
Te avi Piti is good at what he does, certainly, but doesn’t really appeal to me. And for the record, I acually don’t really mind the Indie hipsters playing the uke a bit. Its just another interesting way to play it. There are quite a few uke songs that I really love that could be deemed “indie”!
Slainte! -F
Al, your ukulele video picks are really over the top this time. I suppose an aquired taste, but the Sympathy of the Devil is outstanding. OK, so I know you delivered well on SP Day, but if Fairwell To Whiskey ever gets tabbed, please notify,
Thanks
Art
Thanks for the feature, Al! On the same page as Taimane, no less. =)
(BTW, I was having fun with Washer Woman earlier.)
@Art.. I am about to pull the trigger on Guitar Pro so I will start working on tabbing out some of my arrangements, Farewell to Whiskey included.
Uukulele Tim,
Like your picking style very much. Any tips for developing a similar three finger style on the uke? I think a lot of ukulelehunt.com followers would, like myself, like to know. Keep up the good playing and please keep more of the same coming.
I think I just saw Taimane’s fanny. Woot!
“Taimane’s fanny” ha!
there’s a song just waiting to be written.
Ben:
When you say you saw her “fanny”, you don’t mean….
(I don’t wanna watch the whole video to find out ;)
Hobbit: There’s a lot I like about Taimane. Particularly her willingness to do things that are a bit strange. Be really good when she grows up.
Johannes: So she embodies a quarter of what’s wrong?
Ron: I’m going to say one last thing about TUKUO. I think many non-Brits underestimate how important the UOGB are to most UK ukers. They’ve put in decades of work and seeing someone shamelessly trade on their hard work and dent their reputation is not going to go down well.
Nuomi: Thanks for the kind words.
Foinnse: Glad you enjoyed them.
artcrocker: Thanks.
ukuleletim: You’re welcome. Expect and email from me.
Ben: It took me a while to remember that ‘fanny’ has a slightly different meaning over there.
I quite liked Taimane, nothing wrong with trying something new. It’s Amanda Palmer that I avoid, not that she’ll lose sleep over my opinion, but her stuff makes me cringe. Just not my cup of tea, I’m afraid.
Thanks for the videos, Al. :)
@Ben Mealer: .. and I think I saw her pubes, so it must have been a good video.
Taimane’s Fanny
British Fanny 1:18
best Uketube I’ve ever seen
spin in reverse
make me feel perverse
Taimane’s fanny
she ain’t got no pantie
twistin’ in sheets
was that her teat?!
(I would sing it, but I’m not 100% on how to pronounce Taimane)
Taimane-Sorry
@Ben: I saw it too. I wasn’t going to say anything…
I hope it wasn’t as untidy as her headstock!
It would make my day if you wrote up a tab for Chap Chap… Love the blog, BTW.
oh god I luled. I was actually wondering how many people were sending it to you (I missed the feature before).
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re: Te Ava Piti… wow! great find, Al!
re: Taimane… lately she seems to be trying to counter Jake’s “Hendrix of the ukulele” thing with a sort of “sex symbol of the ukulele” thing. doing a pretty good job of it too (for a skinny girl). despite what you might think of that, I’m enjoying the kinda “spooky carnivale” direction she’s taking. it seems to me that it’s a nice alternate path and I do so enjoy the different sorts.
Sinfonico Honolulu look like the Italian version of UOoGB. the differences between them and the faux German version are: a) they’re reminiscent but have their own style… b) they’re not pretending to be the original and… c) they actually have talent. another good find.
I’m just now discovering EugeneUkulele. shame on me! he’s quite a bit of awesome.
The Cotton Dons, despite their “gay pink… errrmmm… purple guitar(??)” comment are pretty terrific in the songwriting and performance department. great harmonies and a damn fine song. look out for these boys.