Ukulele Night at Coffee Gallery

Uke Night at Coffee Gallery
May 30, 7pm

Featuring Abe Lagrimas
with Jason Arimoto
and Mitch Chang

Two-time Na Hoku Hanohano nominee and Hawaii Music Award recipient Abe Lagrimas is kicking off the very first Uke Night at the Coffee Gallery in Altadena. Abe tours throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe and has performed with such notable artists as Eric Marienthal, Michael Paulo, Gabe Baltazar, Benny Rietveld, Jake Shimabukuro, James Ingram, Valery Ponomarev, and many others. His latest CD "Duo" is a contender in this year's Hawaii Na Hoku Hanohano Music Awards. Click here for directions to the Coffee Gallery website and see you there!

Ukulele Workshop, performance

Please join me tomorrow, Saturday, May 15th 2:00 - 4:00pm for an Ukulele Workshop in Redondo Beach
All levels welcome!

It'll be a different kind of workshop - fun and real hands-on! Whether you've been playing for a few months or a few years, there will be something for you! Give it a try and bring a song that you like and think might be fun for a group to play. Send a message to happymeyoga@gmail.com to reserve your spot today (Only $25, space is limited to 20 spaces).

Happy Me Yoga
1908 Artesia Blvd, Redondo Beach

Also, tomorrow night, I'll be at the Coffee Gallery playing some background gellin' slack key and ukulele music for Kamaka Brown's original Hawaiian pidgin English stories in "Wot? Boddah You?"

Check out the Coffee Gallery website here. Save the dates and hope to see you there!

Coffee Gallery with Jim "Kimo" West

Had a great time playing with Kimo last night at the Coffee Gallery in Altadena. I opened up with a few ukulele solos in the first set then rhythm uke with Kimo in the second set. Aya got up to dance a few numbers which really put a lot of smiles on the faces in the audience - I personally like it when people dance hula in "street clothes", same for flamenco. Seems more fun and natural than a costume. Kapo Ku sang a few songs too and even Diana, Kimo's wife, got up to sing Amy Hanaiali'i's Palehua.

It was definitely nice to find a lot of audience members who had been to, or know of, the Southern California Slack Key Festival as they yelled out the answers to "What's the Hawaiian word for slack key", "What's the most common slack key tuning", and "Where and what month is the annual Festival held?" to which the correct answer-giver was awarded a 2010 t-shirt.

Hope to see you back at the Coffee Gallery this coming Saturday the 15th for Kamaka Brown's pidgin English storytelling with me playing slack key and ukulele backdrop music for his stories.