George Elmes - Stardust

George Elmes from Dublin, "Stardust" written by Hoagy Carmichael, 1927. One of my favourite instrumentals of all time, played by one of my very favoutite players... I love Artie Shaw's clarinet solo in this piece, but to hear it played here so beautifully by George is such a joy. What more needs to be said about this? We need to see this man on the main stage at a ukefest here in England soon. When is it going to happen?

George Elmes demonstrates percussion techniques on ukulele!

Wonderful stuff, this! A bit of percussive tapping on a uke can really enhance a piece. I was thrilled to see George Elmes doing this lovely tuition video! George, who hails from Dublin, is simply one of the most accomplished players around, but he's not so well-known as many. I've featured his playing many times on here, he's one of my favourites! Just find him on the label-cloud at the bottom of the page to find more posts.

The video speaks for itself, as does any good tuition video.

George Elmes wows them all at The HotSpot

I've been practising 12th St Rag. I was starting to get sort of pleased with it. Did a Youtube today, was going to share it with you - then I spotted THIS....

You know, George Elmes is just up there in the ukulele stratosphere. Watch this set.... 12th St Rag is number four, I think.... this is the sort of performance where you sit open-mouthed and think "Why do I bother?" Well, I bother because trying to play harder pieces is a challenge, it's fun, it's what music has always been to me... and I shall keep on bothering although I will never ever play like George Elmes, I shall be content to watch and listen to him, because that is just heaven... and I'll just keep on trying. But you know, I won't show you my 12th St Rag JUST yet after all..... please enjoy this instead!

George Elmes - A Sweet Melody on Kiwaya KTS-7

You know, I post videos when I just can't resist them. So as far as I'm concerned, they are the Best, with a capital B. George Elmes is so very talented, I love everything he does, and could happily post every single one of his videos on this blog because they are all of the Best, without exception.

I've listened to this lovely original piece three times now and to me it's just full of sunshine, like a lovely spring day hereabouts, glittering light, easy warmth and full of promise... that's special to these islands, unlike anywhere else in the world. And this music speaks of this to me.

George is playing his lovely Kiwaya KTS-7, a top grade solid mahogany soprano uke crafted in Japan. I have a KTS-4, and I love it.

George Elmes plays Happy Feet

George Elmes from Ireland is such a very, very talented player; I love everything he does. Wooden uke or banjo-uke, his playing is up there among the very best. Precise, "clean" playing that is simply not easy..... here he is playing a hand-built banjo-uke by Phil Cartwright.

This song Happy Feet was written by Cab Calloway in 1930 and is perhaps best known for the dance routine by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

I think George Elmes has Happy Fingers.... I wish mine were that happy!

Strum along with Ken Middleton in the Smoky Mountains!

I caught up with Ken Middleton again at the weekend, at the November convention of the George Formby Society in Blackpool. What a great weekend that was! (More about that very soon, I promise...) Once again Ken wowed the Sunday afternoon audience with his playing; first the Tennessee Waltz, then George Elmes joined him on stage to play the old bluegrass tune "Snowdrop". That's built around a repeated chord progression, so it's fun to join in for a strum.

Improvisation is what Ken is doing in this video, recorded during his recent travels to festivals in the USA. And it's something of a speciality of Ken's. I think it's time we heard Ken play in a festival in the UK.....

To improvise, (also called extemporisation), means "to play or sing (music) extemporaneously, especially by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies in accordance with a set progression of chords". The point is, it's "as you go along", with no previous planning. Clever stuff, eh? I've always been scared stiff of it..... deep water, as far as I'm concerned. But Ken is pretty good, don't you think?

The set progression of chords in this improvisation is G Dm F C. Playing this progression, I feel that it has a really haunting quality. That's strange, because it's in the key of C major, and major keys are bright keys, whereas minor keys have a sad or melancholy sense around them.... certainly the Dm chord adds that feeling in this progression. It's so effective here because of the beautiful autumnal Smoky mountain setting. Autumn seems to embody a sense of melancholy, with the retreating sun and the retreating green from the leaves, but the beauty is there in the reds and golds.... and the melancholy and the beauty are all here in this improvisation.

So if you've got your uke to hand (haven't you always?) strum along with it, it's fun! That's how I started my day today. I subscribe to Ken's youtube channel (good idea) so this lovely piece dropped into my email inbox this morning. And as Ken has kindly told us the chord progression he's using, I picked up my Tanglewood uke from its place right next to my computer and joined in along with Ken's friend Pete.

Lovely.

Good morning World.....

Oh - and actually, is this piece modal? Comments please!

Ever heard a Uke In Bloom? Listen to this by George Elmes

George Elmes is such a talented young man.... I've featured his videos on here before.... (see the label cloud at the bottom)..... and like Peter Moss, he's going to be a guest artist at the uke festival in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin in a couple of weeks.... it's the Ukulelehooley....

In this piece, George's aNueNue soprano uke does just seem to burst into a thousand blooms - what a great title for this lovely piece! He's done the tab for it, too......

Nice one, George! Really nice.....

Update - you can download the tab for "Uke in Bloom" from George's web page here.....

Looking for a uke-fest to go to? How about this one - Ukulele Hooley in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin....

The Emerald Isle is calling to me... Yes, if you can get to Dun Laoghaire, just a few miles south of Dublin, this uke festival, Ukulele Hooley looks like another corker, not to be missed... 24th and 25th August... except that I have to miss it! I wish I could go! I've just looked at the line-up of artists... Peter Moss and George Elmes I have featured on here before - just go to the tag cloud at the bottom. Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave are also fantastic - saw them in Cheltenham. Janet Klein and Ian Whitcomb (read about him and his book here) are familiar names to me, and I know that Ken Middleton will be there also with Ohana Ukuleles. Lots of other promising-looking acts too, (sigh....)

Ah me.

Can't go.

Shucks....

Johnny Foodstamp does Formby Nashville style at the George Formby Society Convention, Blackpool June 2013

Well - the GFS has surely never seen "Formby" done quite like this! Johnny Foodstamp and his lovely young wife made the trip over from Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday especially to attend the George Formby Society Convention. They flew in at 8.30 am and brought the Nashville sunshine with them. They saw Blackpool under blue skies with a blue sea, with people enjoying the beach, just as Blackpool should be.

In spite of the overnight flight and the jet-lag, Johnny was up for making the most of every minute with the Formby fans and star players, and he did.... the fun went on for those with strong enough constitutions well into the early hours! Johnny was made as welcome as the lovely weather he'd brought with him. The above performance of the George Formby numbers "She's Got Two of Everything" and "Under The Blasted Oak" was on the Saturday afternoon concert. Suited and booted for the occasion, you would never have known that he'd been travelling all night without a wink of sleep! Thanks to Pauline Aitken for the video! On Sunday, Johnny gave us "The Dumber They Come, the Better I Like 'Em", a deliciously un-PC Eddie Kantor number from the 1920's. John Bianchi did a lovely Youtube of this song last year... (see blogpost here 7th June 2012) and I'm sure Johnny Foodstamp's version from Sunday will be video'd and up for viewing soon.

And as for the June convention in general ... I can only say that it was one of the very best. I could never have hoped to see so many of my named ukulele heroes on one stage all in one day... just listen to who was there!

Johnny Foodstamp all the way from Nashville as I've said; Matthew J Richards, Mike Warren, Alan Yates, George Elmes was over from Ireland and gave us Limehouse Blues and lovely renditions of some of his short original pieces for soprano uke, Andy Eastwood managed to make the convention on both days even though he's very busy on the professional stage, and even.... wait for it... Ken Middleton. Yes, that's right, Ken Middleton, who came along to see what all the fuss is really about. He gave us a beautiful performance on stage of "I'll Fly Away" and "Try a Little Tenderness", jammed outside in the sunshine with George Elmes, and left with an inkling of what the GFS is all about, even if we didn't exactly manage to make a Formby fan of him! So glad you made it, Ken, and it was lovely to meet you in person at last!

Unfortunately, Ken had to leave before the 9.00 pm Sunday concert, and missed some highlights which I know he would have enjoyed... particularly Andy Eastwood playing Chopin on his soprano wooden uke. Absolutely breathtaking. Add Alan Yates on solo electric guitar with "Apache"; "I'll See You in My Dreams" beautifully performed and sung by Caroline Robson ... once more at the GFS I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Add in all the lovely performances by the wonderfully skilled split-strokers young and old, and the all-inclusive and well-named "thrash"... you know, there are just a few who just "don't get it"... but I get it... and I just love it.

More later. Thanks for dropping by... I have to go and massage my face. I've got face-ache because I still haven't stopped smiling....

George Elmes, with a blistering "Limehouse Blues"

George Elmes is a great player. I've featured him on here before. This time, his version of Limehouse Blues, with triples and split-strokes..... Limehouse Blues was written in 1922 and made famous by Gertrude Lawrence - read more here

He's a also a big Formby fan - and he's making it over from Ireland to the George Formby Society Convention in Blackpool next weekend, 8th-9th June! I know he'll be made very welcome - as will Johnny Foodstamp of Nashville, another devotee from further afield, indeed from rather further away. In March we welcomed Ukulelezaza, Remco Houtman-Janssen, who made the trip over from Belgium and set the place alight with his fabulous instrumentals. Every fan of Formby or at least his style of playing has to make that pilgrimage sometime! And we will be there again, LSH and I... our fifth convention in a row.

But back to George. George Elmes, that is! Read more about his music and his ukes and meet his idols here, on his own blog....

George Elmes - feel the joy ! "Sunrise" original piece for soprano uke

This young musician surely has far to go ... here is a truly delightful (if short) original composition for ukulele, called "Sunrise" - so well named... what came first, I wonder - the music or its name? It simply encapsulates the joy and splendour of sunrise on a Spring day, the cascade of notes throwing the sun's rays about the sky in a dance of gay abandon - every time you think you've nailed the pulse, it's lost again in a helter-skelter of shimmering notes in playful, changing rhythms. You just want to keep listening to it again, over and over. Simply gorgeous.... I've lost count of how many times I've listened to this already! "Sunrise"..... thanks for sharing it with us on Youtube, George!

And, dear readers - if you enjoy my blog, why not subscribe - just put your email address in the box over there on the right. I don't see it - all private!