Woodstock Film Festival 2009: "Mighty Uke"

On August 13, Paul Smart, the cultivated editor of the Phoenicia Times, sired me to the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Festival to see Jake Shimabukuro, a young Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso.  Shimabukuro dazzled the crowd of 1400, on solo ukulele!  That night, I watched him on YouTube, later discovering Bill Tapia, the 102 year old uke legend.  I became dimly aware of the ukulele revival, in other words.  So when I saw that "Mighty Uke" would show at the Woodstock Film Festival, I hurried to the Bearsville Theatre (on my birthday!).

What I learned:

1) There are at least two ways of pronouncing "ukulele," one of which acknowledges the second "u."  As "Mighty Uke" continues, you begin to keep track of slightly variant pronunciations. 

2) Tiny Tim was highly talented.  Hearing "Tiptoe through the Tulips" again after many decades, one is struck by the daring and grace in Tiny's voice.

3) Classical music is compelling on the ukulele, especially when 35 people play at once.  "The William Tell Overture" and "The Flight of the Bumblebee" are wholly satisfying.  Also James Hill's duet for ukulele and cello ("One Small Suite for Ukulele").

4) "Ukulele" is a Hawaiian word, meaning "jumping flea."

5) Ukuleles, in the 1920s, were associated with romance.  They were tools of wooing.

6) The scratchy sound of the instrument is highly addictive.

Most essentially, "Mighty Uke" conveys the secret tidal wave of syncopated strumming and spirited amateurism sweeping our digitalized globe.  Much of my animosity towards contemporary movies concerns their soundtracks.  It's all FAKE MUSIC.  "Mighty Uke" is not perfect, but it's always charming, and it offers key musical discoveries every three minutes.

During the question-and-answer session, a handsome man of 36 raised his hand: "I thought this would be an interesting movie, so I went mostly out of curiosity, but I must say now that... I'm pretty sure I'm going to go out and buy a ukulele!"  The whole room exploded in cheers.

Afterwards I spoke to the Torontonian filmmakers, Tony Coleman and Margaret Meagher.  (Such a utopian movie could only be made by Canadians.)  "Where did you get the title Mighty Uke?  It's not the name of a song in the movie," I asked.

"I'm not sure," Tony replied.  "We always knew we would use that title."

"What about electric ukuleles?  You only show one in the movie, briefly, played by a punk woman with pink hair," I observed.

"Electric ukuleles exist, but they sound basically like the high end of an electric guitar," Tony explained.  "The distinctive ukulele sound is lost."

Three days later, the young neo-jazz composer Myk Freedman gave me a new CD: "Freedman/Martin & Haynes" -- his own compositions performed by a duo playing suitcase and... ukulele!  (Barnyard Records BR0306) http://www.myspace.com/martinhaynes

For more about the film, see http://mightyukemovie.com/files/pages/trailerpage.html