Monday, December 12, 2011

R.I.P Bill Tapia 1908-2011


I woke up a few days ago to an email from a friend in Hawaii, who wrote to say Bill Tapia had died. Though this was certainly sad news, Bill had lived to be 103 and had enjoyed a remarkable life. During his career, he'd performed on ukulele with everybody from Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley, and some of the true greats of Hawaiian 'hot' music from the 20s and 30s -- Sol Ho'opi'i, King Benny Nawahi and Andy Iona.
I stumbled upon Bill's music through a video on YouTube for the tune 'I Wanna Learn to Speak Hawaiian', playing ukulele and singing along with an archtop player chocking out chords behind him. He had a sweet, old voice. But then he took a ukulele solo that knocked me out -- no fireworks, just slow and easy yet modern and full of ideas that swung. His face was passive as his fingers ran the notes as they had for so many years, and it seemed like he was momentarily transported somewhere back a long time ago.
He was one of those guys I was peripherally connected to but who, by their very existence, helped in a small way to balance things out in a crazy world for me. I just felt better knowing that he was out there somewhere.
As my Dad likes to say, he graduated with honors.
Indeed.

No comments:

Post a Comment