I just got back home from watching a(n) ukulele performance by Abe Lagrimas in the Island Bazaar shop in Huntington Beach. This guy is amazing for not even being a full-on dedicated ukulele player. Abe's main instrument is the drums and vibes and he is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music if that tells you anything about his musical abilities. Interesting thing about him is that he actually prefers the high G string on the uke as opposed to a G tuned lower like most people who solo like to use. He actually incorporates that high G into his runs which is way more thinking than I want to do!
I first met him back in 2006 when I decided to get back into organizing concerts. This one featured Jeff Peterson, Dana Hanchard who is an incredible singer, Abe on drums (and some ukulele) and Ernie Provencher on bass. Abe has since moved to Los Angeles and is making the rounds on the jazz scene here. I was able to recruit him to play a little in my 1st Southern California Slack Key Festival and also my first Aloha Falsetto Festival, both in Redondo Beach. In the slack key show, he played with Jeff Peterson on guitar and Kristin Korb on upright bass, as part of a backup band behind Owana Salazar. And in the falsetto show, he played with Jeff Peterson again and Taumata Grey on bass as the "House Band" that backed up Steven Espaniola, Gary Haleamau and Raiatea Helm.
You must check out his CD - way more sophisticated than any other ukulele CD out there, TRUST ME. Plus he is the one, of course, playing the percussion on there. He's only like, 26 but you will be very impressed!
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